American Beauty: Evaluation

Extract

[...] The way Alan Ball wrote American Beauty, and the manner in which Sam Mendes directs it, allows the audience to subtlety change themselves, too. A great movie has to have the ability to shake me up a little in order for me to give it respect, and American Beauty has definitely rocked my world. It reeled me in with an entertaining beginning, kept me fascinated by effective scenes, which aroused my emotions and left me feeling different after I left the theater. [...]

[...] American Beauty: Evaluation If you're like me, you really enjoy a good movie. A good movie captivates us, makes us hold our breath and helps us forget the world around us. A bad movie has the audience itching for it to end, or to somehow improve. At the very worst, a bad movie will make us angry that we spent money on being tortured with an inane plot and poor character development. A good movie is one that sparks the imagination, captures the heart, engages the mind and leads us to question the meaning of our lives in a new light. [...]

[...] A poignant film like American Beauty that can psychologically stimulate me deserves all the awards it can get. While I am a fan of a good action movie, like Bruce Willis films, I have much more respect for a movie that can evoke sincere emotions by its portrayal of reality as the director sees it. The plot of American Beauty is one of self-discovery and emancipation from the constricting conformity of accepting everything at face value. The way Alan Ball wrote the film, teases our emotions to the surface, however carefully hidden they might be. [...]