Film of the Week #60 - American Beauty

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/

So, an excellent film, great cast, writing and direction. A little pretentious at times, but still amazing.

Discuss.

mike65

Over rated and over wrought in the final 20 mins.

Its not that I hated it or anything close but I've a feeling its not going to stand up well to the ravages of time. Annette Bening was the star turn.

Mike.

herbieflowers

Yeah I liked it but it was too much steeped in the pretentious, soundtrack was great too

Karl Hungus

I would say that Sam Mendes's next film, Road To Perdition was a film I enjoyed a lot more.

lodgepole

I have to say I have quite a strong dislike for American Beauty. I found it very average, and the hype and almost round praise that it receives tend to push me more towards dislike than like*. I think part of the reason I found it so average is that I had previously seen Todd Solondz's Happiness, which I thought dealt with some of the same themes in a much more satisfying and daring way.

That said, the film is well acted and the direction and photography are solid and sometimes quite interesting.

* this is of course irrational and irrelevant to the quality of the film, but when I find a film this average I look to these things to make my final judgements, particularly for the purpose of internet debate.

mike65

AB is part of a subgenre which I shall call "American Psychobabble" - in which all the themes are writ large with capital letters. Other examples include er Babel, the Big Chill,
The Ice Storm, Grand Canyon, The Accidental Tourist, Vanilla Sky, Short Cuts.

They tend to be a bit too pleased with themselves to notice that a piece of sardonic humour or exploitation might work better - to wit Wonder Boys and Falling Down.

Mike.

PWEI

Can't believe this pretentious crap beat Das Boot,some people have no taste!... Each to their own I suppose!

BlitzKrieg

its a bit of a meh this week.


its not a baaad film

but there's nothing fantastic about it as a film.

it was the peak of kevin spacey's popularity though.

And he was very entertaining in it.

mike i'm disapointed you put Short Cuts in the same catagory (though of it, I've only seen Babel and Vanilla Sky and I agree totally that they should be there)

I am actually curious to hear from those who nominated it now.

ztoical

I really disliked american beauty which is odd cus I really love Six Feet under and its the same writer dealing with alot of the same subject matter. While there are some nice visuals I couldn't get past the writing - its just felt like one big cliche after another. For me Six feet under is what american beauty was meant to be. I just think Ball's writing suits an on going series as he has the time to develop the plots that I think he just skims the surface of in American Beauty.

Declan A Walsh

I have to say I enjoy watching "American Beauty" whenever I see it on the telly - I saw it in the cinema as well. I think Sam Mendes does a great job as director of this film. I like the pace and the humour (both black and otherwise). For me, Kevin Spacey is very funny in the film in a deadpan way. I thought Annette Benning was fantastic in her portrayal of the mixed-up unhappy woman. There were also some other interesting undercurrents going on, particularly the connection between the daughter and the odd boy next door. The soundtrack was fantastic and the orchestrial score was very apt for the mood of the film.

All in all a very good film. Whether it stands the test of time is another issue entirely. Let's see if I get tired of it!

johnny_ultimate

It is certainly an over-rated film, and one which I felt was rather cold and difficult to engage with. Not to say it isn't a good film, but it does go sort of soap-operatic towards the end.

I always felt that the superb Little Children tackled the same "dark suburbia" genre in a far more effective way.

JC 2K3

I love this film. Then again, I love pretentious stuff(bag blowing in the wind scene = one of my favourite scenes from any movie, ever.).

I've watched it so many times, but not for about a year and a half, so I'm not going to go into it in detail.

guinnessdrinker

I remember the hype surrounding this film when it first came out but I didn't actually get to see it until about two years later and I wasn't dissapointed by it.

I think the acting by all members of the cast but especially by both Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening is top notch.

Sure, as some people have already mentioned it's pretentious in places but that doesn't take away from the film at all. In fact I think the pretentiousness (sp?) adds to the film as a whole and it would not have been the same without it. The fact that the film is dark in places is offset by some humorous moments and it makes the whole idea of something like this happening in real life America just believable.

Jello

I only saw this a couple of months ago and couldn't see what all the fuss is about. Sure there's some memorable scenes and Spacey is excellent but otherwise it's certainly over-rated. I just found it too tiring to watch.

EDIT: The music was great though...

Sherifu

Loved the bag blowing in the wind scene and this one;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJ8zxV7Cjw

Ho-Hum

Karl Hungus wrote: »

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/

So, an excellent film, great cast, writing and direction. A little pretentious at times, but still amazing.

Discuss.

I find the word pretentious is thrown around far, far too much

Karl Hungus

I can't get behind the dislike of this film. Honestly, I've seen it quite a few times, and enjoyed it. Spacey was on top form, and hasn't had a role or perfromance that has come close to it since.

