Review of American Beauty (1999) by Theraggedflygon — 12 Feb 2020

American Beauty is an incredibly complex film that is able to convey deep themes about conformity, imprisonment, and life. What begins almost as a Comedy, full of laughable moment and, to be quite honest, some equally laughable dialogue slowly devolves into a tragedy in which the themes that Mendes is going for become apparent.

Kevin Spacey's character is the best acted of the film. Any scene he is in has him stealing the show. That being said the acting all around in this film is fantastic. Each character is written in such a way that aspects of them are likeable, but they all have tragic flaws. Perhaps they are angry at the world for existing, feel isolated by the families, or feel that the world revolves around them. The plot in general revolves around these flaws as they are exposed and concludes with all of the different threads converging together. The twists of that convergence is what truly makes this film remarkable.

The cinematography in American Beauty is also superb with some of the best that I have ever seen in a motion picture. The manner in which several scenes are shot (but especially one scene in particular) help contribute to essential themes that Mendes is trying to show.

Overall, American Beauty is a very unique film that I found to be through provoking throughout. The slow start that has one scene I found to be more cringy than either comedic or tragic is made up for the rest of the film, which is nothing short of a unique masterpiece.