American Beauty

In 1999, prior to creating his hit HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball wrote American Beauty, a movie that saw the directorial debut of Sam Mendes. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester, a 40-year-old man who has lost all touch with his family and his life. His wife Carolyn, played by Annette Bening, is a semi-successful real estate agent and the main breadwinner of the family and now clearly wears the pants in the family. Their daughter Janie (Thora Birch) is an insecure teenager who juggles her relationship with her friend Angela, who wants to be anything but normal, and her new neighbour Ricky, who can’t handle all the beauty in the world.  Ricky’s dad Frank is a former army colonel and repressed homosexual man who is prone to fits of rage.  What do you get when you put all these characters together? Teen romance, murder, attempted sex with a minor, drugs, abuse, suspense, adultery and blackmail. Made for $15M, American Beauty went on to make $356M and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay, and Cinematography.  But does it hold up? Listen as Jon, Colin and Brent move into this friendly neighbourhood and see if they rediscover life, love, and all of the beautiful things in this movie, or if they clumsily stumble around and overpay for weed, have awkward same-sex kisses, and ultimately repress their emotions enough to shoot this flick in the back of the head.