MYST # 1: AMerican Beauty

 MYST POST # 1: AMERICAN BEAUTY

A while ago when my friend and I were having a movie night we were deciding on what movie to watch. She told me that she had seen a movie recently that she really enjoyed and thought that I would too. The movie was American Beauty starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari and directed by Sam Mendes. This movie is about Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) a depressed suburban dad, going through his mid-life crisis, who develops a crush on his daughter's friend, Angela Hayes (Mana Suvari).  His wife, Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) is a judgmental and self hated person whom takes it out on her husband, and his daughter Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) a typical teenager who hates her parents falls in love Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) the shy next door neighbor who is also the local drug dealer and loves to film things. Lester's mid-life crisis causes him to change his world around him. He quits his job and starts working at a fast food restaurant, he buys an expensive car, and he starts working out for Angela.
    In American Beauty there is a famous scene that I think is very important. That scene is when Jane is with Ricky and he is showing her footage of the most beautiful thing he has ever filmed. It is a paper bag being carried by the wind, or "dancing' as Ricky called it. Ricky goes on to state, "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." Ricky finds the paper bag beautiful as it floats unaware of the tragedy and problems in the world. The bag gives him a sense of peace. I love this scene and meaning behind it. This scene is important because the movie's tagline is "... look closer" and this scene shows Ricky looking closer at the bag and realizing the beauty of it and what he sees in it. 

   A cinematic element in this movie is the footage of a camcorder. Ricky loved filming and whenever it showed him recording things you got to see it as if you were looking through the camcorder. That is a cool perspective to look through. He looks through his camera a lot and it is as if you're looking at things in his perspective. When you watch videos he has recorded it looks like a footage recorded by a normal camera, and  it also shows good editing when it goes from the camcorder to regular camera work. 
     Overall I really enjoyed this film. I give it a 5/5. There weren't any parts I didn't like. I actually liked the ending because it wasn't a fake cliché hollywood ending. Of course I didn't want him to die, but i knew he was because it said in the beginning. I loved the meaning behind this movie and the acting was great. Kevin Spacey won an Academy Award for his performance in this movie and he deserved it. The film all together won 5 Oscars and Best Picture. I love this movie and highly recommend people to watch it. 

Review of the Reviews

                                         
                                                                       An Education
An Education is a coming-of-age story about Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) a very knowledgable 16 year old london school girl in the 1960swho is determnined to learn English at Oxford until she meets David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), an older playboy.  The positive  review is by Nathan Rabin, from the A.V Club, and it starts off by giving a brief synopsis of An Education and the screenwriter, Nick Hornby. Then Rabin goes on to summarize the plot of the movie. After writing about the story line Rabin analyzes Peter Sarsgaard's role in the film. He then states, " Sarsgaard and Molina exist in a world where lives are circumscribed by money and position." He goes on to reveal a theme Mulligan has learned from that in the film. Mulligan learned that she , "has the vision and self-determination to to conceive of a future for herself and a changing world where young women aren't limited to choosing between teaching and becoming a housewife."Rabin then ends his review by stating that the film captures the "ache of growing up" in a tender and witty way. 

The negative review by Jeremy Hellman gave An Education a 34/100 and immediately starts his review with a negative comment about the movie states that An Education, "attempts to impress audiences with its worldliness, but it comes off instead as an awkward, unformed teen fantasy run amok." Hellman goes on to summarize the plot and speak negatively about Nick Hornby's screenplay by saying here was a lot of deck stacking. He does compliment Mulligan though, but says she is the only things that gave the movie a "saving grace" He believes that everything about this movie is superficial and then ends his review with negative feedback. 

I agree with Rabin when he stated, "It captures with tenderness and wit the exquisite ache of growing up as Mulligan evolves into the architect of her own destiny only after incurring the scars, pain, and brutal disappointment that separate the genuinely wise from the merely precocious." I agree with this because i believe that the film does capture the ache of growing up through it. Mulligan learns throughout the whole movie about growing up with wit and tenderness, but it isn't until the end that she learns the ache of it when she learns the truth about Sarsgaard's character. In Hellman's review I only agree with him complimenting Carey Mulligan's acting, but not the part where he states that is was the "saving grace" because i really enjoyed this movie and did not really find anything  negative about it. 

If i have never seen this film i would think that Rabin's review is more convincing because he said very good things about the film and stated a theme from the movie. He also gave a good summary that made me fully understand the movie, and then he went on to give a theme he learned from the movie. I think it is good for reviewers to state the theme because it is what you will learn if you watch the movie. 

If i were to write a one page film review i would be sure to give a summary of the plot and the acting of the movie. I would also give a theme that i had learned from watching the film. I would be sure to say whether or not i liked the film. Then i would give reasoning on why i thought it was a good or bad movie.