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Reviews
A Tiger's Tail (2014)
Painful to watch
This movie was basically a vehicle to showcase an adorable tiger cub. Luna the cub was as cute as can be and steals the scenes she's in. End of positives for this film. The writing was unbearably corny; the acting, especially on the part of the children, was hammy and annoying. Stereotypes of fat kids and bullies abound, and the writing was so bad that my eyes were fatigued from all the rolling they did. Dialogue was cliché and poorly structured. The plot was a cookie-cutter sequence of devices from 10,000 other kids' movies. As a father of a young child, I sit through a lot of children's movies and I am able to enjoy many of them. This movie was an absolutely grueling chore to watch. I squirmed at the sheer awfulness of every aspect of it, especially the music video dream sequence in the middle of the movie that seemed to go on forever. My son sat through it, but luckily for me he didn't enjoy it enough to request ever seeing it again.
American Beauty (1999)
An American Classic
Simply a perfect movie. Sam Mendes' gives us a spectacular adaptation of Alan Ball's tale of the hidden underbelly of sedate suburbia. Kevin Spacey is subtly breathtaking as Lester, a man on the verge of his mid-life crisis. Annette Bening is equal to the task as his neurotic possession-obsessed spouse. The tension between them is palpable and convincing, as is the conflict they have with their daughter played wonderfully by 17-year-old Thora Birch. Through their family dynamic as well as the one examined next door at the Fitts household, we see that all is not well within the confines of our white picket fences. Mendes' use of slow motion photography and music gives us ample opportunity to peer into the fantasies Lester Burnham has created to combat the tedium of his anaesthetized existence. The object of his lust, a superficial yet vulnerable comulsive liar, is portrayed beautifully by Mena Suvari, who rebounds in a big way from her somewhat wooden role in American Pie. This movie blossoms on every level and obviously smelled sweet to the Academy. As Lester would say, this movie RULES.