A victim of its own success
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evanmang87 — 9 years ago(July 20, 2016 02:20 PM)
I agree and disagree. It's still a great film that resonates but it's definitely a product of the culture of the 1990s. There's no way this film could have or would have been the same if filmed even 5 years later. Video cameras were all the rage and so many 90s films have characters filming and talking to the video camera. The Baby Boomer angst of middle-aged white suburban dads like Lester was also a theme prevalent in many 90s shows and films. And there's definitely some 90s self indulgence with the memorable plastic bag scene which was viewed as a great scene at the time but even a few years later seemed laughable and ostentatiously pretentious.
And whoever said the 90s were a simpler time this film was actually a dark comedy about how the sheen of happiness in the 90s and the American Dream was a disappointing myth even for people who had it very good socio-economically. -
Lester_Burnham_Risen — 9 years ago(July 20, 2016 05:36 PM)
this film was actually a dark comedy about how the sheen of happiness in the 90s and the American Dream was a disappointing myth
Well I am retired so don't "live on the economy" but remember the HUGE changes of 1970 on which this movie is based.
So has anything happened in American Beauty since 1999 - from where I sit, since 9/11 American have obediently settled [cowered?] into Night's Village.
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/ -
Barbed_Wire_Strawberry — 9 years ago(July 20, 2016 08:18 PM)
So gays and women ruined U.S (and further more the world?) more than neo-conservative, war mongering criminal Presidents and Generals? How exactly has feminism contributed the ruining of the economy and society? Do you think Mrs. B's failure with the housing market might have something to do with the fact that it completely collapsed less than ten years later? Was that feminism? Or did the gays do that?
Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride -
Naughty-God — 9 years ago(October 24, 2016 10:49 PM)
Times were not simpler in the 90s, maybe they were to teenagers and children who didn't have to work in the real world but for you to say that things like marijuana and homosexuality were taboo says more about your ignorance of the recent past than about your knowledge about the difference between 1999 and 2016.
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Dreamsville — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 02:13 PM)
I saw this movie when it came out and I thought it was ridiculous
then
, and wildly overrated. IMO it's a bit like Paul Haggis'
Crash
: both films think they're saying something powerful and profound, when they're actually saying nothing at all. -
aidankost — 9 years ago(December 17, 2016 10:52 PM)
I've never understood why universal acclaim makes someone not want to watch a movie. If anything, it should make people want to watch it even more (duh!) just to shut everyone up. For example, Breaking Bad. I was reading a thread the other day and saw that Jo Blo wouldn't watch it bc they were told to watch too often. I mean, it's right in front of you: give it a try!!! It won't hurt you!! This movie is barely outdated (technonlogy, I guess), is still relevant (overall theme and message), and should be enjoyed by all ages for now and years to come. It won five Oscars, as you may know, and some people are turmed off by that. God knows why.
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Naughty-God — 9 years ago(February 01, 2017 08:13 PM)
I've never heard of people being turned off by universal acclaim. People can be annoyed with tacky movie ads that paint the screen with Film Festival Awards and mentions, but I don't think this stops them from watching it for themselves.
Looking back at this movie after seeing again after many years, I can see how people can reflect on how maudlin and melodramatic this movie really was. I was engaged in the movie upon my first viewing, but as life has marched on, many of the issues Lester deals with in this film were similar to my own life experiences, BUT instead of me relating to the character again after another viewing I find Lester to be a simpleton and a bit of a flake. Annette Bening's character is also more of a caricature than I remembered her and his daughter's angst was actually very cliched and predictable, even for 1999's standards.
It's also very telling when the parody producers of Scary Movie fame can inject dozens of references from this movie and have a field day mocking it in "Not Another Teen Movie". Ricky's "The Beautiful Weirdo" took the cake!