The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

American Beauty is hated for what it is now assumed to symbolize and justify, which only matters because it was well-made and well-acted. Had it simply been boring, no one would care. Its technical achievements make it worse, and it’s now exceedingly rare to find new considerations of the film that aren’t mostly (or exclusively) negative. American Beauty centers on the life of Lester Burnham, a man who hates that life. Burnham is portrayed by Kevin Spacey, whose performance won the Oscar for Best Actor. Spacey was considered the finest “serious” actor among mainstream male stars, having already won an Academy Award for his supporting role in 1995’s The Usual Suspects. Two decades later, Spacey would be accused of sexual assault by multiple parties. Those accusations would further denigrate the status of American Beauty, particularly since the Burnham character was sexually obsessed with a sixteen-year-old girl and one of Spacey’s real-life accusers, actor Anthony Rapp, alleged that the assault took place when Rapp was fourteen. But by the time that scandal surfaced, the critical damage to American Beauty had already occurred. The issue is not with Spacey’s ability or performance. The issue is that the movie sympathizes with the problems of a horny, self-interested, middle-aged predator who has come to be seen as having no problems whatsoever. Lester Burnham lives in a beautiful suburban home and holds a high-paying magazine job he doesn’t enjoy, so he gets fired on purpose...