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By: Dreamer
Date: 9/27/99 2:03:31 PM
# Replies: 15
Well then. What more needs to be said? Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening in a movie. I'd go to see them read cereal box wrappers.
And the movie didn't disappoint at all. It was hilarious, and sad, and the performances were stellar, except for the little blonde tramp.
Who was altogether too ordinary... *grin*
Response #1
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 9/27/99 11:51:50 PM
I really wanna see that, very badly
Response #2
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 9/28/99 5:17:14 AM
Ummmm..Kevin Spacey..yum, yum.
Response #3
By: Ralf
Date: 9/28/99 7:22:05 AM
Without giving away any surprises, what's it about?
Response #4
By: Dreamer
Date: 9/28/99 8:43:50 AM
Kevin Spacey = frustrated 40s guy Annette Bening = driven realtor wife
They have a stereotyped misfit daughter. One of her friends is a vapid blonde slutty teen.
Weirdo kid moves in next door.
And nothing is ever the same again.
Response #5
By: sooz
Date: 9/28/99 3:32:40 PM
It got great reviews from an overly cynical DJ I like to listen to. He hates everything... and if he thought this was good, I'm goin'.
Response #6
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 9/29/99 4:50:58 AM
Hey..that sounds like my house!
Response #7
By: Ralf
Date: 9/29/99 6:53:41 AM
Kevin's a DJ?
[crossed-eyes]
Response #8
By: Da Sissop
Date: 10/2/99 6:00:17 PM
Okay, I saw American Beauty today. And Dreamer summed it up marvelously. Great performances. Multiple character studies. It makes you re-evaluate "beauty"... and "life"... AND you get to see the breasts of not one, but TWO really fabulous babe teens.
Response #9
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 10/2/99 10:21:36 PM
Wow.. Meaning and boobs. Must see.
Response #10
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 10/12/99 3:14:34 PM
So, I saw American Beauty, and it was interesting to me that it could have been at least three different movies. It could have been a movie about the boomers looking for meaning, or a movie about budding love between two alienated teens, or a movie about a young man with an abusive father. Instead, it's all three at the same time, which takes some really impressive slight-of-hand on the part of the director.
It would also make an excellent double-feature with Election, which came out a little while ago, even though you never see Reese Witherspoon's breasts.
Response #11
By: Shadow Sprite
Date: 10/13/99 8:39:06 AM
I really liked American Beauty... Made for an interesting double-feature when I went home and saw American History X. I think I walked around in a daze for the rest of the weekend. If you haven't seen it, rent American History X, Ed Norton puts on a fantastic performance.
Response #12
By: Ralf
Date: 10/18/99 6:21:23 AM
Saw it this weekend. I loved it; Mrs.Ralf didn't. "Too predictable", she says. "You could tell what was going to happen as soon as you saw any two characters on screen together."
I thought about that and sort of agreed. Some of those moves WERE telegraphed from a few hundred miles away, and the foreshadowing isn't nearly as subtle as The Sixth Sense.
But I really liked it! The characters all seemed like sterotypes at the beginning of the movie, and by the end they "become themselves". It's a movie chronicalling the self-discovery of an extended, dysfunctional family.
Question/spoiler: At the VERY END of American Beauty, d'ya suppose the daughter decided to stay, or does she go?
Response #13
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 10/18/99 1:40:36 PM
In my version, she goes. She and the boy get framed for the murder, too, with the videotape you see at the very beginning.
I have to wonder, though, why the neighbor shoots the guy. Is it out of rage at losing control over his son? Is it because he can't face his own queerness? Is it because he can only deal with conflict through violence?
The movie leaves a lot of untied loose ends, which is OK since it's really about the husband's rise from nebbishness to contentment.
Response #14
By: Shadow Sprite
Date: 10/18/99 2:09:24 PM
Yeah, they ended up cutting that bit out, and the bit about Spacey returning in his bath-robe. I think the edited version is better, very open-ended, and a little less silly.
Oh, and to answer your questions (in order): Yes. No, he just doesn't get it (homosexuality). Yes.
Now, go out and rent Velvet Goldmine!
Response #15
By: Ralf
Date: 10/19/99 6:36:43 AM
Think there'll be a 'directors cut' anytime?
Not that I *want* one, since I too like the open-to-interpretation ending. But it'd be cool to see more of that excellent camera work.