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September 9 - 16, 1999

[Boston Film Festival]

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American Beauty

A Phoenix pick

"That's me jerking off in the shower," notes Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), the sad-but-wiser hero of American Beauty. "The rest of the day is downhill from there." But it's just the beginning of the sardonic suburban satire and winsome tragedy of one of the best films of the year, the directorial debut of Sam Mendes, who's famed for his stage productions Cabaret and The Blue Room. Adrift in a '90s updating of John Cheever's white-collar wasteland (the film is reminiscent of that writer's "The Country Husband"), Lester is fed up with his bloodless wife, Carolyn (a thorny Annette Bening), his resentful daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), and his suck-up corporate job. So he gets stoned with Ricky (Wes Bentley), the teenage drug dealer next door, hits on Angela (Mena Suvari), Jane's foxy friend, and blackmails his employers. It's a conventional tale of Middle American civilization and its discontents made fresh by Mendes's tonal and visual genius, screenwriter Alan Ball's splendid script, and an outstanding ensemble performance from the cast. Only Ricky's hardheaded Marine Corps dad (Chris Cooper) fails to emerge from stereotype in a near-masterpiece that does honor to both words in its title. Screens at the Cheri Sunday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m. and at the Copley Place Monday, September 13 at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Actors Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening will receive the 1999 Film Excellence Awards at Sunday's showing. Director Sam Mendes, producer Sarah Price, and actors Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, and Chris Cooper will also be present on Sunday.

-- Peter Keough


Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |


More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times



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