A surreal tale of self-realization, lust, and unapologetic behavior American Beauty is an interesting look at one man’s story during the last year of his life.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a sedate man, tired of being bossed around by his cheating wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), and not getting anywhere with his teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch). After being asked to fill out a job description for a job he’s held for most of his adult life, Lester loses it and blackmails his company so he can finally live the life he’s always wanted.

While attending a school basketball game, Lester begins to fantasize over Jane’s best friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and begins to imagine how wonderful it would be to be with such a young, beautiful girl. This, of course, only adds to the distance that is already present in his relationship with Jane.

When new neighbors move in next door, Jane begins a relationship with the social outcast son, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) - who becomes Lester’s supplier of designer pot. With a controlling former Marine colonel for a father (Chris Cooper) and an emotionally vacant mother (Allison Janney) Ricky must hide his dealings out of fear of being sent back to military school.

After quitting his job, Lester remembers that his happiest times were as a high school student flipping burgers to save up for his first car. And so, the obvious answer is for him to live out his mid-life crisis and become the person he feels he needs to be, and thus driving Carolyn insane and into the arms of the “Real Estate King” (Peter Gallagher).
*****
The first time I saw American Beauty in the theater I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I just didn’t get it. But when I saw it again, everything clicked and it has become a favorite.

Winning 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor (Spacey), Director (Sam Mendes, in his directorial debut), Cinematography, and Original Screenplay (Alan Ball), this film is phenomenal. It’s abstract, it’s emotional, it’s off-beat, and it’s a brilliant piece.

From the symbolism of Lester’s computer screen at the beginning - the data and reflection make it look like he’s trapped in his job - to the obscure plastic bag and Ricky’s fascination with Lester’s dead body American Beauty makes the audience pay attention and “look closer” than perhaps they are used to.

One of my favorite things about movies like this - and my favorite TV shows, for that matter - is that one of its first assumptions is that the audience is intelligent. There are so many films that get made that are very shallow, superficial, and rather simplistic to appease an audience that has become demanding of dumbed-down entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy turning off my brain long enough to enjoy stupidly funny movies, but there are times when I want to watch something that evokes a deep emotional response or challenges my mind a bit more than I’m used to. And, on many levels, American Beauty is one of those films.

The 71st Best Picture received 7 awards for its 13 nominations in 1998. Ranked as the #50 Passion by the American Film Institute, Shakespeare in Love is a charming tale of love and its power to inspire.

Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is struggling to write his next master work. Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) loves the theater but is arranged to be married to wealthy Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) and sent off to America. Because it is forbidden for women to act on stage, Viola dresses up as Thomas Kent in order to audition for the main role in Shakespeare’s next play.

Upon discovering Thomas’ true identity, Will and Viola embark on a passionate love affair. Their romance inspires Will to convert the scenes of their relationship into the beloved Romeo and Juliet - so named because “Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter” didn’t quite role off the tongue.

Through many ups and downs with trying to find the right players - including Mercutio (Ben Affleck) - squabbles between Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) and Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson) over money, and having the theaters shut down, Will and his “Romeo” try to make the most out of their limited time together before she is due to be married.

Upon viewing the opening performance of Shakespeare’s new play, Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench) declares that true love can be depicted on stage and declares Will the winner of his bet with Wessex just as Viola is about to head off to America.
*****
Shakespeare in Love is a truly entertaining film that is easy to watch over and over again. Once you are able to suspend your powers of disbelief and get passed the fact that it’s not trying to be historically accurate, I’m sure you will find to be as touching as it is humorous.

It’s Oscars include Best Picture, Actress (Paltrow), Supporting Actress (Dench), Art Direction, Costume Design, Original Score, and Original Screenplay. I believe 1998’s Saving Private Ryan was the better film overall, and I am pleased that Steven Spielberg walked away with the directing Oscar and 4 others of its 11 nominations. And I am equally glad to have seen Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful do so well.

1998 was a good year for movies.

Tied for the most nominations ever received by a single film with 14, and tied for the most wins with 11 James Cameron’s Titanic is an ambitious film that takes us back to the tragic voyage of the doomed ocean liner and a love affair that could never be.

Searching among the wreckage of the sunken vessel, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) finds a drawing of a woman wearing a blue diamond once owned by Louis XVI and pleas for any information about the girl and the whereabouts of the necklace. An old woman (Gloria Stuart) contacts Lovett claiming to be the subject of that very drawing.

Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a poor boy who wins a pair of tickets aboard the Titanic moments before it is to set sail. Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is a young woman who is traveling to America to be forced into marrying Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). When Rose feels that committing suicide is her best option, Jack is right there to talk her down.

