Cast off the mask of cultural hypnosis

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 1999)

American Beauty is fundamentally a film about sexuality and spirituality. It highlights how people go by living empty lives devoid of purpose or passion, and how upon realizing it, they become metamophisized into proactive gods.
Lester Burnam's (Kevin Spacy) attraction to the young girl is enchanting and well done. American culture has it's hang ups about older men being attracted to sixteen year olds, but once one gets past that, the relationship fuels revealing insights into Spacy's character. He goes from being a unfulfilled automaton into a driven, passionate, lover of life. It gives him the juice to live! It goes to show how ordinary people can do incredible things. People are not lazy or unmotivatedthey just have impotent goals. They don't know what they want. They have an obscure idea of what makes them happy programmed by the cacophony of Madison Avenue advertising executives. They out of touch with the inner force which underlies all of human achievementDESIRE!
`I discovered there was a benevolent forceand I never have to be afraid' Ricky Fitts
Wes Bentley plays Ricky Fitts the eighteen year old entrepreneur and sage. Bentley's performance is captivating. His piercing gaze deeply looks into a person's subconscious. When showing his favorite camera recording of a white bag floating in the wind he tells about his intuitive insight; we are ultimately not alone in this universe. That there is some fundamental force that is a part of all of us, and we can tap into it. When we die we do not cease to exist, but are somehow transformed into some other energy that is at base connected to this universal fabric. We need not fear. This `benevolent' force will always be there and if we tune inmaybe, just maybe we can experience it in all it's wonder and beauty. Weather it be in a floating white bag or the youthful glow of a teenagers rosy cheeks. That is the real beauty of American Beauty.