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Reviews
American Beauty (1999)
Good-Not Great
American Beauty is a good film whose reputation has gotten way out of hand and whose quality and artistic merits have become far too overrated. Yes, it is better than a lot of movies out there, but it is not the masterpiece that everyone seems to think. It was not the best film of 1999, nor did it deserve all the hype, awards, and attention that were bestowed upon it.
Its story and themes aren't anything original or shocking, and all the great weight and meaning that it thinks it has are much more hollow and shallow than it wishes to believe. Suburban, white-bread America isn't perfect? You're kidding me! American Beauty is a glossy Hollywood satire that has the usual Hollywood ego of thinking it is an artistic masterpiece. It is well-written - there are some funny and beautiful moments, not badly directed, well photographed and scored, the acting is sincere, I think, and everyone involved seems to have good intentions, but, at the end, it doesn't add up to as much as it aspires. It was better the first time I saw it when it was called The Ice Storm, or the other time when it was called Ordinary People (Best Picture 1980), or the other time when it was called The Graduate, or the other time as Rebel Without a Cause.
Aside from the fact that it is just retreading some of this old material, there were a few other things that bothered me. One of the major drawing points is all the fetishized female teenage sexuality; this and all of the unnecessary nudity bothered me - these are teenage characters, after all - it's uncomfortable the way in which they were sexualized and objectified. Also, aren't we past the point as a society where the psycho ends up being the repressed homosexual? Also, Kevin Spacey's highly acclaimed performance consisted of being sarcastic for 2 hours. He's been much better in other films that required a greater range of his dramatic skill. Finally, what's the point of telling us at the beginning that Lester is going to be killed? Don't tell us, and let the end come as the shock that it could have been.
Whipped (2000)
Juvenile Junk
This film is not funny. It is not entertaining. It does not contain one single second of originality or intelligence, nor does it lead you to take the slightest interest in the characters or situation. Added to that it's about as juvenile a movie as anything in recent memory. It's as if a group of 14 or 15 year old high school kids who had never actually met or had any type of relationship with a real girl had sat down and wrote a movie based on their incorrect fantasies about what being an adult man would be like. This movie is boring, obnoxiously mind-numbing, and at times offensive and disgusting. At most, it contains one or two moments that make you laugh. Also, it seems twice as long as its 85 minute running time.