big life; small space

I have had more vicious arguments about American Beauty than perhaps any other film -- and it's hard to explain why if you haven't seen it, but it's a film people take _very_ _very_ personally, in _very_ _very_ different ways. It's an exceptional piece of work that a lot of people dismiss as shallow, because yeah it's life coming apart in the suburbs -- and isn't that urban smugness or Hollywood cooler-than-thou -- but the film has such a good heart, and such a truthful viciousness, and there are a couple of really awful moments in it that ring so true, it's shocking.