Subject: [MV] MovieJuice! - AMERICAN BEAUTY - Petal to the Mettle
AMERICAN BEAUTY û Petal to the Mettle
by Mark Ramsey
<a href="http://www.moviejuice.com/1999/americanbeauty.htm">Click here for the full review!</a>
http://www.moviejuice.com/1999/americanbeauty.htm
October 3, 1999
A very reliable source told me a Buffy story this week. Hush, hush, secret stuff, he told me. Okay, I'm all ears. What's the secret?
It seems one of Buffy's real-life ex-flames divulged to him that she's "very vocal" during sex, and she likes to "give as well as receive." Oh my God, no! Can you imagine?!
Dude, this describes half the women in LA and all the ones in the acting profession. Vocalizing during sex is as much a part of the actor's resume as flair with a serving tray and a gig with Roger Corman. At least tell me something I can get sued for!
From one American Beauty to another....
You know you're in the presence of something special when a simple, character-driven movie sticks in your craw and won't let go. American Beauty is one of those movies that the average Joe will leave saying "that was pretty good I guess," and will wake up the next day saying "why can't I forget about that damn movie?" Sometimes, thanks to my severely limited intellectual abilities, I know something's good even if I don't know why. This is the whole theory behind PBS, for example.
Kevin Spacey's hair has finally declared a cease-fire with his scalp resulting in an easing of tensions between his comb and brush. The ever-exceptional Kevin is first seen jerking off in the shower in what I must imagine was a particularly satisfying yet exhausting day on set. Kevin's enslaved in a stifled mid-life in pursuit of an American dream that's universally defeating. He's in "The Matrix" big-time.
Annette Bening is Kevin's wife. Last seen as Zazu the Occultist in the summer sleeper hit Minnie Driver is an Alien, Annette is a go-getting real estate agent, the virtual viral spawn of Tony Robbins and Mary Kay. "In order to be successful one must project an image of success at all times," she mantras. And in order to date Buffy one must get busy in a soundproof room at all times, it would seem.
Theirs is a typically and deeply tweaked American family, living quietly on Robin Hood trail in the house with the red door.
I'll tell you this, Marines don't come off looking too good in this flick. Are we looking for a few good men or a few good gay-bashing, Napoleonic, testosterone-addled, misogynistic, discipline-mongering, family-drug-testing, spirit-crushing tyrants? American Beauty supplies one answer, anyway. Kevin and Annette's Marine family next door is "American Gothic," add a bayonet, subtract a pitchfork.
And then there's eyebrow aficionado Peter Gallagher. Does he shake the dust off that brow or just replace the bag when it's full? I wonder, does he close those eyes or hibernate them for the season?
I'll never forget Peter in Summer Lovers, one of the greatest bad movies of all time, where the high concept of "two hot chicks and a guy get naked in Greece and go swimming" has yet to be equaled for mind-numbing simplicity and hormonal nuclear fission. Forget points on the gross, I'll settle for multiple takes! You go, boy!
It doesn't take long for 42-year-old Kevin to enter his dirty-old-man phase. One look at sprightly, high-kicking cheerleader Mena Suvari and the fantasy sequences begin - sequences which I found hilarious, even if nobody else in the theater did. My favorite occurs when Mena opens her blouse and rose petals burst out in a fragrant swarm, bringing new meaning to the term "flower show." She's a flower-power fem-bot, baby!
As Mena correctly intuits, "If people I don't even know look at me and want to fuck me, then I really have a shot at being a model." That's true for everyone but Peter, who needs a buzzsaw trim to see anything through that thick underbrush of brow. The last time that brush was thinned, America's Most Wanted nabbed three felons.
It was about three-quarters of the way through this flick when the oldest couple in the theater could evidently take no more, and out they went. Pining away, they were, for the good old days of Hollywood, when nobody cussed, nobody was gay, nobody molested their kid with wire hangers, and Mildred Pierce was all the rage. Where's a depression and a World War when you need them?
In one poignant moment, Kevin hears his daughter is in love. "Good for her," he says smiling, and that single gentle expression speaks emotional volumes that could alone earn this guy an Oscar.
In this not so delicate tale of life, things are not what they seem, not what they're "supposed" to be. But the beauty is there, gurgling beneath the surface, a wellspring of peaceful, blossoming ordinariness. Hidden in strange, lonely glances and drafty places where you least expect it.
American Beauty is one such sacred place.
Copyright 1999 Mark Ramsey. All rights reserved. NO PORTION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
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Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 09:00:02 +0100
From: "Gerald Taylor" <geeg23@lineone.net>
Subject: [MV] What film ?
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Can anyone help me find out the the title of a silent film? On Thursday =
night when walking past a new bar in Tottenham court road (London) I =
stopped to look at a video screen in the window of said pub that was =
showing an old silent film. The scene I saw looked fascinating. In it =
a man was looking at (hallucinating?) stone statues on the side of a =
church that suddenly came to life. All were skeletons......one playing =
the flute and the central one swinging a scythe. Does anyone know?
cheers
Gerry T.
When an expression of art collides with the brain of a layman-
And produces an empty sound--
It is yet a question as to which of the two are at fault.
Jean =
Cocteau
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