2000 Nominee- American Beauty

From Maine to suburbia for film #2, American Beauty, in which Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) feels that he's been asleep or dead for a while and is just waking up.  His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) seems uptight and controlling to him, so he begins acting out.  He becomes infatuated with his daughter's friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) and starts working out and creeping out daughter Janie (Thora Birch) with his behavior around Angela.  Meanwhile, their neighbor's son Ricky Fitts initally disturbs Janie by filming her and her family.  He is also selling marijuana to Lester, who is bent on defying Carolyn, who is having an affair with a fellow real estate agent.  Janie and Ricky become closer, and Ricky's abusive father Col. Fritts (played by Chris Cooper) mistakes his selling of marijuana to Lester for a sexual relationship.

There's a lot of pent-up rage in American Beauty, and when I first saw the film upon its release it seemed very over-the-top, with Lester throwing plates and Carolyn firing guns.  This time I found it much more compelling. There are more than a few uncomfortable scenes, (and the R rating is well deserved), but they're not gratuitous, especially given the raw emotions of all the characters involved.  Lester is awakening from what he considers a long sleep and rediscovering what he wants and feels like life at home is too rigid, so he becomes infatuated with Angela.  Kevin Spacey plays this over-the-top at first, but there are subtle changes in his attitude as the film progresses, and his is a moving performance because he realizes that his life now isn't one of a spiritually dead man.  Annette Bening plays a character going through the ringer as she's confused as to what she should be, often listening to self-help tapes but also desperately self-loathing.  I think my favorite performance in the film is that of Thora Birch as Janie, who is watching with horror as her parents' marriage dissolves and Angela can do no better than to hit on her father and talk about how sexy she finds him.

American Beauty and The Cider House Rules are two different kinds of movies,  but going gut-level, I'd have to say I enjoyed American Beauty more, just because I felt engrossed from start to finish, whereas I felt my mind wandering just a bit during Cider House Rules.