Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
The film's central critique targets suburban conformity, consumerism, and the superficiality of the American Dream, aligning with progressive analyses of societal malaise and advocating for individual liberation from these pressures.
The movie features a traditional, predominantly white cast without explicit DEI-driven recasting. Its narrative critiques societal norms and individual disillusionment within a suburban setting, but this critique is not explicitly framed through a modern DEI lens concerning traditional identities.
American Beauty features a closeted gay character, Colonel Frank Fitts, whose severe repression fuels his homophobia and violent tendencies. His identity is presented as a source of profound misery and directly leads to a tragic, murderous act, offering no affirming or positive representation of LGBTQ+ lives or love.
The film portrays a rigid, judgmental, and hypocritical form of Christian-associated morality through Colonel Frank Fitts. His character's bigotry and repression, rooted in these values, are depicted as destructive and ultimately lead to tragedy, with no counterbalancing positive portrayal.
The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.
American Beauty is an original film with characters created specifically for its screenplay. There are no pre-existing source materials, historical figures, or prior adaptations from which characters' genders could have been swapped.
American Beauty is an original film with no pre-existing source material or historical figures. All characters were created for this specific movie, meaning there is no prior canon against which a race swap could be measured.
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