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Cinemaster & Zombieboy looks at AMERICAN BEAUTY
Hey reader-rinos, Harry here and ya know... I need to see this film... a half dozen or so more times before the statement can be made stronger, but I really feel this is the best film I've seen so far this year. DO NOT LET THIS ONE PASS YOU BY! As for the following review... to some there may very well be a HUGE spoiler below... but since this SPOILER is told to you in the first minute or two of the film... I don't consider it one. Suffice to say, the film drew 'ultra-kudos' from this writer... and personally I wholeheartedly agree.
I work at a movie theater as a projectionist so occasionally a
little plus comes my way. Tonight was one of those pluses, because
tomorrow will be a press screening of American Beauty and part of my
terrible job is to watch it to make sure everything's in order.
My first thought as I came out of that empty auditorium was THANK YOU
THANK YOU, OH MOVIE GODS FOR BRINGING ME THIS. This movie is so THICK.
Thick with character, thick with emotion, thick with Spacey (well just
about everything BUT his thickness).
It pulled me in immediately, we know he's going to die, he fucking tells
us right away. We don't know, however, the way he'll die, who will kill
him or if we should give a shit whether or not he's dead. This was the
scrumptious appetizer.
Then we're introduced to all these characters who are basically everyone
we know, but don't know. Those neighbors who you say hello to coming
home from work then wonder what the hell the do once they go inside.
All very well acted and all very interesting.
This was a fantastically juicy steak.
Finally we're given a cinematic beauty that just makes you smile just to
watch, it fits the screen wonderfully, the colors and framing and...
well it's just pretty!
This was one hell of a dessert.
After this movie I sat down, unbuckled my belt and let my gut flop out
from the richness of this film. This filmmaker gets ultra-kudos from
me.
CINEMASTER
And then... here's ZOMBIEBOY
Had the opprotunity to see "American Beauty" Tonight (friend is a
manager at a theatre who is having a sneek preview tomorrow). It was an
unfinished print (mostly just the credits missing, and some color
issues). Man is this a movie to see. It is easily the best thing I
have seen this year. Really well put together, though in a non
traditional way. The movie starts with a home video clip which doesn't
happen until the middle of the story, and is shortly followed by the
main character (Kevin Spacy) telling the audience that he is going to
die within a year, but he doesn't know it yet.
Basically the movie is about a family who have been living in their fake
lives for too long, and it breaks down. Kevin Spacy shines in this
film, having a "mid-life" crisis played out like a train wreck, kinda
sad but way entertaining to watch. The acting is all supurb, and the
characters are well rounded, and entertwined in such a tight fashion
that you can't help but wonder what will be happening next.
Go see it when you get the chance
Zombie Boy
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But I'll see it anyway. Kevin Spacey is in this month's Playboy pretending to be a robust heterosexual. He's a good actor but not that good. P.S. I'm first. -
I filled out that form that Harry posted a couple of weeks ago, but nothing's shown up in the mail yet...want to see this one, badly. I saw the trailer recently, and I was pretty impressed with what appears to be a complicated, adult film. Chris Mendes is the director, BTW, first-timer who previously had directed plays...
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Well Nordling,hope you get your pass soon. I got mine on Monday but i was pretty pissed to see im suppose to go away on the screening of "American Beauty". Looks like a sure oscar contender.
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Initially thought in films the Usual Suspects and Seven, then confirmed in movies like The Negotiator and Hurlyburly. He's even a joy to watch in not-so-great fair like Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil. He's quite possibly my favorite actor right now. Add to that some other great cast members in what sounds like a very thoughtful film and I'm there first night. http://www.almostcool.org
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You can request AB tickets here:
http://www.americanbeauty-thefilm.com/form.html
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I applied when it was first announced, but haven't received mine yet. I live in Baltimore, so we're down on the schedule, but I hope that they didn't run out of tickets for it. Anyone else get theirs?
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Is the american populace going to be able to handle suburban angst? We can hope. I was a big fan of Sweet Hereafter, which had that tantallizing draw of being a movie about placing a monetary value on your children's lives. I'm hoping that the big Dreamwork's logo on this will fool some people into seeing an introspective, well thought out movie.
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I got mine in today!
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Sep 02, 1999 12:39:49 PM CDT
Harry- stop puting up these great reviews; i want to get seats t
by punky
All this good press isn't helping my cause, Harry...I'm goin to he sneak screening at the Block in Orange on 9/8, and i don't want to have to get their early (have to work and all) and wait in a big-ass line, at least not for this movie. So all you others nearby, STAY AWAY!! Wait unitl it's released and pay your 8 bucks!! You don't want to see this movie for free (jedi mind trick, i'll let you know if it works).
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Hey, I live up in Canada, anyone up in the great north get their tickets yet? I know I haven't.
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Where are the freaking tickets??!! Anyways, is the preview like a couple weeks before it opens or like the day before?
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Hi. Has anyone in the Phoenix area received their AB passes yet? I really want to go and I hope I didn't miss out.
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Any movie that is described as a juicy steak is one that I look foward to.
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I'm in Canada (Toronto) and I got my free tickets just the other day. Really looking forward to this juicy steak dinner.
...thanks for the tip, Harry. -
It is the film to beat. In all categories. Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning don't even need to run ads. They're in. That's it. Everyone else can go home. Screenplay. Yes. There is one, unlike most of the dreck that's been spewing from Hollywood lately. An actual screenplay. Totally original. Real dialog, like real people, and real teenagers, talk. Direction. Remember that? Where the director actually goes over the scene with the actors? Not that they really needed it, because any actor that wouldn't commit murder to get into this film should quit the business. Cinematography? Well, let's just say that it ain't no shaky-cam MTV Blair-Witch-home video crap. A perfect combination of a stage director who knows how to handle actors, and a master of the motion picture camera handling the rest. How this movie made it through the Hollywood system and came out the other end is beyond me. My faith is restored. For a day or two at least. No doubt heads are rolling at Miramax for letting this one slip by. Dreamworks, of all places. Who would have thought? Well no matter. This is it. Run, don't walk. Get free tickets. Bribe someone. Sneak in. Steal a print. Hack through the roof and hide under a seat, but see this movie. Not since I saw The Graduate on Cannery Row in Monterey, in 1968, have I been as moved and surprised by a ground-breaking, genre-bending film as this. I left the theater absolutely amazed, astonished, aghast. This was made in Hollywood? And somehow slipped by Jack Valenti's censors? Score one for the good guys. Get in line now. Take your teenagers. They'll want to see it too, and they need to see it. And the next day you'll be able to tell who saw it and who didn't. Fuck American Pie. Fuck Blair Witch. This is an actual movie. The real deal. Professionals, not amateurs, at work. And now all you cartoon geeks can line up to whine because there's no special effects or cartoon characters to rave about.
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I received tickets in time for the Minneapolis preview screening (along with some lame-ass "American Beauty" tatoo). So my girlfriend and I went last evening and all I can say is... wow. It's a great feeling to go in to a theater not knowing thing-one about what will unspool, and enjoying it immensely. Now I can understand why Harry's pumping this film. Leagues apart from that "Sixth Sense" knock-off, "Stir of Echoes," I saw the night before. "American Beauty" is scary, a bit sad, but above all wickedly funny. Hats off to Kevin Spacey, one of the brightest lights on the American film scene. This is a must-see.
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