American Beauty (1999)

The winner of the Best Picture Oscar and five others.

Director: Alan Mendes

 

This film was nominated for 14 Academy Awards. It won six, for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Music and Best Editing.

 

It is a controversial work in the minds of some, but that is something the viewer will have to decide. It is a satire about middle-class values in America. The main character, who is actually dead when the movie begins is Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a middle-aged man who is having trouble communicating with his family, which itself is quite dysfunctional. His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is a real estate agent who is only fair at what she does. Their daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is a rather insecure middle-schooler who hates her parents and reads ads about breast augmentation. 

 

After Lester, Carolyn and Jane attend a high school basketball game, Lester becomes emotionally infatuated with Jane’s attractive cheerleader friend Angela (Mena Suvan), and he has frequent visual fantasies about her. Jane is disgusted by what she imagines he is thinking. Angela finds Lester to be rather cute in his vague attention.

 

New neighbors move in who are equally damaged: Marine Colonel Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper), his wife Barbara (Allison Janney), and their teenage son, Ricky (Wes Bentley). Ricky smokes marijuana, but his father doesn’t trust him, so he drug tests his son. Frank has been abusive to Ricky in the past, and thinks the boy is still out of control.

 

Ricky also endlessly videotapes people which makes him seem suspect to others at first, including Jane. She finally changes her mind, and after watching a movie that he made of a small plastic bag blowing through the air, finds Ricky to be rather appealing.

 

Carolyn starts an affair with “The King” of Real Estate, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher), because she thinks she can gain insights to the real estate biz. All she really wants is to relieve her sexual frustration. In a bold move to prove that he is truly in charge of his life, Lester quits his job. Gradually the relationships of the older figures spin out of control.

 

Alan Ball was the writer of the screenplay. He was also the creator of the famous HBO series, Six Feet Under. The music for the film was created by the composer who also later wrote for Six Feet Under, Thomas Newman.