Ho-Hum wrote: »

I find the word pretentious is thrown around far, far too much

JC 2K3

Ho-Hum wrote: »

I find the word pretentious is thrown around far, far too much

100% Agreed.

When I say "I love pretentious stuff", what I really mean is I love things that are commonly perceived as "pretentious", usually I don't really think they're actually pretentious, it's just that any thinking outside of the box or alternative views of life just tend to get labelled as "pretentious".

SGTdewdew

Only rewatched AB recently, still holds up as a great movie - prolly coz the
cast are given characters to flesh out - Spacey likes doing that - hence his
move to theatre-land UK.
The flik seems to have dated pretty fast too... Shame the director has been
hoovered up and bleed dry of talent by the Hollow-wood studio system..
Spacey is best in SWIMMING WITH SHARKS...

Jay P

I love this film so much. Definately one of my favorites of all time.

Driver 8

Spacey is fantastic (even if I still hold the view that was Jim Carrey's Oscar for Man on the Moon...not even nominated :rolleyes:), but the film is very good rather than great.

Road to Perdition's a better film in my opinion

longshanks

its an enjoyable watch, good if you're just recovering/chilling for the day. stick it on and kill a couple of hours. however the boy next door, 'i sell tonnes of weed from average to engineered super weed, oh and i film plastic bags in the wind' bollllllll oxxx. takes from the film if you ask me

Slutmonkey57b

Great film, beautiful pacing and excellent portrayals by all of the actors involved. By rights, this is a film that could have gone over the edge, but I found the direction spot on. A lot of the moments in the film have the potential to be very bad - in the case of the bag blowing scene, it SHOULD be very bad, but at all times the characters are allowed to speak for themselves and with their own voices. A great example of show, don't tell, and at no point did I find it devolved into speechifying. As to johnny_ultimate's comment about not engaging with the film, well... I don't know. Maybe you're looking too much for something of yourself, or someone familiar to you to get a handle on? Personally, I found no end of things to engage with, and for me the best indicators of how well the film turned out are the small moments *around* the big moments - Not Annette Benning slapping herself in the dark, but the tiny crack of desperation, anger, and despair in the garden with the two dissmissive clients that led to it. It's a split second in her face and it's a perfect perfect moment for the character. The Paper Bag scene is another one where the moment is not made by the philosphising gunk, but Wes Bently's calmness, and Thora Birch's reaction to it. He's creepy, but not creepy, and boring, but fascinating, and lame and predictable while coming across as utterly fresh. I think it's because while the moment itself, and the commentary coming out of the character's mouth, is... I don't know, predictable seems the wrong word, but obvious. Yet for the character, it *is* a fresh, new, life-altering moment, and it comes across that way in the film - from the character's perspective, everything is told from a true and honest perspective, regardless of whether we the watchers are being exposed to something new. Her reaction to it is much like what a lot of other people might react to - "Does he believe this? Is this really that new to him? Isn't he more cynical than that?" yet she's drawn into it, because it's a sincere moment from him. She's drawn to him, because of what he's experienced from it, not from whether or not somebody somewhere else ever thought the same thing.

Perhaps some of the criticisms are that the film doesn't break new territory? I don't think it intended to, suburban desperation and loneliness is not new. Ultimately there are only four stories, and this film explores all four stories not by shocking us, but by remaining steadfastly to its characters, whether they're the characters you want them to be or not, which in my book makes it far superior to a lot of films which delve into proselytising pontification in the interests of appearing groundbreaking or new. This film sacrifices everything at the alter of its characters, and it maintains a perfect, perfect pitch for them all the way through.

Karl Hungus

Aedh Baclamh

Jesus, that's number 37 on IMDB? Wow.

JC 2K3

Did anyone else feel that the film was much more about the perception of beauty and appearances versus reality rather than telling a tale of, as SlutMonkey put it, suburban desperation and lonliness?

The plot wasn't really that important at all IMO.

lizann

great film with a great script and cast and director 10 out of 10

kevmy

I thought it was a really good film. And I'm not one for pretentiousness (fake or otherwise) but it's really Spacey and Benning who make this. In fact all the actors do there bit.

One of those films I was a bit ugh when I went to watch it but was really impressed by it. It's definitely as worthy as Point Break anyway

mike65

kevmy wrote: »

It's definitely as worthy as Point Break anyway

In the same way Citizen Kane is at least as good as The Great Escape!

Mike.

Pigman II

Great film. Conrad Halls cinematography is the star tho.

Davei141

I never had any expectations watching this film and now its one of my favourites. I adored the soundtrack to this film too.

LiamMc

I liked American Beauty.

LiamMc

I liked American Beauty.

LiamMc

I liked American Beauty.

LiamMc

I liked American Beauty.

LiamMc

I liked American Beauty.