Does American Beauty hold up?

I loved it back then but Spacey tonguing Mena Suvari is repulsive.

It's one of those films you think is great when you see it but then have no desire to ever watch it again.

Absolutely. People living in suburbia are miserable behind the facade.

Nothing with Spacey "holds we" because we know his reality. Rock Hudson syndrome.

His Francis Underwood holds up as he was essentially behaving not acting.

I didn’t find it all that great to start with. I thought Bening overacted. But it is the only time I found Spacey totally fuckable.

THE ICE STORM is a much better film dealing with suburban dysfunction, though it's set in a different time.

I never cared for Bening's performance in AMERICAN BEAUTY. She comes off like a near-caricature, unlike the rest of the cast. I blame Mendes for that.

People took the Wes Bentley plastic bag video thing seriously at the time.

Its a great movie and still holds up . Say what you will about Spacey,he can act . Why you bitches hate on him escapes me. Who cares if he was a handsy lech ? Did none of you ever get groped in a gay bar ? Weve all known and dealt with a drunken toad ,unless of course you are ugly . I went to Mardi Gras one year and the next day my ass was covered in bruises from all the pinching . My fault really as I was wearing tiny shorts and a tank top .

Masterpiece! It needs a 4K re-release.

Yes, as a period piece.

It's never been much more than a soap opera-type movie.

Thora Birch

Mena Suvari

Wes Bentley

Everybody thought all three would be huge after that but it didn’t happen.

R7, Bening is plenty hammy on her own and needs little encouragement to showboat. I get that people think it’s weird that Hilary Swank is a double Oscar winner, but her win this year for Boys Don’t Cry was completely deserved.

Good film at the time but like r7 I preferred The Ice Storm.

Funny--I just made a friend of mine watch this for the first time recently and after it was over I asked him what he liked and didn't like about it. His biggest complaint about the film was that "The mother's acting was too extreme."

I used to work for the company, and I remember when they paid us to take over a Carl’s Jr. location to film these scenes. Store was in the valley. Took about 3-4 weeks to shoot. They changed the signs, etc. and then changed them all back. Today I’m sure that would all be done with effects.

Still totally looks like an old Carl’s though!

I love this movie and think some dialog is quite witty. "It seems unfair to assume I can't learn."

Saw it with my mother on home video. She asked if all men masturbated in the shower. I told her yes, sometimes. Then I had to tell her how late Dad had advised me to do it there for privacy (I was sharing a room with a little brother) and hygienic reasons.

A few days later she told me "some" women do it in the bathtub. Or so she'd heard.

bags in the wind All we are is bags in the wind ...

This movie is the cinematic manifestation of being a well off closet homo. This is the movie Tyler Perry would make if he was white and good at movies.

The cinematography is beautiful.

R19 Freak ass mama.

R22 Why are you so upset with me. On some real shit. You gon make this 2 years strong 😂? Come on what happened? I just am real about politics and elections. My family used to consult.

[quote]It's one of those films you think is great when you see it but then have no desire to ever watch it again.

Speak for yourself! I've watched this movie probably 100 times. And I still cry at the end!

Not really, a moment of its time.

Alan Ball got lucky.

R26 Succinct and correct, well done.

It doesn't, computer says no

That conservation is more fucked up than anything that happened in the movie, r19.

"I did blow loads in the shower as a teenager. Thank you for asking, mother"

There’s only 2 ways to do a good movie about American suburban life. You can go the dark but moral route a la David lynch, or you can go the campy nihilistic route a la John waters.

American beauty is the Hillary Clinton of movies. It suggests that the neurosis of late stage capitalism can be resolved if we open normalcy up to all races and the gays. Time has proven its hypothesis wrong and while it does do a good job at times illustrating the misery of its characters existence, the solution it suggests is facile and shallow

Chris Cooper should've been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

It does hold up. Who hasn't screamed "Yes, Your Majesty!!"?

I think Alan Ball was able to expand on many of his theories of sexuality, suburbia, masculinity, death, loneliness, etc with more verve and humor in Six Feet Under.

Agreed, r33. The one good thing that I can say about American Beauty is that it gave Alan Ball the chance to make an ambitious HBO show.

It holds up a lot better than ALDIs macaroni.

R30 And that is why it doesn’t hold up.

It’s really a time capsule of two generations in the late 90s. The early Boomers and late Gen X. Kevin and Annette were trying to hold on to ideal 1950s American ideals and values and finally embraced the 90s. The movie was basically a message that was saying the famous phrase “This is the 90s!”

It’s not a very universal message or timeless.

And I’d also like to add to my R36 post, suburbia carried a lot of weight back then and it’s since been torn down over and over. Everyone is well aware suburbia may look pretty but is rotten underneath.

So nothing is very surprising about the movie today. I don’t even know if it was back then but I was a kid.

[quote]It's one of those films you think is great when you see it but then have no desire to ever watch it again.

So many people say, but I didn't like fresh to the screen in 1999. It was the first time I took notice of Benning - I hated your performance then and the few times I've seen her since. It was a heavy-handed film with a thousand insights that revealed nothing.

Its kind of gross.

I don’t want to watch a bunch of gross losers in the suburbs with shitty lives. And grown me. Obsessing over high schoolers is creepy

R32 it’s “Fuck me your Majesty!” The best line in the movie and It still makes me laugh

I will sell this HOUSE todayyy

you were in seventeen once!

and you looked fat.

I agree with the people who preferred The Ice Storm, a film I think about a lot.

Amazing to think of all the actors in American Beauty Allison Janney is now probably the most famous, considered the most talented and appeared in both movies.

Not sure what movie Bening though she was in, but she nearly ruins the film with her hambone performance. Surprised that Mendes let her get away with it unless she pulled the "I'm Mrs. Warren Beatty and I WILL get an Oscar for this role" card.

Was Benning ever good in a role? I looked through her filmography before commenting at R38 and it seems very light in quality titles.

R46 I mean, four best actress nominations isn’t anything to sneeze at. Though, if I were her going 0 for 4 like that, I’d probably go for a killer supporting role that I could win.

Bening was great in The Grifters.

People are talking about Anette’s hammy performance but middle aged white women can be very hammy.

Kind of reminds me of the YouTube comments in any Mommie Dearest clip. Faye may have never been Joan Crawford but she was realistic enough to many people’s mothers.

I have personally met Anette’s character in real life. Many times.

It was more popular than it should have been because it was featured two things gay men love to see:

1) evidence living in suburbia is horrible;

2) a good actress playing a withholding control-freak mother & wife.

3) Pervy Spacey action

4) Wes Bentley ass

She was also good in The Kids Are Alright and 20th Century Women.

I hated both, R53, but I'll give you The Grifters as a good performance.

She's also wonderful in BEING JULIA, where she plays a celebrated 1930s stage actress so her hammy tendencies worked for the part.