2 words:
See it.
Agreed.
Suburban angst at its best.
For more on this film, see “This Movie Rocked My World” by me.
The single greatest film of the last several decades. Great Art. Magnificent entertainment. Brilliant.
This is a non-smoking area. If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on fire and act accordingly.
It was very annoying, like “The Graduate.” Pretty damn predictable, too, if you ask me. I did like the spooky video kid, though.
I disliked it too. I loved Kevin Spacey, just like in all his movies. If the whole film was about his character, it would have been great. But they spent too much time on all the characters that annoyed the hell out of me (which would be every single other person in the movie). During the parts that were about the wife, or the relationship between the weird daughter and the weird neighbor, I would just be sitting there thinking “can we get back to Kevin Spacey now?”
I don’t know–maybe it was because I was expecting so much from it. It just didn’t really do it for me. I don’t think I’d recommend it to anybody else.
The IQ of a group is equal to the IQ of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the group.
Can you post a link to that other thread? Once I’d seen the movie I tried to come back to read the thread but I couldn’t find it 
Btw, I loved the movie.
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
I just went and read through the other thread I hadn’t seen before. Good points, all. I was so shaken by(and still absorbing) the experience of the movie, I hadn’t yet thought about “what next?” What next indeed?
As for the differing emotions expressed while leaving the theatre:
I can easily understand someone laughing hysterically or crying bitterly. I felt both and more. My mood was a complex sensation of feeling intensely alive. Two days later, I’m still recovering!
And to those of you who didn’t appreciate it:
Well, there are two kinds of people in this world-- those who classify people into two groups and those who do not. I am of the latter.
Tennhippie:
You totally got it! I do classify people into two groups: those who “got” American Beauty, and those who did not.
And there’s another choice about reaction: crying joyfully. That was me…I was filled with so much emotion, on so many different fronts, and just thrilled that I could feel all that, and behind a movie, no less!
Stoid (et. al.) -
Thanks for your ‘… rocked my world’ thread. Saw AB today, loved it, and got it 
Would not have seen it if not for the thread. And I avoided the spoilers
Oblio
Been messin’ with the bees
I didn’t say I didn’t get it. In fact I already knew what was going to happen before it did, it was that formulaic and predictable. (I can’t go into WHAT without “spoiling” it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.) It’s all been done before. Why did we need another movie about a middle-aged guy dissatisfied with his life, and angst-filled teens? Come on! It was nicely filmed and all, but it has to have some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen, especially Annette Benning, who simply shrieked all her lines like a banshee. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie, just that I didn’t like it; There’s a big difference. I suppose because I didn’t like “Blair Witch Project” I “didn’t get” it either? Please, there’s nothing to “get” in either.
Well, Vogue, I’m with you completely on the “blair witch” thing, and completely appalled that youw ould mention it in the same breath as AB.
If you didn’t get it, I doubt very much that explaining it to you would help. But let me say this: it wasn’t JUST a story about middle age crisis and teenage angst. In fact, it wasn’t a story about either of those things at all. that would be just a very superficial outline of the plot structure. It was about so much more than that… it was about, (at the risk of sounding ridiculous but I will anyway because I believe it) Truth and Beauty.
What it was about was wonderful, what took it right over the moon for those of us who got it was that not only was it about something so wonderful, but it completely succeeded at sharing what it was about with us through the art of film, using every single aspect of that art to make the story and the message happen for us: performances, cinematography, music, script, everything.
I am truly sorry that you missed out on the experience I had, because for me it was a mind-blower. It really did rock my world.
Stoid
Oh, and Oblio: You are VERY welcome! I’m so glad that I prompted you to see it when you otherwise wouldn’t have and you got it…share the wealth…pass it on!
And be grateful for every second…
Heavy man 
I’m amazed that no one has gotten their dander up about my “The Graduate” remark yet!
Well, while I personally loved “the Graduate”, I can understand how someone might not.
It is barely possible that some people understood the movie entirely, knew exactly what it was trying to do, and didn’t care for it just the same. It does happen.
Catrandom
Right, just like you can not get a movie and like it; or recognise that a movie you’re watching is really bad, but like it anyway.
I’m with you, Stoid. This movie devastated me. But in a good way. A spiritual way, even.
Voguevixen, I’m stunned by your reaction to it, but catrandom is right, peoples opinions and experiences are just different.
But man, what a movie.
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
Keep in mind that I worked in the theater exhibition industry for the last 10 years or so. It takes an awful lot to make me sit up and take notice. I can’t imagine how someone like Roger Ebert or whatever can still look at stuff objectively. I just felt like this movie was trying so hard to be, I don’t know, shocking or profound that it felt really forced and un-natural. I also admit I’m a bit of a prude. I had a problem with the hero of the movie being a drug dealer and the way nearly every single person in the movie smoked pot. It just wasn’t realistic to me. And the way the really shy girl all of a sudden decided to show her boobs to a total stranger. And the way the mom was all orgasmic over her gun. Everyone was very much a stereotype and caricature, and “sit-com”-ey (if I may make up a word.) I didn’t like or care about any of them. I really wanted to like it though and was really excited to see it. Maybe I was just in a bad mood at the time or something. Sorry!
I dislike when people make value judgements on others because their opinions differ.
I enjoyed American Beauty.
I thought it was a well filmed, well written, well performed film.
That doesn’t mean people who did not like it, didn’t “get” it.
I guess I get the same way about movies I love. Its like a possesion, you don’t understand how someone could watch what you love and come away saying bad things.
(I get that way about Taxi Driver.)
It happens though, that doesn’t mean their opinion is worthless, doesn’t mean they don’t understand films, just means their opinion differs.
pat
Voguevixen, I totally agree with your analysis, and I’ll put a couple more word in.
Although I thought American Beauty was an interesting and enjoyable movie, it probably won’t leave a lasting impression on my mind. Maybe I missed something, because I came into the movie 15 minutes late, but I thought Spacey’s character was too flat, obsessive, unrealistic. AB also seemed to rely on exaggerated stereotypes to maintain its substance, and this came off as pretentious to me. Then again, maybe I just didn’t “get it”; because I kept thinking that I’d seen this movie before.
Frankly I like movies in which I can superimpose the protagonist onto myself. In these movies I can relate to the protagonist, and their epiphany becomes mine. Movies in which I can’t do this I classify as melodrama. Melodrama can be very enjoyable as most of us know, but it doesn’t have much affect. To me AB is more melodrama than drama.
Of course some of my favorite movies may seem melodramatic to others, but I make a distinction between surrealistic realism and melodrama.