American Beauty (DVD)

...Lester is slave to the American Dream’s by-product rigid routine lifestyle and is shackled in a passionless marriage with a cheating wife… Until today; Lester’s awakening is about to begin.
“I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up.”
Suffering a severe mid-life-crisis, Lester’s awakening into reality is catalyzed by his daughter Jane’s self-loving, egomaniac, cheerleader “friend” Angela ...
...his own take on the American dream in Blue Velvet) who is known for his eccentricities and pretentiousness.

Spacey’s performance was fantastic, thus resulting in him grabbing the gold’un (not a euphemism for masturbation) at the Ac awards. His straight-faced comedy had me in kinks, while he was able to be empathized with concurrently - playing a man of tragedy too. The juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy is outstanding; both balanced ... more

“American Beauty” dominated the 1999 Academy Awards, sweeping the board of biggies picking up the acclaimed Best Picture award, Best Actor, Best Director, Cinematography and Writing. It was certainly worthy of such honour, being one of the most original films I have seen in a long time, breaking the mould is not the cliché. The film is darkly hilarious; a modern satire taking a slap at white-picket-fence suburbia and America’s bold and boasted “American dream” Ironically, the phrase is more suited as an “American Socially Dysfunctional Nightmare”...

It’s not often I’ll watch a film and find that it delivers. Perhaps you’ll get that impression from my constant raving about the films I’ve reviewed on here, but there is a certain imbalance in the ratio of films I got something out of, to the films I didn’t. In other words, most films suck. I have a peculiar cheese-detector, the moment I smell cheddar in a movie it has lost brownie points in my estimation. Three strikes and you’re out. Cheese-detector up and running, only one instance was found in this strangely fantastic film – and the one instance was within reason and was OK to get away with it.
When I view a film now, I really want to be impressed by it and be dumbstruck at best; films that leave you speechless are definitely ones for your top-10 faves.

Life begins at 40…?

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is your average guy. Living in a moderately large suburban home, complete with matching mediocre job, real-estate-agent wife (Annette Bening) and typical rebellious apathetic daughter (Thora Birch), the high point of Lester’s day is jerking off in the shower and its all downhill from there. Lester is slave to the American Dream’s by-product rigid routine lifestyle and is shackled in a passionless marriage with a cheating wife… Until today; Lester’s awakening is about to begin.
“I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up.”
Suffering a severe mid-life-crisis, Lester’s awakening into reality is catalyzed by his daughter Jane’s self-loving, egomaniac, cheerleader “friend” Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) – (or the chick who gets nekkid in a bathtub of rose petals, as more commonly known). After first meeting, Lester is plagued with libido-raising fantasies, fixated and obsessed and makes her a goal to aspire to. This isn’t helped by Angela’s cutesy, flirty allurement as she toys with Lester’s sexual desires. Meanwhile, paranoid Jane (saving up for breast enlargement) deals with her own flirting, with not-so-typical boy next door Ricky an ex-drug addict with a fascination for filming beauty in the world. Beauty being a dead bird or a swirling lone carrier bag. Ricky is not only distant to his Nazi homophobe father, but is careless in every respect, doing drugs, filming, living his own cock-eyed dream.

A fascinating bunch of weirdos.

Although dealing with relationships, the film never comes-off as a rom-com; the relationships dealt with are too dysfunctional to be romantic and too bizarre to be normal – the film stresses more about obsession and infatuation than romanticizing relationships. The comedy is too straight and Daria-esque to be your run of the mill “You’ve Got Mail” barrel of laughs and the occasional slip into slapstick. Instead, “American Beauty” offers a lop-sided view at what is humorous, satirical doing so; this being your average, inalterable life.

“Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go fuck himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost sixty thousand dollars. Pass the asparagus”

I found it impressive the way the way first-time director Sam Mendes made us care about the characters that were on display, something not even established zillion-time director Spielberg can do justice for his characters– and why watch a movie if you don’t give a Buck if the guy lives or dies? Instead, I was faced with a bunch of realistic people, who didn’t spew cheesy spiel or have far-fetched dramatic smell-the-fart monologue faces, something unseen in most urban dramas. Although unconventional, the film doesn’t attempt to be crazily random with Lynchian photography, instead it relies on the realism of every-day random dialogue and the irony of the “norm”.
While not being the first in a line of modern urban satires, “American Beauty” is the first to lack pretense and a director who doesn’t come off self-indulgent, unlike Lynch (in his own take on the American dream in Blue Velvet) who is known for his eccentricities and pretentiousness.

