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American Beauty - I'm a fucking dumbass

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Happiness is bollox, BUT 'Storytelling' DOES contain an amusing AB piss-take.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought it was more of an american movie piss-take.

the neighbor from american movie is IN storytelling and the name of his movie is AMERICAN SCOOBY.

i think you are wrong, sir.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay -- but it DOES have the bit about the plastic bag yes, which would refer to AB?

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, FINE.

but the whole idea of making a "serious" documentary about a subject to later turn it into an exercise of ridicule and laughter is the essence of the american movie/american scooby parallel.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Every time I hear about that "plastic in the wind" thing it reminds me of how much that character was just some bullshitting corny indie fucker trying to get laid with some false sincerity and DV cam shots of a Rite Aid bag.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

so much beauty....*sniff*....sex me up plz
http://www.exuberance.com/photo/2002-05-beach-litter/img/17.jpg

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

should have been an other music bag.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Whoa, Brown Bunny looks like it could be amazing or complete crap, no room in between.

Every time I hear about that "plastic in the wind" thing it reminds me of how much that character was just some bullshitting corny indie fucker trying to get laid with some false sincerity and DV cam shots of a Rite Aid bag.
Which is quite the metaphor for the movie itself. (And it worked, Sam Mendes is married to Kate Winslet)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Going WAY back to the original thread question, wouldn't the fact that the wife is still walking up to the house when the gunshot goes off a clue as to who killed Kevin Spacey (let alone the aforementioned scene with the neighbor frantically scrubbing blood off of himself ect ect)?

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

His neighbor. Idiot.
-- Allyzay (whydoyouthin...), June 9th, 2004. (later)

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

eek. ALlyzay's email address got cut off:

[email protected]

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

let alone the aforementioned scene with the neighbor frantically scrubbing blood off of himself

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

DON'T RAIN ON MY DOGPILE

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

no no you're all wrong, the wife did it, the neighbor just happened to bump into a freshly painted barn on the way back home

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

ect ect? bad dan!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

(aka "Things what I haff stolen off thee infinite STARRY SARAH")

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

i should have known.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

there was some janet maslin article once upon a time that ended a review with a comment like "has even more alienation than [x, some film that had opened recently]!" like it was some kind of sweepstakes.

"yi yi" is utterly remarkable, though.

i don't think "american beauty" is terribly made at all. it's not terribly imaginative, but much more than competent. but i found the compacency and confusion of the screenplay very hard to take, and i uterrly loathe kevin spacey's acting.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"acting"

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

no, it's acting. and i suppose given a certain kind of role, one that dovetails with his tendency for telegraphing his own phoniness, he could shine. but i've yet to see him in such a role.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I know it's a Film Studies 101er but 'Usual Suspects' calls on that, as does 'LA Confidential'.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Enrique OTM.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

& Glengarry Glen Ross (where he is slightly more understated than usual).

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

oh yeah, i forgot about those movies. although "usual suspects" was naff, the other two were good and made much better use of spacey than "american beauty," where his phony routine seemed really misplaced.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I need to see Glengarry Glenn Ross again.

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

A-Always
B-Be
C-Closing

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

He's fine in those three films and in The Ref but his acting is really one-note. I saying "acting" because I still can't believe how people debate on him being possibly the best around today while rarely (relatively speaking) mentioning the likes of Nick Nolte.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

he was horrible in the shipping news, did anybody see KPAX?

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

If he didn't have so much cred I think people would notice he makes the worst career choices this side of Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

KEVIN SPACEY IS THE FINEST ACTOR NEXT TO ME

― SEAN PENN (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think he's had much love since 'AB'. After 'Pay it Forward' it all went to shit.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

although "usual suspects" was naff

it's much worse than that!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone must be fucking with me because just now a Rite Aid bag appeared in the courtyard outside of my office window and is now swirling around in a vaguely pensive fashion.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The House of Sand and Fog is better because it has Jennifer Connelly maintaining some normal sized eyebrows.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Has Kev explained what he was doing in the park with a hobo in London a few months back?

― Knife Magnet (Barima), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

hey there's this new band called "Surreptious Hobo Blowjob" I really like, oops wrong thread

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

haha!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a song on Skeleton Key's first EP called "Hoboerotica." Perhaps the term has finally been defined.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Arthur's KS story to thread IMMEDIATELY!

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Why hate him? His performance of "Mind Games" on some 9/11 telethon/John Lennon tribute. Also, the closeted thing. What's the big deal? It's not like he plays superhot macho straight guy romantic leads.
A friend of mine went to see Fleetwood Mac at the Hollywood Bowl with Edward Norton and Kevin Spacey. Just the three of them. He said that Spacey a) was rude and totally ignored him, b) was really disappointed that Courtney was out of town and kept bringing it up, c) changed into his "rock concert clothes" [a satin jacket and a beanie] in the limo and d) kept shifting around uncomfortably in his seat and pulling down the beanie when he thought he was being recognized even though he was in the VIP section and surrounded by other celebrities.
He sounds like such an ass.

-- Arthur

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate Kevin Spacey

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Kevin Spacey's brother needs a hug

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 22:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"Spacey's Rock Concert Clothes" is the name of my new band.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 10 June 2004 07:38 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

So did you name your band that or not, latebloomer?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 October 2005 02:50 (twenty years ago)

nope. i think i found a better name: Solid Black Shit

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

>The worst thing about American Beauty is how it needed point out and underline everything it had to say.<

Alan Ball = Golden Girls writer (really, he was)

"The image of the floating plastic bag was taken from the avant-garde filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky's silent work Variations. Dorsky has been remarkably gracious about this, but the fact remains that American Beauty's most original moment was stolen, which goes some way towards explaining why this lyrical paean to the world's beauty seems so strangely disconnected from the conventional satire of middle-class life which comprises the majority of the film."

http://www.nd.edu/~pwicks/journalism/americanbeauty.html

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

Remember the hat floating through the woods in Miller's Crossing?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 27 October 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

or the feather in FORREST GUMP

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

or the space ship in EXPLORERS

― sub-dwayne nelson (dr g), Thursday, 27 October 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

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