Movie Review: American Beauty

Hey,

So I have so many thoughts to share about this specific film. At first I found a quote from the movie that reads: "it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst" - Lester Burnham. And from this quote, I assumed the movie would be on a concept that would be the most compelling and awe-struck thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Boy was I not wrong on that end. This movie was definitely something less of the ordinary and more of the WOW and the WAZAAM type experience. I've never seen anything like it and that's what makes me so intrigued about the entire film. The logline described it so strangely, I've never seen a movie described in a way like that before. My first reaction: "A grown ass man wants to have a sexual relationship with a young teenage girl? That's pretty fucking sick" and yet I was intrigued to carry on (as are all of the people my age). The beginning made me feel so strange and uncomfortable. The acting was phenomenal to the fact that it was really really starting to make me lose my mind at how realistic it all was. To be able to act in a movie like this, I mean seriously. 

 Alright, moving along in the story and here are spoilers so please be aware. I always add in the spoilers for these movie opinions so please don't say that I didn't warn you. When the guy admits blatantly that he's selling drugs and is publicly filming the girl, I took a step back, but when the girl wants to walk home with him and actually falls in love with him, that's when I started to stumble on my ass a bit more. What gets me is the whole idea of being a faggot that's involved and soon becomes the resolution to the entire film (at least as far as Ricky's dad is concerned). First off the idea of either being assumed to being gay and in this case a "faggot" or being a drug-dealer really set me off on the entire mind-blowing experience if it's not A it's B. And in normal situations, A would be positive and B would be not so positive, but there would still be something positive. In this case, there are no things positive (as far as the film is concerned) that either you'd be caught being gay and labeled as a cocksocker or you're selling drugs and either way you're fucked Ricky, point blank. I just thought that was crazy to handle, being put in a situation were you're assumed two things negative.Another thing is this dude's fascination with death and how he says he can stare back at God through this sort of metaphorical tunnel/ vision that represents the view to God? I mean like he was on drugs, we get that, but was he really on to something here? That beauty is in death and death is in beauty? I mean the entire ending really made a say on the idea of life there. He dies, he died, and yet he's lived a beautiful life that he's willing to relay to the audience as beautiful or as beauty. I'm shrugging my shoulders because this is just a suggested idea or my thoughts and interpretation of the film, don't shoot me for it (haha references to the movie). I thought what really really got me was the unpredictable of the entire thing. 

 Let me be honest and say that I thought the dad and the daughter's friend were going to have sex right then and there. Let me be frank and admit that I thought and anticipated (not in a really positive way of course) that they were just gonna do that, right there. And yet they didn't, which I'm relieved about [I question the internal emotions of both actors taking part in that scene]. But another thing that I found really mind-blowing was the ending where he's reminiscing life and the edits go back and forth from the actions that every single character was taking just as he's getting shot. I automatically assumed the mother kills him, shot, boom, dead, done, but it was the dad that turns out to be gay who kills Lester? Oh my god. I'm really really mind-fucked. One more thing is I enjoyed the concept of this dark and crazy, deranged-even, world that they live in. Nothing is normal, everyone has their own set of crazy baggage and yet everyone is trying to make it seem normal. The unusual becomes their normal. That one scene where Lester is confronted by Ricky's dad on his casualness to his wife cheating on him with another man and his response is "I don't care" because their relationship is just a mask that they put on for people to believe that they are a normal family, which they are not (in every single aspect of it). 

I can't help but reference Buried Child (Sam Shepard) because it really has similar elements of the deranged and creepy. I mean like incest and this weird thing with the dying, really it all has a good comparison. I didn't think I would really like this movie but man was I wrong. I've been watching nothing but movies for the past 3-4 days and yet I find this one to be one of my favorites. Not in the most comfortable situation would I go and recommend someone to watch this like "oh yeah I loved this movie it was my favorite, you should go and watch it" but more along the lines of "hey this movie was so.... i don't know man, I think you should watch it". It's great, but only for a selected few. I could imagine it being difficult to act in a film like this but even writing it seems pretty intense for me and this isn't even a horror film, it's nuts. Rating: 10/10, it's so good. The concept is unique, great, uncomfortable to watch at times but overall a pretty good storyline, it works well. Would I change anything from it? Nope, I think it's really compelling the way it is.