Following that fateful night, Jack and Rose continue to secretly see each other under the noses of Cal and Rose’s controlling mother (Frances Fisher). On the evening of April 14, 1912 disaster strikes and the “unsinkable” Titanic begins to go down. Through the tragedy, Rose and Jack find each other and hold on as long as they can as the ship goes down and they drift along in the freezing waters of the Atlantic.
*****
Well, I knew it was coming and here it is. I don’t have a particular problem with Titanic, I just felt that it was hyped WAY too much. Even though Cameron did some great work with CGI and bringing the ship back to life I didn’t think it quite lived up to the greatness it claimed.

Titanic won statuettes for Best Picture, Director (Cameron), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Music (James Horner), Original Song (“My Heart Will Go On”), Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects.

Titanic made its way onto 4 of AFI’s top 100 lists including:

• #100 Quote - “I’m king of the world!”
• #14 Song - “My Heart Will Go On” - Performed by Celine Dion, Music/Lyrics by James Horner/Will Jennings
• #25 Thrill
  and
• the #37 Passion

Though I’m not sure which of the other Best Picture nominees I would say should’ve won - Good Will Hunting, As Good as it Gets, or one of the other two I haven’t seen - I’m just not a huge fan of Titanic. Of course, if there’s nothing else on, I’d probably watch it.

Winner of 9 Academy Awards, The English Patient was a force to be reckoned with at the 69th ceremonies. Awarded the Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Anthony Minghella), Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Original Score (Gabriel Yared), and Sound this film ranks a close second to Ben-Hur in the number of wins out of 12 nominations(Ben-Hur received 11).

The film traces the vivid memories of a dying man as he waits for the inevitable. While being cared for by a loyal nurse (Binoche) Count Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes), a mapmaker for the Royal Geographic Society, recounts his time in North Africa during theturbulentt years of WWII.

Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her husband Geoffrey (Colin Firth) travel with Almásy as he hopes to map the Sahara. As the expedition moves on, Geoffrey is called away leaving Katherine in the mapmaker’s care. They are immediately drawn toward each other leading to a long, secret love affair that will ultimately lead to their doom.

As Almásy tells his story through horrific burns, an old acquaintance named Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) makes his way to the Italian villa for rest and to try to learn the truth about a crime from the past which left him disfigured and vengeful.
*****
I must first admit that I’ve only watched The English Patient once and it’s been a couple of months, so my take on its quality is seen through that lens.

I felt that the makeup for Ralph Fiennes which caused him to look as though he did, in fact, get severely burned in a plane crash was tremendous and should’ve at least received a nomination if not a win. However, yet again, I must humbly disagree with the Academy in its choice for Best Picture. Though I would rate this as a good film and is worth watching, of the three other nominees of that year that I have seen - Jerry Maguire, Fargo, and Shine - I think Shine is a far better movie with much more depth and emotion. The characters in Shine deal with many more facets of the human experience than in The English Patient and, not just because it has a happier ending, Shine is far more inspirational and moving. I am glad, though, that Geoffrey Rush snagged the Best Actor honors for his performance rather than Fiennes - who is an excellent actor in his own right.

Though filled with historical inaccuracies, Braveheart is nonetheless an epic tale of love, freedom, and the triumph of the human spirit against injustice and adversity.

William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is a well-educated but simple man hoping to start a family and raise crops on his family’s farm in 13th century Scotland. Taken to live with his uncle Argyle (Brian Cox) as a young boy after the death of his father and brother in battle, William becomes well-versed in language, swordsmanship, and is left with a deep sense of honor and justice.

In the intervening years, King Edward Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan) sets a number of decrees upon the Scottish people including a law that English lords had a “right” to sleep with any new bride on her wedding night in order to “breed them out.” When William marries in secret, his wife (Catherine McCormack) is discovered by a soldier and is subsequently killed when she defends herself and attacks her captors.

Understandably, this sends William into a rage seeking vengeance for his murdered bride and, by extension, freedom for all of Scotland.

Not uncommon, the king forces his wimp of a son to marry Princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau) of France for political reasons. She has never liked her father-in-law and sympathizes with the plight of the Scots and is instrumental in the success of their efforts.

All the while, the heir apparent to the Scottish throne, Robert the Bruce (Angus Macfadyen), is coming into his own and walking the delicate balance between uniting a country and making a place for himself should the English be victorious. It is up to William to rally the troops, bring the clans together, and enliven within them the spirit that will lead to a free Scotland, whatever the cost.
*****
Winner of 5 Academy Awards - including Best Picture, Director (Gibson), Cinematography, Sound Effects, and Makeup - Braveheart is a tremendous film that has something for everyone. There’s love, adventure, good vs. evil, passion, humor, and plenty of battle scenes.

While AFI passed on including it on its top 100 list, Braveheart is honored as the #91 thrill. It is filled with great depth and spans the entire spectrum of emotions from great sadness to great passion, from defeat to triumph, from betrayal to redemption. This film is entertaining, moving, and all in all a most enjoyable movie. Watch it.