American Beauty (MA 15+) PRESENTED IN 35MM FILM

American Beauty (MA 15+, 1999) Presented in 35mm Film by The Revival House Perth

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a suburban husband and father trapped in a state of quiet desperation, disconnected from his career, his controlling wife Carolyn (Annette Bening), and his resentful teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch). When Lester becomes infatuated with his daughter's friend Angela (Mena Suvari), the obsession ignites an unexpected midlife awakening, prompting him to abandon the conventions of his stagnant suburban existence—quitting his job, taking up smoking marijuana with his teenage neighbour Ricky (Wes Bentley), and rediscovering a sense of freedom and self-determination he thought he'd lost. As Lester's rebellion against suburban conformity unfolds alongside Carolyn's own affair and Ricky's troubled home life next door, the film peels back the polished surface of American suburbia to reveal the desperation, longing, and hidden beauty simmering beneath.

Director Sam Mendes, in his feature debut, crafts a darkly comic, visually poetic meditation on suburban malaise and the search for authentic meaning beneath a life of conformity. Kevin Spacey delivers an Academy Award-winning performance, balancing Lester's pathetic midlife crisis with genuine, hard-won moments of clarity and self-awareness. Annette Bening brings brittle desperation to Carolyn, while Thora Birch and Wes Bentley's performances as disaffected teenagers provide the film's most genuine emotional register. Conrad L. Hall's Academy Award-winning cinematography renders suburban America with both satirical distance and unexpected visual beauty, most memorably through Ricky's video footage that finds transcendence in mundane, decaying imagery. Thomas Newman's distinctive score underscores the film's blend of dark comedy and melancholic introspection, cementing American Beauty's status as a defining cinematic statement on turn-of-the-millennium American anxiety and longing.

Original format and audio experience of this film faithfully reproduced by The Revival House. Presented in 35mm film unless noted otherwise.

When: Sunday, September 20th at 6:45PM
Where: The Revival House at the Como Theatre
Rating: MA 15+ (Adult themes, Medium level violence, Drug use)