LSC Event Descriptions

August 5 & 6, 2005

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Rated R
122 minutes

American Beauty (1999)
August 5, 2005 at 8:00pm in 26-100 and
August 6, 2005 at 8:00pm in 26-100.

From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, American Beauty moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism -- like Sunset Boulevard's Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave.

It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence. [amazon.com]

"American Beauty is a comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems. And a tragedy because we can identify with his failure."
      -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times. Read this review.

All summer films have FREE admission, funded by the UA FinBoard.

August 5 & 6, 2005 <-- Previous | Summer 2005 schedule | Next -->