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American Beauty (Patreon)

Published:
2025-04-19 12:00:19
Edited:
2025-10-01 01:56:59
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Go to this site: Cinebingers.ca for the unedited versions of all our content.

👉 https://cinebingers.ca/bDZDmNH585 👈 for the full reaction where you do not need your own copy.

👉 https://cinebingers.ca/GeJ46kS939 👈for the full reaction where you need your own copy.

If you are on a phone/tablet, hold down the link above and press "open in browser", or go straight to Cinebingers.ca on your browser app.

movie runtime: 02:01:40

Files

American Beauty | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

Full length/Unedited: https://www.patreon.com/Cinebinge https://www.instagram.com/cinebingechannel/ Merch: https://www.cinebinge.ca BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cinebinge.bsky.social Simone & George are reacting to American Beauty for the first time! Canadians React! Subscribe | Like | Share | Comment Early Access & Full Reaction available on Patreon! #moviereaction #moviereview #americanbeauty Instagram: @cinebingechannel Instagram: @simone.swan Movie Reactions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1ts9cZbHakYDfILlxWOp8Rwm60i6s31 The Witcher Reactions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1ts9cZbHakPpBOOSyThaEu9GBs7h5af Squid Games Reaction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1ts9cZbHakSIA0kJIJkUmcxmms0m_Q0 Band of Brothers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1ts9cZbHanBD7cksu-blgCyxZOJrgT0 Blind Playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1ts9cZbHan3qPNF7wNbOvo653VjhxOR

Comments

jmundt33a

Kirsten Dunst was offered the Suvari role but was intensely uncomfortable with it.

Cody Cameron

Simone and Geroge to the questiion poised before the movie: People have different belly buttons because the way the umbilical cord heals after it's cut and the stump falls off varies. This healing process determines whether a belly button is an "innie" (a dent) or an "outie" (a bulge). Other factors like medical conditions, pregnancy, and weight changes can also influence the appearance of a belly button

Mike FromOz

"Hey everyone and welcome to 'I named my cactus after you'". You called your cactus 'chunky prick'? That's hurtful 😔

JBK405

This is one of the movies where I'd learned almost everything about it through memes and jokes and references before I ever saw the movie itself. So when I actually watched it for the first time it had much less IMPACT on me since it felt like I was half-remembering it anyway. I can still appreciate the skill involved, even if it didn't hit me as hard as other people. There's a deleted subplot where the recording of the two kids discussing killing Lester is discovered, and they're put on trial for his murder. It was removed for not fitting the "tone" of the film. I'm conflicted on whether I agree with that or not. Showing the fallout might have worked, or it may have just dragged on too long.

Kenneth thomas

FYI the original script started with Ricky in a jail cell, and that video was indeed evidence that pinned the murder on him. But they got rid of all of that. Probably for the better really, it's a nearly perfect movie imo

Bob Steger

One of my favorite movies. Great reaction. In addition to Family Guy, parts of this movie are satirized in Not Another Teen Movie.

Kevin Ehle

For an Oscar Winning movie, this is highly underrated. One of my favorites.

Jeff K.

With Chris Cooper being in this, here's my obligatory "You should watch October Sky and Seabiscuit now" (I know he's great in so many other things, and others might suggest Adaptation, but I personally find October Sky and Seabiscuit far more rewatchable).

ShōNuff3K

I think we all know who Canadian Beauty is...................................Sim....oops.......Shay Mitchell. 😉

JBK405

I'll second "October Sky". I actually just rewatched it a few weeks ago.

Galactic Cannibl

Who's got the better eyebrows? Peter Gallagher or Will Poulter from We Are the Millers?

Actuarial Lurker

Great Cinematography- was touted heavily when it came out- my wife and i saw it first run. It doesn't age well for what Spacey. is thinking. A good summary if Clinton Era yuppies

Actuarial Lurker

The weird son with the camera was in Hunger Games and Interstellar but had a bout with drug addiction after becoming famous at age 21 with this film

Actuarial Lurker

George is correct- the military father is Chris Cooper who ran the operation in the first Jason Bourne film and starred in Breach about a REAL life US double agent working with the Soviets

Actuarial Lurker

They never realize this is a Knives Out situation- "Who Killed Lester Burnham?" should be the title

Dwight Scarn

Omg plastic bags are so beautiful

jmundt33a

And played Deputy Loomis in A Time to Kill.

SnabbKassa

It's been so long since I saw this I was confused about the plate looking almost blank because you had to blur the hooked cross. For more Allison Janney, you should put "I Tonya" in a poll.

Mastervodo

Thanks to movies I know 2 breeds of roses. American Beauties and Scarlet Carsons. As far as we know from the movie, the only happy couple is the Jims.

