American Beauty 1999, Rated R Dreamworks Home Entertainment

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Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Wes Bentley, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, et al. Released to DVD on May 9, 2000.

The darling of the Academy in 1999, American Beauty landed Oscars for best picture, actor, screenwriter and director, among others, capitalizing on the very recent trend sweeping through Hollywood: that of Americans realizing and calling attention to the fact that we, as Americans, are part of a wholly repugnant and hedonistic society. American Beauty is a very good movie, as well it should be, but it suffers from its somewhat unorthodox plot structure. While Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is the lead character in this dark fable, there is such an undercurrent of sub-plots revolving about Lester's life--his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is having an affair, his new next door neighbors are unusually normal, Ricky (Wes Bentley) has a crush on his daughter Jane (Thora Birch), Lester himself has a crush on Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari), and so on--that the main message of this film: break free from the shackles and trappings of your suburban life, is ultimately muted. As it stands though, this was a very good movie.