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Sep 18, 2019 · I n 2019, beating up on Sam Mendes’ multi-Oscar-winning American Beauty, released roughly 20 years ago this week, is so painfully easy that it seems unfair. The Best Picture winner has...
Sep 9, 2019 · In the 20 years since it debuted to rapturous reviews and a global $356 million intake, the film’s reputation has tumbled precipitously. What was once a provocative masterstroke now looks like retrograde hooey.
Sep 15, 2019 · Twenty years on from the release of a film that charmed viewers, critics and awards boards in equal measure, it’s possible to read those few short seconds as the movie – and its subsequent fall...
Sep 13, 2024 · American Beauty reflects a national identity crisis told at the personal level. It’s a country’s existential panic in microcosm. As Fight Club (1999) and Office Space (1999) revealed in similar...
- I Eventually Caught Up to ‘American Beauty’
- Where I Relate to Lester, and Where I Don’T
- I Empathize More to Carolyn Now
- Thora Birch and Wes Bentley
- The Neighbors of ‘American Beauty’
- ‘American Beauty’ Is Still Fresh, But For Different Reasons
Lester Burnham (Spacey) is 42 in American Beauty. 20 years ago that seemed like an unfathomable future. Now he’s only one year older than me. He’s already been married long enough to have a teenage daughter. I haven’t even begun a marriage so maybe I’m more than a year away from Lester’s midlife crisis. His lust for a teenage cheerleader was wrong ...
Lester leaves his magazine writing job (remember magazines?) to work in fast food like he did in high school. As I was approaching 40 I found myself nostalgic for my high school and college job working at a movie theater. What I do now, Interviewing actors and directors is way more exciting, but those were good times selling tickets and getting the...
When I first saw American Beauty, it was immediately apparent to me that the facade Carolyn (Annette Bening) was putting on wasn’t working. It wasn’t making her happy or successful, and it was alienating her husband and daughter Jane (Birch). Even at work, putting on a professional act that doesn’t work because she can’t sell enough houses and she ...
Thora Birch should have become a huge star off this. It was her brilliant transition from wonderful childhood roles in Hocus Pocus and Monkey Trouble. The look she gives when Carolyn slaps her says it all. “You have to resort to physical violence because you’re weak and you can’t control me.” Birch had Ghost World, but her father was managing her c...
Homophobia is still relevant unfortunately. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) can’t imagine anything worse than being gay except for having a gay son. He’s terrified that Ricky is having an affair with Lester. In Frank’s case, he’s closeted which is the root of some homophobia, but not all. Some homophobes are just hateful. Ricky’s mom (Allison Janney) is...
The theme of American Beautywas that all of these characters seemed ordinary but had all this angst under the surface. I don’t think anything is under the surface anymore. Everyone shares everything publicly on social media. We know who’s having job troubles, relationship troubles, health troubles. No one bothers to put up a front. They just vent a...
Aug 8, 2019 · Aug 8, 2019. I knew that coming back to American Beauty in the wake of #MeToo and sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey would be an uphill battle against my teenage self, obsessed...
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Sep 20, 2024 · Twenty-five years ago, in one of the greatest ever years for film, a relatively low budget character study opened in American cinemas.
