The suburbs are a gateway to hell

The Movie: American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes
Recommendation: Von Gauzen
Reason: "It was a good movie, it was just really weird." I forgive you for the Ewoks movies. :D

Suburban America is ripe fodder for film, it seems. Desperate Housewives, Close to Home and Weeds rack up TV ratings focusing on the seedy underbelly of the upper-middle class, and there are stacks and stacks of movies that deal with that same sordid material. American Beauty is head and shoulders above the genre for its artful portrayal of a few attempts to break away from that materialistic life.

I suppose this is where I'd normally blather about acting and such, but I was most struck by the use of color, light and music in this film. Sure, Spacey was great, Benning was great, Mena Suvari and Thora Birch, also great (but outdone by the leads by a mile). But the cinematography was superb. I'm a big fan of wacky technical hijinks and long tracking shots (see: Serenity's opening, multiple moments in Children of Men), but the touches that Conrad L. Hall was able to put on this film were spectacular without being exceptionally technically difficult (he wasn't riding around in a car with the top cut off, in other words). The framing of the film was as critical as the lighting was to the story, with light often serving as judge and the framing of certain shots as jury. Such shots as Annette Benning's breakdown in the house she's trying to sell, Spacey's workout sequences, the (fairly infamous) rose petal scenes and the dinner scenes were told at least half through the camerawork.

Okay, I lied. Gonna have to talk about the acting. Silly me, I know. What is there that hasn't already been said? Spacey got an award for his performance. The film won best picture. Benning was nominated. And you're probably thinking "But Gwen, didn't you rather vehemently mention how much you hate the Oscars? Why do you keep bringing them up?" Well yeah, I did, and yeah, I do, because other people do seem to agree with their choices. I can complain all I like, but sometimes I have to admit they get something right. Spacey deserved the award he won for this film. Benning did some great work, but she definitely didn't blow it out of the park like Hilary Swank did. So...just this once? Good job, Academy.

-34/365 down, 331/365 to go