Pauline Kael

It seemed more like "pro-every scene ending with a laugh line," to me.

It also sees career women as disgusting, gays as repressed murderous psychos, and littering as the cornerstone to seeing "so much beauty in the world."

Don't forget pro-Guess Who, and pro-1970 Firebirds.

What pisses me off the most about the film, though: Spacey is amazing in it.

repressed gays in the military as repressed murderous psychos

fixed

Yeah, it's a showbiz, vote-Democrat-til-you-die gay liberal perspective.

You still don't address its total misogyny. Oh right, gays.

Hated Spacey in this too, ftr.

Caveat: I haven't actually watched this dumb movie since 1999. So I could be wrong.

me neither, and no plans to ever again

Bening just seemed to be stuck in an off-week Carol Burnett Show sketch

guys did you notice their house was RED WHITE AND BLUE

omg

and being quite good at it; she gives the only watchable performance

xpost

Watched it again a few years back to re-test my opinion on it (then coloured by the fact of Todd Solondz' Happiness, from a year previous) and found that Spacey was actually good enough to keep me involved even through all of the piss poor writing, strident characterizations and sledgehammer symbolism.

and being quite good at it; she gives the only watchable performance

this

Bening's the only one who treats the material like Carol Burnett material.

this is all kind of an insult to the carol burnett show

Oh man, I just remembered how ham-fisted the portrayal of Allison Janney's character was.

peter gallagher's eyebrows are the real star

I did have lots of fun at the time pissing off the film's fans by claiming The Ref as the better Kevin Spacey suburban malaise comedy.

peter gallagher's eyebrows are the real star

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Monday, November 12, 2012

but of what gallagher vehicle can this not be said

I. WILL. CLOSE.

i'm pretty sure i've never actually seen this p.o.s. in full

i don't remember Janney OR Gallagher in this film, alas I do Spacey

so glad I linked the E Stein remembrance

scottie baks was nice in basically a walk-on role

When Lester is caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry retort about their lack of intimacy is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her.[15] By confronting the issue and Carolyn's "superficial investments in others", Lester is trying to "regain a voice in a home that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter".[14] His final turning point comes when he and Angela almost have sex;[16] after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but as a daughter.[17] He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". With these final scenes, Mendes intended to show Lester at the conclusion of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the refrigerator, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which he walks "to meet his fate".[16][18] Having begun to act his age again, Lester achieves closure.[17] As he smiles at a family photo, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; the slow pan reflects the peace of Lester's death.[19] His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.[20]

Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the film's thematic center is its direction to the audience to "look closer"

GOD I hate Film Studies departments

nev mind, that was the other thread

xxp

by the time this came out the drudge sirens were going off whenever my film school cronies were breathlessly recommending the latest life-changing entry in the american film renaissance of the late 90s

i always thought that shot of ricky looking at dead lester was basically a patient zero moment for his future as a serial killer

I don't remember Janney in this either, actually, but surely she can't be worse here than when she's telling off the nurse in Juno, most assuredly the worst scene she (or anyone else on screen at the time) has ever acted in.

Gallagher I only remember here because of the "Bus-ted!" scene.

the PK quote

"I didn't dislike American Beauty -- I hated it. It's not that it's badly made -- it isn't. It has snappy rhythms and Kevin Spacey's line readings are very smart, and Annette Bening is skillful in the scene where she beats up on herself. But the picture is a con. It buries us under the same load of attitudes that were tried out in Carnal Knowledge and The Ice Storm, with the nice trustworthy young dope-dealers of Easy Rider. Maybe audiences are so familiar with this set of anti-suburbia attitudes that it's developed into its own movie genre."

Bening throwing herself on her closetful of clothes in a paroxysm of grief is the most embarrassing scene she's ever played

Carnal Knowledge >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> American Beauty

One of only two movies I saw twice in a 12-hour period. I hated it when I watched it in the morning, then my best friend and his girlfriend "conned" me into a second viewing.

AB, or CK?

i hated american beauty as well. cable dramas kinda took the pandering liberal fantasy world thing to new levels though. weeds, mad men, breaking bad, etc. even though i like those shows. liberals need violent wish-fulfillment too.

hence, V For Vendetta

by the time this came out the drudge sirens were going off whenever my film school cronies were breathlessly recommending the latest life-changing entry in the american film renaissance of the late 90s

That whole thing was really just Oscar season '99, right?

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/165416-the-critic-as-artful-gadfly-pauline-kael/

another myth semi-punctured

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/actually-pauline-kael-did-sometimes-watch-movies-more-than-once

Yeah, I was pretty sure that one was BS from the get-go.

She said repeatedly in her reviews that such-and-such movie from the thirties played much better when she "last" saw it on TV.

Actually don't remember that--can you think off an example offhand?

I can't take all this myth dismantling. Secret Last Year at Marienbad lover, lifelong obsession with split infinitives, Hampton vacations with Andy and Molly, who knows what awaits.

The Hect-MacCarthur comedies, All About Eve, and other films whose worth is mostly literary.

*Hecht

A clueless reviewer quoted Kael's annoyance at the repetition in Hiroshima Mon Amour ("we get it already") to mirror his feeling at the apparent repetitions (not textual so much as visual) found in Haneke's Amour.

Got to read this woman..

I mean it must be laugh a page. I think I'm ready.

Hitchcock fans will fondly recall Kael’s dismissal of the Master’s 1958 thriller Vertigo, now widely considered the crowning achievement of his illustrious career and, oh yeah, the Greatest Film Ever Made, according to the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. She deemed the movie “stupid,” though she did love Kim Novak, who was “touching in the dreamy-floozy Marilyn Monroe-like role.”

i have never read this before! honestly kind of surprising to me.

not me

Nor I

Also: PK in Furtive Fassbinder Fanatic Shocka!