If the Academy of Motion Picture had to do it over again

[Jeff Lebowski]

But back on Kevin Spacey, do people feel like American Beauty and his performance have held up over the last ten years? To me that is a very forgettable movie and had some novelty at the time that has now worn off.

Holds up fine for me.

[Jeff Lebowski]

1976- Network instead of Rocky

1990- Goodfellas instead of Dances With Wolves

1995- Heat instead of Braveheart

1997- Boogie Nights (or at least LA Confidential) instead of Titanic

1998- Saving Private Ryan instead of Shakespeare in Love

I saw Ordinary People for the first time and I was actually very impressed with the film. 1980 was a very good year with Raging Bull and The Elephant Man also in the mix, but I do think Ordinary People was deserving.

Hell yes on Goodfellas over that Kevin Costner flick.

Yes on SPR over SIL, but I must admit that I enjoyed SIL quite a bit.

No on the other suggestions.

[jay santos]

Alright, dammit. I'm only gonna say this once, because I defended this film on this site in late '09.

"Look at me, I'm masturbating in the shower, and the sad thing is, that's going to be the highlight of my day."

That's not a caricature......that's real suffering, real existential angst.

When Peter Gallagher tries to convince Annette Benning to run away with him and leave her husband, and she tells him no, he calls her "ordinary" and the look of hurt in her eyes, the quality of that moment in the script, for me, puts to rest any notion of ordinary. A stereotypical ham-fisted movie would've had Kevin Spacey do that Suvari girl and THEN find out she was a virgin up until that moment.

The dad wasn't closet gay. He had no relationship with his son, and he tried to experience that connection that he thought Kevin Spacey had shared with his son. There wasn't any repressed sexuality or over-compensation going on. When he gets rebuffed and realizes that his son is dealing drugs to this guy, then he gets homicidal because of some sense of righteous indignation that his orders were not followed; that this neighbor (Spacey) is the only thing preventing him from maintaining order and discipline. Not because he was a spurned lover, but because he's a trained killer inhabiting a system that he wasn't trained to handle, so he responds with the violence, ambush violence, that he has been trained to use to resolve conflict.

American Beauty is a farking masterpiece.




CMBF, you ignorant slut. Re-read what I said. Even with your do-over, my comments carry the same relevance, the same import, and have the same power over your what-if.

Agree American Beauty is a masterpiece. I thought the guy did have some repressed homosexual tendencies which were the root of his suspicion and rage towards his son.

[marsupial]

Chick Flick.

And Private Ryan is a Bro Show. So what?