CD

And I’LL suggest Adaptation!

Anamondaris

I forgot what a great movie this is.

maikeru

Understandable. The Suvari role is way more sexualized than Dunst‘s role in An Interview with a Vampire, as far as I can remember. Even though Dunst was young, there were no whole scenes where she‘s someone‘s day dream.

Eversharpe

I remember seeing this is a theatre and thinking "Interesting, makes you think." but then it won an oscar and I rewatched it at home and all I could think of was "Just have a fucking conversation" A much better film IMO that is a lot more thought provoking and interesting with Kevin Spacey is "The Life of David Gale"

Jack Urmson

There are a lot of comedic moments in this movie, but the drama hits hard too. A few other Oscar winners in the comedic side are Shakespeare in Love and Annie Hall. On the dramatic side, Ordinary People (which no one in the “ReactorVerse” has done) and Terms of Endearment are fantastic. The latter, Terms, has equal parts comedy/drama, but the drama HITS hard.

prunyan prunyan

There are few movies that have a finale that spins the entire story into a place that it true, beautiful, amazing and inspiring all at once. American Beauty highlights the petty in us, the banal, the courageous, the gentle, the cowardly, the exceptional...and demonstrates the capacity for all of us to live as our lowest and highest selves, from one moment to the next. We are indeed amazing creatures, containing all of that range of existence and possibility. Which attribute will prevail? This is, without doubt, one of my top 5 films of all time.

Kron0n

It's funny how much everyone misunderstands all the characters in this movie until you see their true colours. Everyone is just stuck in their own world with their own problems and it looks weird from the outside but on the inside they're just trapped.

Actuarial Lurker

YES- they are all trapped- BUT Kevin Spacey comes to the Existentialist realization that even in bondage we have free will by choosing HOW to react to our circumstances.

Actuarial Lurker

It's far from nihilistic. It affirms that even if you feel trapped you always have the choice of HOW to react

Jamie Young

I remember the basic concepts of this when I was a teen and it came out, but WOW does this movie hit harder watching it at 41

jmundt33a

I’ve always felt the Family Guy reaction to that monologue was justified.

Tyler Foster

Even setting aside the real-life behavior of the movie's lead, this is one of those popular movies that I just can't get behind. It's not exactly a revelation that it sucks to have an office job, that material possessions aren't what makes life worth living, and that it's more fun to fuck around all day with no responsibilities. In the world of American Beauty, it's supposed to be a sign of Lester's goodness that he doesn't fuck his daughter's high school bestie after fantasizing about her for the whole movie! Lester's behavior is also annoying because Carolyn is also having a mid-life crisis, but for some reason hers can't be fun like his is -- the movie is determined to make her the butt of the joke or the helpless wreck and him the smug enlightened one at pretty much every opportunity, right up until the end, and it feels completely unbalanced for no reason at all...except maybe old-fashioned gender roles like "the nagging wife." The POV of American Beauty is that of the filmmakers, and the conflict is whether or not the characters will overcome their inability to see the truths the filmmakers are enlightened enough to see. I would point to the character dynamics and stories going on in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm as being very similar to American Beauty, and much richer and more interesting pretty much across the board.

James Falato

To Me, this Film took Suburban Emotional/Sexual Sterotypes to the Extreme... For Me, this direction made Me not care about any character and so made the Film Trite...

Mitch M

I don't think it's supposed to be a sign of Lester's goodness that he doesn't sleep with a teenage girl. It's proof that he's been shocked out of fantasy and back into reality. His vacation from consequences into fantasy hasn't provided him with the meaning he's searching for--it's his real relationships with his wife and daughter that are meant to do that, and he's wasted the opportunities he's had. I'd argue that the POV of the film is Lester's, and he's on a journey of trying to find meaning--and failing, over and over, because he keeps getting sidetracked by fantasy versions of his life and himself. That's why Carolyn's midlife crisis is treated with disdain--it's because Lester doesn't respect her. I think the main theme is that the American Dream of suburban white upper middle class happiness is a fantasy, just like Lester's fantasies, and both are an empty facade that won't provide us with meaning or growth. It's only connection with others that can do that, but that connection has to be honest and open to work. It's why every character in the film is trying so hard to reach out to another character to get their needs met, and almost all of them fail because they're not being honest--it's all about fantasy failing us.

