American Beauty - the unofficial thread

[Finn]

This is hilarious!
http://www.angelfire.com/mt/DoH/ArabBeaut.jpg

[ono]

...that has nothing to do with American Beauty.  The quote's not even from the film.  Only thing remotely related is the font.  Haha.  Osama feel pretty.  So funny.  Not a dig at you, Sydney.  But you would think whoever did up that picture could be a bit more creative.

[Finn]

Well the title design was what was obviously taken from the movie. I thought it was really funny.

[pookiethecat]

i agree 100 percent with GT's original analysis.  and i'm not just saying that to make up for my bitchy comment.  he's completely right about hwo the movie has no deeper meaning.  there's no shading. it's just blunt and obvious.  i liked it a lot, but i couldn't help but feel i was digesting something a little too shallow.

[godardian]

i agree 100 percent with GT's original analysis.  and i'm not just saying that to make up for my bitchy comment.  he's completely right about hwo the movie has no deeper meaning.  there's no shading. it's just blunt and obvious.  i liked it a lot, but i couldn't help but feel i was digesting something a little too shallow.

Me, too. It was done pretty nicely in a lot of parts, and entertaining, but very much a "light" movie. See Storytelling for the real deal as far as the theme goes; Solondz even mocks American Beauty's new-agey vapidity.

[pookiethecat]

i agree 100 percent with GT's original analysis.  and i'm not just saying that to make up for my bitchy comment.  he's completely right about hwo the movie has no deeper meaning.  there's no shading. it's just blunt and obvious.  i liked it a lot, but i couldn't help but feel i was digesting something a little too shallow.

Me, too. It was done pretty nicely in a lot of parts, and entertaining, but very much a "light" movie. See Storytelling for the real deal as far as the theme goes; Solondz even mocks American Beauty's new-agey vapidity.

you know i watched storytelling for the first 20 minutes.  i was with some jackasses who kept on making out on my couch so i had to do the whole tell em to stop-my parents are in the next room-kinda thing.  but the movie was cool from what my distracted eyes saw.  i think i'll have to rent it a second time though.  

i loved welcome to the dollhouse.  i mean LOVED it. i saw it as a7th grader totally coming from the same place as dawn wiener.  i mean i used to think that movie was hot shit not just cold diarrhea (to quote the great ralphie).  i showed it to all my fellow nerd friends and we all got a kick out of and even made my own 7th grade point and shoot ripoff of it.  
that said, the more i watched it and the more the holy-shit-i-can-completely-relate-to-this buzz died off, the more i think it's mediocre to good at best.  i suppose that is for a different thread, but the fact is, i think solondz has potential to be great and the reactions he provokes in his audience is really profound. so it would not surprise me at all if storytelling provided a much deeper more nuanced effect on me.

[freakerdude]

American Beauty is one of my favorite films but not in the top twenty. I found it to be entertaining and very funny at times. Lester's pathetic ordinary life has taken it's toll on him and he's had enough. The King of Real Estate is hilarious with Carolyn screaming, "Fuck me, your majesty!"

Sure, it's predictable b/c Lester lays it all out for you at the beginning saying, "My name is lester Burnahm and this is my neighborhood, this is my street, and this is my life. I am 42 years old, in less than a year I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way I am dead already". And of course, " Look at me jerking off in the shower, this will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here".

I like Lester's bonding with Ricky. His willingness to smoke marijuana at his age shows his desparation to revive his pathetic life. Even Ricky takes advantage of Lester by ripping him off with pot for the price of gold. G13 actually is  a strain of cannabis sativa that the gov't. did develop and was not made up just for the movie.

[blackmamba]

well fuck me and call me sally. Thanks for the info.

I love this movie. Sooooo many quotable lines. But, alas, not in my top twenty either. This movie made me feel all blurry for a couple of hours after I saw it for the first time, and I love it when movies do that.

[Finn]

What's the music that plays at the beginning of the trailer?

Here's a trailer link incase anyone needs to see it:

http://www.mymovies.net/trailers/movie.asp?qual=high&url=/filmmedia/film/fid128/trailers/trid129/fh/high/high

Help!

[pete]

that movie, first of all, shouldn't have won the oscars in the same year as bring out the dead, being john malkovich, magnolia, and three kings.  secondly, all that "closer look on life" shit was cool when it was called "Ordinary People", to add a self-aware irony to it doesn't quite cut it.  The movie, like Fight Club, and part of the Matrix, is that whole Hollywood movement where they're all bringing attention to how they're angry about being well-off because ooh lala, corporate ownership doesn't bring happiness.  At least the other two movies had fight scenes in them.  It's a big checklist of babyboomer fantasies, or a cinematic version of We Didn't Start the Fire.  It started at first a little cliched, then the in end really cliched, but was masked by Conrad "God Bless His Soul" Hall and a good soundtrack.
Cheesy cheesy cheesy.

[phil marlowe]

i think the movie overrated but i love for spaceys performance alone, so many great moments. the dinner scene(the way he stands up and goes to other side of the table to grab that plate) and that spliff scene when he just holds the smoke in his lungs when benning arrives and finally gives up and laughs and smoke comes out. priceless.

[Redlum]

What's the music that plays at the beginning of the trailer?

Here's a trailer link incase anyone needs to see it:

http://www.mymovies.net/trailers/movie.asp?qual=high&url=/filmmedia/film/fid128/trailers/trid129/fh/high/high

Help!

