American Beauty
The Awards Edition
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Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIq9Zjw0mm8
Revisiting another movie that I haven't watched in years. Tonight it's American Beauty. This has a great story with very interesting characters and it's an amazing looking film shot by Sam Mendes. But damn man, the lives they are living is incredibly depressing. You have two families, both living a loveless marriage. Both dealing with kids that have issues of their own which directly affects their relationship with their parents. Dead-end jobs that go nowhere. There is something joyous about watching Lester (Kevin Spacey) 'waking up from his coma' and standing up for himself against those that have kept him down for 20 years, be it his controlling wife, his unappreciative daughter or his boss. I may not relate to the first two, but I can definitely relate to the third. Who hasn't wanted to tell their boss to go f*ck themselves? For a movie that's as depressing as this is, it has a lot going for it to make it very engaging, complete with a great twist at the end.
Fantastic cast that also includes Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney and Mena Suvari, who by the way rocked it in this one. I can't remember if this was the first movie I saw her in or American Pie. I remember both movies coming out the sme year though. Either way, I became a fan of hers. Speaking of Thora and Wes, where the hell did they go? I haven't seen or heard anything of theirs in years. Other than Ghost World which came out a few years after this, I haven't seen her in anything else. And wasn't Wes suppose to be the "Next Big Thing". I remember he was being compared a lot to Ben Affleck at the time. But then he too just disappeared. I didn't see him in anything ever again until The Hunger Games. Those are some huge gaps for a couple of actors that had a lot of positive heat on them because of this movie. Anyway, I highly recommend American Beauty as a Rent.
American Beauty DVD Screencaps
Coming soon........