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Listen: Debating the Movie 'American Beauty'

"And you're going to prove to us how much you rule with your list of what I'm certain will be perfectly legitimate criticisms there is no way I'm older than Lester Burnham I don't care how old I get it the hard truly cow that did hit quite hard when he announces that at the beginning I think of course it it alters my perception of this movie I would say not in a good way this isn't fun I mean I'm I'm glad you included Brian's thoughts because when you don't like a movie even if you know you have some a fair amount of critical support in your side I also know in this case there are people love this movie loved it then love it now and I can see why it would be something of a formative film because it is daring in a Lotta ways it'll make you sit up in your seat if you've mostly been watching what Brian described as entertainment and has ideas on on its mind right absolutely so I get all that understands that and can see why someone might still like American beauty I gave it a shot and hoped I could move in that direction but I am afraid being this age has not helped I think in a couple of ways I thought the decks were stacked in this movie when I saw it as a twenty something I must have been and you know was not living in the suburbs or experiencing anything like what Lester Burnham has expired danced now having lived in the suburbs for a while being a middle-class father teenage daughters yes you you see you know how the the decks are stacked even higher in this movie again in its favor against this family against and I'm not saying yes the suburbs can incredibly stifling I understand that marriage is difficult family life is difficult there are low points but from the very beginning of this film no one movie has a shot of making out we're on a clear trajectory toward a tragic air quotes tragic miserable ism finale yeah and there are two hypocrisies at work here because of that one of them I recognized in one thousand nine hundred nine and it has to do with the Angela character and how that's handled maybe we can return to that well I recognize some hypocrisy there before I had any idea about Kevin Spacey's offscreen life that's still bothers me today and it would no matter what has happened with spacey but the secondary hypocrisy does have to do with the depth element here and the idea element and this film American beauty does seem the deeper tries to get the shallower it appears to me and it has to do with that beauty element I really liked the plastic bag I'm not GonNa make fun of the plastic bag it's the most Rodney though moment in this movie where Ricky fit it's shows this video of a bag dancing in the wind for fifteen minutes and he describes how there's beauty there and finding beauty in the mundane is something he does that that is a very profound idea of being able to find glory in the Gutter let's say and I think it's a complete red herring in American beauty I think you get instances of it in the Ricky Fitts character but the movie is mostly interested in the gutter it's mostly interested in the misery and punishing all of these characters except perhaps lester in really even though it tries to tack on tries to connect him to Lester isn't punished at the end of this film as much as a murder is punished I don't think he's nearly punished as much as caroline is I want to spend some time on how the Caroline Care to continue her life and make choices lester is a martyr here he's a glorified martyr there's a more liberal Hi Danielle limit for the choices that he's made and I think that's different than the sort of punishment and I'm not saying I need what I'm saying is there's too much punishment in this movie it's curious to me that Lester is the one who does not get any of it to my mind and all the other characters essentially are punished but they do they try to make this connection in the script tries to make this connection in the epilogue with the beauty and Leicester's experience yet that completely falls flat to me it's not there it wasn't there else in the movie I would much I would have preferred you know two hours of a dancing plastic in the wind"

Filmspotting

Debating the Movie 'American Beauty'

Filmspotting

Last month

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Debating the Movie 'American Beauty'

Filmspotting

Last month

Lester Burnham Fifteen Minutes Two Hours