American Beauty
As reviewed by Miguel CopiusMartyr Kesey
The only film of the year that dares to flirt with both intelligence and downright shit. This heavy comedy stars Kevin Spaced of "The Udder Suspects" fame as a family-man going through a mid-life crisis along with the rest of his family.
The film plods along slowly and quite enjoyably, but there's no denying that while the film is very intelligent, it's just pretty badly executed. I'd either be glued to the screen, or not caring less. There were really good bits, and really shit bits. I suppose this is good, a lack of mediocrity, but I'm not of that generation, I don't need extremes, I am extremes, I need mediocrity, it's missing from my life. There is no in-between. The film is black or white. Red or green. Richard or Judy.
Anywho, some little interesting twists, and the finalé is actually quite impressive...but it's one of the few films I've seen that, in retrospect, is worse in my mind than it was when I saw it. It's like, you remember Spiderman the movie as being really good, and then when you buy it for £2.99 from MZTD, you watch it, and it's shit...however, I think if I watched American Beauty again, my memory of it could be wrong. Memory is selfish anyway.