Word: self
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Needless to say, this is film about many things. Mostly, it is about a year in the life of Lester Burnham--father, neighbor, self-hater. Because Lester is played by Kevin Spacey, we can see embers glowing behind his eyes even in the darkly comic early stages of the film when he has hit rock bottom: disdained by his harpy wife (Annette Bening), despised by his daughter (lovely, sad-faced Thora Birch) and distant from his own passions. The highlight of his day, Spacey tells us, is a quiet masturbation session in the shower. "It's all downhill from there...
This is truly the product of the witty screenwriter Alan Ball, a graduate of sitcom gigs, and the director Sam Mendes, fresh from such theatrical triumphs as the Broadway revival of "Cabaret" and the acclaimed roundelay "The Blue Room." Mendes, working on film for the first time, is extraordinarily self-assured, inspired both with his actors and, more impressively, his camera eye. Fittingly, since the script praises the hidden beauties of the world, this is itself a deeply beautiful film. Its static compositions by Conrad Hall are overloaded with vibrant colors and symmetries that make you almost want...
...American Beauty both so fascinating and troubling is its refusal to play its characters' idiosyncrasies for shock value, and especially its amoral complicity in Lester's lesser actions. The film's tone is strangely gleeful, for instance, when Lester viciously berates his chilly wife.Winning an argument easily with a self-satisfied put-down that sadistically needles her insecurities, Spacey lets a devilish grin sneak across his face as if to say: ooh! that was fun. Trouble is, Lester's target (adeptly played by Bening) is so easy and his blow so gratuitous that one can't help feeling that...
...less harsh and more realistic way of looking at the situation, being friends with someone that cares about their appearance is probably a good thing--it shows that a person has enough self-respect to care for his or her appearance...
...self-serving, I would agree," said Elizabeth Langan, director of administrative services at Princeton University Health Services...