Spacey’s performance was fantastic, thus resulting in him grabbing the gold’un (not a euphemism for masturbation) at the Ac awards. His straight-faced comedy had me in kinks, while he was able to be empathized with concurrently - playing a man of tragedy too. The juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy is outstanding; both balanced so the film never seems either, but seems both at the same time. Spacey’s impassive attitude really defines the film in total; he’s an idiosyncratic, freak who I’d kind of like to be, but also feel sorry for as well. This too stands for Birch, who is dry as ever; think “Ghost World” with additional apathy and quotable Daria-isms. There is no-one more suited for this kind of dark satire – anyone other than Birch would tip the cheese-detector into over-drive. I don’t think many people can get away with delivering sarcastic indifference like Thora does.

Lester: So Janie, how was school?
Jane: It was okay.
Lester: Just okay?
Jane: No dad, it was spectacular.

Bening suited the part of eccentric, fake-faced Carolyn Burnham. Her acting in the over-the-top orgasm-fest sex scene with her secret lover “King” is superbly hilarious; head-board banging funny. Perhaps the funniest sex scene I’ve seen in a movie, and I’ve seen a few. (Slaps self, perv). I found Bening to also be an extremely pathetic figure, much-needing pity and attention; she is the embodiment of every attention seeker in our generation.

The direction in “American Beauty” is superlative (hey, watch me get all hyperbolic on your ass), Mendes’ use of continually soft-lighting contrasts with the dark themes lingering beneath the surface. The obsessive fantasy scenarios were highly original and a brave move on Mendes part – using under-age Suvari as the object of Spacey’s infatuation, the rose petal scenes were not only remarkably entertaining (drools) but an unusual concept to visually depict the extent of Lester’s obsession – without resorting to Ironside woo-woos or little red animated hearts swirling around Suvari’s bonny head. I liked how Mendes didn’t patronise the audience when he wanted to make a point; instead the direction is subtle and light and didn’t feel over-bearing after the one hour fifty-seven minutes I sat on my arse watching it, unlike many other directors of the same genre. (Of a very limited genre that is).
The memorable score which is featured on “American Beauty” is perfectly suited for the film; the aptly named “American Dream” is now featured (somewhat changed) on a parody Peugeot advert. Rose-petals n’all. Elliot Smith’s “Because” felt welcome at the closure – instead of a heavy-handed score or thumping song, this subtle choiry hippy-ish music fit snugly in keeping with the film’s themes.

“Because the world is round, it turns me on. Ahhhhhhhhh”

Bonus material featured on the region 2 DVD is in stacks. Being Mendes’ first motion picture I think he was pretty proud of his final cut. Not only winning one Oscar for his first outing in the movie-world, but FIVE, something beyond envious to other directors – especially at the prestigious Best Director award. I believe Mendes is well-established in Hollywood due to this.
The first bonus feature is a behind the scenes feature with the cast and with Steven Spielberg (random?! I wasn’t aware Dreamworks was part of this picture) which featured dire ramblings and over-indulgent talk. Fairy nuff, I loved the film, but I didn’t want it forced down my throat, with over-thought babble.
As for the audio commentary it was all a little bit too cheesy for this kind of film, where I’d rather have Mendes leave his masterpiece as a mystery and leave much of it to interpretation, Mendes explains his intentions for using a particular scenario or theme. I can’t complain however and I must admit I didn’t watch the whole thing. I find commentaries a little dull, unless they involve group discussion, like in “Donnie Darko” which was particularly enjoyable. The story-board presentation however, was interesting. The visual presentation of the directorial devices used to storyboard the movie was not only visually pleasing, but enjoyable in its own right.

All in all, a worthwhile purchase for anyone. The film on its own is worthy of a five-star plus rating; the filming, the acting, the ideas and concepts are incomparable; the film is definitely worth the #29 rating it currently ranks in the Internet Movie Database’s top 250 movies of all time, ranked alongside classics such as “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Sunset Blvd.) the contemporary drama is bound to become a classic. If you don’t believe me, go watch it yourself, I highly recommend this.
 

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