American Beauty
film — USA — 1999

9.0
I`m not quite sure why I never watched this film earlier. Probably it`s because of the title - I`m not a sucker for films with the word "American" in the title. This is certainly a film that doesn`t easily fall into any category. The film starts with Kevin Spacey masturbating in the shower. Mainly the film is about the meaning of peoples lives - what content our lives have, what we leave behind, what do we think we are, what are we in the eyes of the others, what can we do in order to change our lives, etc, etc. It doesn`t provide real answers, it doesn`t try to moralise about things and feelings, its just a very powerful film. Lester doesn`t love his wife anymore, and he falls in love with his daughters she-friend. The daughter meanwhile creeps out of her goth shell into love with a weird guy who lives next door and who`s father happens to be a homophobic army man. The weirdo is a drug dealer whos main hobby is filming things that he finds beautiful - including the legendary dancing bag sequence. It`s surely the first great film I`ve seen this year, but I hope its not gonna be the last.
2005-01-02
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