American Beauty

1999 Best Picture

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Various characters look for beauty in America.

I've seen this more than once, but I'm sketchy on its meanings. So instead of writing about the movie and continuing to give my faithful readers the impression that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm going to try something new and just list a series of questions about American Beauty. Let me know if you have a problem with it. Feel free to answer all of these if you want.

1) What's another well-known, highly-regarded movie that has a dead narrator, the ultimate spoiler alert? I know Sunset Boulevard, but it seems like I'm missing other notable examples.

2) What's it say about me if the most indelible image in American Beauty--more than the rose petals falling on Mena Suvari even--is of Kevin Spacey masturbating in the shower? "Look at me--jerking off in the shower." The high point of your day, Lester? Don't I know it, buddy. Later, bravely pleasuring himself under the sheets with his wife right next to him--and don't argue with me because that does take a certain amount of manly courage--he says, "So shoot me! I was whacking off! That's right. I was choking the bishop, chafing the carrot, you know, saying hi to my monster!" in a scene where he's just a little too unhinged.

3) Masturbation, recurring, has to mean something, doesn't it?

4) Is there a more 90's movie than this? There are certain movies--Fight Club, The Big Lebowski, Trainspotting, The Truman Show, American Psycho, Magnolia, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace--that are quintessential 1990's movies because they deal with that kind of strange decade thematically or the characters just feel trapped there. The themes of American Beauty certainly apply to other decades, but the ennui feels like such a 1990's ennui. It's a decade that requires a selling out and a soullessness. And all that friction in a society that doesn't seem to allow for friction. I lived that decade as both younger and older than the characters in this, but I can still identify.

5) How good is Annette Bening in this? Sure, you remember Kevin Spacey because he spends time in the movie masturbating, but why did I forget how good Bening is? I'm actually pretty sure what she does in this movie, mostly because she goes through a wider range of emotions, is more impressive than what Spacey does. "What do you call this? Is this not a plant?" Her delivery of that line as she's trying to sell a house and the subsequent, slaphappy breakdown is terrific. She almost reaches Nicolas Cage freak-out levels, and when your performance is mentioned in the same sentence as Nicolas Cage, you know you've done something special.

6) The creation of an artificial sitcom world with the appropriate sitcom world tone is intentional, right? On the surface, you've got this halcyon artificiality. I'm convinced that if you turn the sound down for the first half of this movie and showed all the scenes in the Burnham's home to somebody who has never seen this movie, they could assume it's some 50's sitcom family. They'd be confused about their clothing and decor probably, but they'd probably expect that kind of exaggerated serenity. Instead, it's this exaggerated reality, like bizarro-sitcom stuff, creating this irony that can make a grown Beaver uncomfortable.

7) Speaking of sitcoms, how much Three's Company did Alan Ball watch before writing this? Interestingly, Ball's only got one other feature film writing credit in his filmography--Towelhead. He's written a lot for television, but I'm not familiar with any of it. I should check some of his other work out to see if he rips off Jack Ripper with everything he writes. The shocking climax of this one is created from misconstrued words and images like every episode of Three's Company.

8) And speaking of Ball's writing, does anybody else find the drama/tragedy parts of this and the dark comedy parts of this jarring? They clash, almost unapologetically, and when I first saw this, I had problems with it. Now, it feels a little more natural. I like the jarring.

9) With that cheerleader routine--with Spacey and the camera leering, those CGI roses popping out of Angela's chest, that spotlight--do we all become pedophiles? There are scenes in this movie that make me feel like a dirty old man, mostly because I am actually a dirty old man. The feeling is stronger than when I first saw this back when I was in my 20s. Since I'm much closer to Lester's age this time, I connected to what was going on in different ways. And some of those ways aren't comfortable.

10) "Fuck me, your majesty!" Is there a woman on Earth who could resist the King's eyebrows? Is there a man on Earth who wouldn't give his left nut (or his right nut) to have those eyebrows?

11) Is "Would you like Smiley's sauce on that?" one of the most perfect lines from any movie? I think it is.

12) Shouldn't composer Thomas Newman be more of a household name? It seems like everybody in his family, including the more-famous Randy, is a film music composer. I liked the music in this a lot, especially when it was used as a cue for the fantasy sequences or the times when there just ambient noise. It's probably my fault that I don't really known Thomas Newman, isn't it? I mean, the guy's scored some really really good movies. Thomas Newman trivia: He's been nominated for Best Original Score 11 times, but he hasn't won. One year, he was a double-nominee, but still lost. I bet he can't stand being around Randy.

13) So what is "beauty" to each of these characters? Ricky talks about God "looking right at you just for a second," and how "if you're careful, you can look right back" and see beauty. That's a little abstract though. Ricky sees beauty in plastic bags being blown around, so he sees beauty in the mundane. Lester sees freedom as beauty. His wife? She seems to find the appearance of success or maybe conformity as beautiful. What about daughter Jane? What about Mr. and Mrs. Fitts? I mean, other than Nazi plates. And Angela?

14) Is part of the magic of this movie in its way of being difficult to grasp? Unless I just miss the obvious (which is entirely possible), this seems pretty open-ended. There are loose-ends, questions that refuse to be answered, and seemingly a couple fistfuls of ways you could interpret the whole thing. There's satire, there's humor, there's tragedy, there's a chilling final line that could potentially stab you right in the gut.

15) Do I like that there's a single scene in this movie that is out of chronological order? It's the opening scene which doesn't happen until much later in the story. I don't think I like that actually. It's tricky, a red herring.

16) Should I even mention how I like the use of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" in this? "There must be someway out of here, said the joker to the thief." It's a song that I've never been able to crack, at least not in any sort of complete way, but the idea of escape really fits with what's going on with the character.

17) Am I missing anything?