Its Thomas Newmans fantastic score from The War. One of my favourite scores of all time.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0111667/

Don't listen to the IMDB review its actually a pretty good film.

[kassius]

What a great movie.  I have to say this is the film that changed my entire approach towards movies.  This was the first time that I was really blow away by a script, directing, acting and everything. It was the first time that I bought a DVD and watch it over and over and over agian.  It's so awesome.

I love so many parts but the end is what topped it off for me.  The whole idea that you never appreciate something until it's gone.  And here, Lester lays, dead talking about all the little things in life you forget but Alan Ball makes it sound as if he's rambling or speaking jibber-jabber.  He wants the audience to understand him and feel for him, and not be able to truely be one with him.  Then the second you question his thoughts, Lester said... "You probably have no idea what I'm saying but don't worry... someday you will".

How perfect is that?  I think movie was the best film of 1999.  I wanted to post a thread about "Magnolia" and whine that it didn't get enough credit at Oscar time but you got me thinking about this one again.

I'm pumped. Gonna watch the DVD again.  

Peace.

[Jeremy Blackman]

the more i watched it and the more the holy-shit-i-can-completely-relate-to-this buzz died off, the more i think it's mediocre to good at best.  i suppose that is for a different thread, but the fact is, i think solondz has potential to be great and the reactions he provokes in his audience is really profound. so it would not surprise me at all if storytelling provided a much deeper more nuanced effect on me.

I felt the same way about Welcome to the Dollhouse after seeing Happiness and Storytelling. Definitely revisit Storytelling... I think it's his best film by far, and Welcome to the Dollhouse was just practice.

[SiliasRuby]

Maybe this should be put in the Green Screen since its going to be a long review but I'm not sure how many people read that thread. As you may know, I've been writing short reviews lately on many more movies here and I plan to expand the length and thus, hopefully expanding the insight. This will be a heavily biased review since it always has a special place in my heart and its also because it will always be in my top ten fav. movies to watch. Notice how I typed fav. as in favorite not best because while it is a masterpiece by my standards, it remains to some detractors to be a bit over the top in certain scenes. Some even have said that a story of the same ilk "Who's afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" was a much better execution of a marriage in trouble. What those critics seem to forget or they are completely dumfounded and blinded by is that "American Beauty" ambitions to be (is that right?) much more.

Of course there are the themes that don't disguise themselves at all-the breaking out of shells and not caring what others think, being themselves no matter how ugly others can percieve that to be-and the overall emotions of the characters that scream "the real world" phrase, 'when familys stop being polite and start getting real'.

I know every single line of this film and can recite it on cue, which can be a bit unnerving for some. There's nothing like the dinner scene or has been nothing as well done as the dinner scene in any movie since (maybe mendes' own 'revolutionary road' the third scene with michael shannon) and the writing is whip smart. 

We all know the main story so I won't go into that too much but I don't know if you were surprised at the end on who (spoiler) killed Lester (end spoiler). I certainly was and at the end of the movie, with Elliot Smith Singing The Beatles tune 'Because'. I knew that I wanted to make people as blown away through my creativity that I had with my writing. I was 15 and I was on top of the world. It was a high I would feel a couple of times that year, with fight club, the strait story, The matrix and magnolia. This is the type of writing that like frank darabont said about "goodfellas" could be an immediate shot in the arm.

Finally the performances. First let me start off that Thora birch is still hot and I wanted to make love to her so much in that film, and yet I wanted to screw mena suvari's character. I was torn. From Brad to the smiley's manager, all the supporting roles are hit right on the mark. Peter Gallagher nails that specific type of douchebag where he's a big fish in a little pond. Chris Cooper's oscar was deserved and rightly so. I am very sad that bentley doesn't get more film roles from this, he is talented but after this film and four feathers he's forever typecast as the creep or the strait man. Mena suvari's character was emblematic of all the stupid high school bitches who wouldn't sleep with me. Good thing I don't give a shit anymore. Bleh, back on topic. Thora birch who will forever be enchanted with...she's my amy adams. Well, her, julianne moore, maura tierney, and sherlynn fenn. Her character reselmbled everything that really is and can be truely beautiful about the female species.

Now, onto our two leads Carolyn and Lester burnham, played respectfully by Annette benning and Kevin Spacey. These have to be two performances that will live on their resumes as milestones in their careers. Annette has gone batshit once or twice since "AB" but it really was perfected to such a T right in this film. There are many realistic touches from Carolyn that just seemed so viseral and real to me, the first time I saw it, I forgot I was in a theatre. 

Now Kevin has range. Extreme amount of it and it hasn't really been capitalized on, save for this film, glengarry glen ross, and the usual suspects. He's coming out with a couple of films in the upcoming year that could transform him again. Many moments that you are with lester, you completely root for him. Although I guess you are supposed to, it felt like a real triumph when he conquered his boss, when he conquered his wife, when he turned down angela. It seemed to be the right thing to do in all those portions of time he was showing us. Just great great stuff, and he hasn't done something of that HEAVY HEAVY calibur since. Its time for a real movie comeback for him.

Just mentioning voyeuristic ideas and being one and what that means. There seems to be a lot of it, or maybe it only seems like that. This film illustrates what it means to be who you are vs. who the people who are viewing you think you really are. So, please, give this film another chance if you believe in second chances and maybe you'll 'look closer'.

Bleh, bad ending to that review.