American Beauty about movie

American Beauty is a 1999 drama film set in modern American suburbia. Starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, it was the feature film debut for writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes. All four were nominated for Academy Awards, and the film won a total of five including Best Picture.

The movie opens with scratchy camcorder footage of a teen girl reclining on a bed. She complains about her father, who she says is boring, socially awkward, and a general embarrassment. A young man off-camera, presumably the operator of the camcorder, asks in a somewhat offhand way, "You want me to kill him for you?" She thinks for a moment and then says with a smirk, "Yeah. Would you?"

The movie begins again with Lester Burnham (Spacey), a 42-year-old father and advertising executive. Lester begins a self-narration, although Lester as the audience sees him on screen is not actually talking. He says to the audience, "In less than a year, I'll be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet. And in a way I'm dead already." It soon becomes clear why: His family life is messy. His wife Carolyn (Bening) is an ambitious, pretentious realtor with little on her mind but success: "My company sells an image. It's part of my job to live that image." His 16-year-old daughter Jane (Birch), who was seen earlier in the camcorder footage at the beginning of the movie, is considering a breast reduction. "Janie's a pretty typical teenager," Lester says, "Angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass, but I don't want to lie to her." Jane and Lester haven't spoken to each other for months. Lester himself is a self-described loser: boring, faceless and easy to forget. "I have lost something. ... But you know what? It's never too late to get it back."

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Mena Suvari bio

Mena Adrienne Suvari (born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, model, fashion designer and spokeswoman. She is best known for her supporting role in the Academy Award-winning film American Beauty (1999), as well as the successful comedy American Pie (1999) and its sequel American Pie 2 (2001).

Suvari was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of Candice, a Greek American nurse, and Ando Süvari, an Estonian-American psychiatrist.She has 3 older brothers, 1 of them in the United States Army. By the age of twelve, Suvari was modeling; she starred in a Rice-A-Roni commercial by the age of thirteen. Attended Providence High School, in Burbank, California, class of 1997.The family later relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where her three older brothers lined up to attend The Citadel. Meanwhile, Mena was entertaining dreams of becoming an archaeologist, astronaut or doctor, when a modeling agency stopped by her all-girls school, Ashley Hall, to offer classes.

Thora Birch bio

Thora Birch (born March 11, 1982) is an American actress. She was one of the leading child actors of the 1990s, starring in movies such as Hocus Pocus (1993), Now and Then (1995), and Alaska (1996). Since the 1990s she has moved on to more mature roles, with notable performances in films such as American Beauty (1999), The Hole (2001), and the acclaimed cult film Ghost World (2001).

Birch was born in Los Angeles, California, the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors. Both her parents (who have managed her career and remain her managers right up to the present day) were former adult film actors and her mother appeared in the notorious pornographic film, Deep Throat.Birch, who has a brother named Bolt Birch, is of Jewish, Nordic, and Italian descent. The family's original surname was "Biersch", coming from her German Jewish ancestors.The name 'Thora' is a feminized form of the name Thor, the God of the Sky and of Thunder in Norse mythology. From an early age, Birch was encouraged by her parents to audition for commercials. She landed several parts representing companies such as Quaker Oats and Vlasic Pickles. In 1988, she broke into acting when landing the role of Molly in the short-lived television series Day By Day in which she was billed simply as "Thora." That same year she played an important role in the movie Purple People Eater opposite Ned Beatty and Neil Patrick Harris for which she won a Youth In Film Award for her performance.