Tyler Foster

What you say does creep in a little to the very ending narration, after Lester is gone, but for me that's a little too little too late. As for the first point, I would argue that while people can interpret why it's good in many ways, broadly, Lester being recognized as good for not sleeping with the friend is just literally true; it's the corner the movie writes itself into with that thread. To me it feels like a situation where the optics of what's happening in the film weren't considered beyond where the story was going -- the issue I have with it is more or less that Lester is attracted to her in the first place, which is already saying something about the character. Even if the filmmakers were going to build to a conclusion where he doesn't sleep with the girl, the fucked up part already happened!

zona999

It's so gross they mad a pedo the protagonist.

Jay Johnson

re: the pre-movie banter on the cinebingers site I have a bit of a fascination with bellybuttons. so I got a kick out of Simone and George talking about them for a bit. And I'm sure they both have lovely navels (but of course that is none of my biz)

Jay Johnson

the ending made me think of how much of a nightmare it must have been for my childhood's best friend's wife to go through cleaning up all the blood and gore after he blew his brains out in their kitchen.

Angela D. Mitchell

What's most interesting about this movie is how it was much different as a script -- and how it didn't really come together for Sam Mendes until the editing room, when he and editor Tariq Anwar seriously overhauled the entire thing and reshuffled the movie into what you see now. 27+ pages were cut from the final film. This is why I'm kind of cranky about the script by Alan Ball winning best Screenplay, because what we see here isn't the actual script. Originally it was more of a mystery and much darker -- there were trial scenes, a prologue and epilogue, and more focus on the crime scene. The original bookend was that Jane and Ricky were accused of killing Lester. Meanwhile, I think this remains a good movie, but it doesn't age terrifically for me, especially the Lester/Angela stuff, which was originally hailed as "just being honest about how men really are" -- as Roger Ebert basically said in his review, one of the rare times I disagreed with him because he just says Lester sees Angela and wants to do with her what men want to do with women, and I'm over here going, "But she's a child." Arrgh. A lot of people seemed to miss that when the movie came out. (Speaking of which, I dislike that we actually see Thora Birch naked -- she's 17 years old here and that bothered me then and now.) I do think Lester's decisions in the end with Angela are such a relief, and are really delicately played by Kevin Spacey and Mena Suvari. I love the way Lester suddenly shifts into "Dad mode" -- covering her up, putting the sweater protectively around her, then making her a sandwich in the kitchen, etc. Everything is back the way it should be. (Again, it's interesting because in the original script, Lester DOES sleep with Angela -- ugh -- but Mendes wouldn't back down that it needed to change, and thankfully got his way.) I remember when I first saw it how blown away I was. Now several scenes just bother me because they feel overdone -- like a lot of Ricky's moments. I get that he's an abused and artsy kid, but his monologues about how "beautiful" death is had me rolling my eyes. And the moment at the end where he sort of tilts his head and smiles at Lester's dead body? Please. This is now how people react to death. That whole scene was so off to me -- Jane barely reacts or makes a sound, Ricky's over there gazing beatifically into Lester's dead face, nobody shows any signs of fear at this guy JUST BEING MURDERED (and where is the murderer?) etc. It's just ridiculous. Would not happen. If anything, I would have loved for Ricky to be horrified at Lester's death and NOT see anything beautiful in it. But maybe that's just me. I do feel like Annette Bening has a thankless role in this, because oh my God, the way that woman would switch into shrieking about what a victim she was at people at faster and faster speeds -- for me she's easily the most insufferable character. But beautifully played, and she was incredibly funny at times. I did think Chris Cooper and Allison Janney were terrific, and I loved Ricky's relationship with his father -- how he saw his father so clearly that he wasn't even mad at being abused, and you can even see the scene in which his father is beating him up, that Ricky hates what it is doing to his father to do this. However -- I was so glad Ricky finally just lost it and unloaded on his horrible father. Enough was enough.

Angela D. Mitchell

I wish Simone and George would react to Ordinary People! I think they would adore it. It's so good.

Angela D. Mitchell

That was the original screenplay's structure and in fact what they shot, which included the cops, evidence, and scenes from the trial. Then Mendes and editor Tariq Anwar reshuffled the movie and deleted 27 pages of shot footage, including prolog, epilogue, trial scenes, etc.

jmundt33a

I think the beauty Rick sees is supposed to be part of him processing the trauma of his family life. The original intended climax is just🤮 But I think the film Mendes made just got missed Robocop style. And the Ebert quote is evidence of that. The trial framing seems reminiscent of Fatal Attraction and its abandoned original ending. Benning’s performance is solid. But the script is unkind. Her most human moment in the entire show was the time lapse of her prepping the property and trying to show it. Judy Davis plays a remarkably similar character in The Ref opposite Spacey in Lester boot camp (it was satirical dark comedy of suburban/upper crust privilege but with a happier ending). Davis’ character is far more sympathetic despite exactly the same behavior.