American Beauty--as far as dramas go--is the closest to perfect I've ever seen. The brilliance comes in the subtlety, as with a lot of Kevin Spacey films. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say about this movie. I'm sure it could have been improved in various ways, but I certainly am not in any position to say what or where.
The writing in
American Beauty, both in script and plot, is brilliant. As a literature nerd and a (very amateur) writer, I couldn't watch this movie without laughing to myself at the perfect imagery the script provides and the mood it sets for the accompanying visuals. Along with the script, the soundtrack of
American Beauty is subtle but right on. Unless I was listening for it, I barely knew it was there. It was simply another element of the mood I was feeling.
I'll spare you a plot summary, but only because I want every person reading this post to watch
American Beauty and find out for themselves. Nearly perfect.
Overall Rating: 9.8 / 10
-Taylor Dobbs
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Hands down. I can't get enough of this movie. To be honest, if I haven't mentioned it yet, this is why Kevin Spacey is one of my all-time favorite actors. It's probably a top-five performance. Everything about actor Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham) in this movie is just fantastic, not to mention how hysterical he is. I think almost every time he spoke I pretty much laughed. This movie
is greatness.
American Beauty is one of the first movies where I noticed how great the soundtrack was and how well the music went with each scene. The script is unbelievable and the directing is genius. Alan Ball and Sam Mendes tag team to make one of the greatest films ever made. Thora Birch, Annette Bening, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari and Chris Cooper collaborate to make an unbelievable supporting cast.
I think one of the best underlying aspects of the film are its symbols. Alan Ball uses the color red throughout the movie to represent characters, moods and settings. In the first scene, we see the bright red door, with a white house with a white picket fence and blue shutters. We see, Carolyn Burnham (Actress Annette Bening,) Lester Burnham's wife, cutting her red roses from her garden. Throughout the film, Kevin Spacey's sexual fantasies are represented with the color red using red rose petals. Kevin Spacey's remote control car that he hit the foot of his wife with was a red car. In an important scene with Chris Cooper's character, in the background is a bright red automobile. This theme continues throughout the movie all the way to its end.
To sum everything up, this movie is one of my absolute favorites. Honestly, nothing bad at all about it. I'd be very surprised if anyone disagreed with me. In my opinion best movie we've seen together so far.
Overall Rating: 9.8 / 10
- Josh Berg
.jpg)
The Usual Suspects is such a phenomenal movie, I can't rave enough about how great this movie is. From beginning to end, at no point in time should you be bored watching this movie. Every minute is either filled with non-stop action, or your laughing at how funny Benicio Del Toro is. Stephen Baldwin is obviously great, especially when he gets to play the role of a car-jacker. I'll just go through the list because I feel that I just might have to. Gabriel Byrne plays off his role of "Dean Keaton" so well, that it may just seem to viewers that it actually might just be him in real life. Kevin Pollack is my least favorite in the bunch but that doesn't mean he didn't play his role well. Last but not least the greatest of them all, Kevin Spacey takes the gold medal for his performance. If anyone's keeping track still, Kevin Spacey is one of my top 5 actors. He's such a brilliant actor, he can play any role any which way he wants and receive an Oscar Winning Performance. Bryan Singler did a great job directing this film, while Christopher McQuarrie's brilliance of creating such a movie is a gift to us all. Oh, and this film may have one of the best twists of ever created. Absolutely amazing movie, anyone who hasn't seen this, has to go see this film immediately.
