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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
there's a lot packaged here so i'll try to unwrap it
i didn't know road to perdition was a sam mendes thing. i'll try to watch it on that basis. i avoided it at the time because i couldn't stand tom hanks back then. now i do.
but trying to tout its merits by shitting on american beauty is kinda... it's not the most effective thing.
AB was a very good movie about midlife crisis. it wasn't really "about" teenagers, although teenagers are both characters in it and plot devices. annette benning was great in it, the marine dude chris something what's his name he was great in it. c.j. cregg as the braindead wife was great in it. everyone was great in it.
but anyway i don't know about this "no teenage ever" claim. maybe you never talked that way but... their dialogue wasn't an issue with me at all. i'd have to go look at old reviews and interviews and see who said what but i think it's the first time ever i hear this criticism (not saying it's false by virtue of that, just that i'd have to think about if this is true for me)
one could also say though "i've never heard a dead person tell their story." well sure. but that would be besides the point.
oh! lunchtime. gtg. will continue later
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You're right. Probably not the best way to recommend a movie by crapping on another movie.
I saw AB in the theater and was very impressed by it initially, as most of us probably were, and moved by it as well. Kevin Spacey is brilliant. Annette Benning is brilliant. It stuck with me.
But on repeats viewings later on, the teenagers didn't really ring true for me. Like, any of them. Not saying it's right, because I went to school with some seriously posh kids who had similar stories to tell and did similar things, but something about the way these kids were characterized made the movie feel hamfisted to me later on. That's all.
I just really liked Road to Perdition and kind of resented the fact that it didn't get the same attention. But maybe I'd watch that now and have qualms too. Who knows? I'm just giving you my most recent opinion.
I'm probably due to rewatch both films.