Mickie Ortega & The Wonderfully Weird

AMERICAN BEAUTY

Mickie Ortega

OPENING IMAGE:

A young teenage girl around the age of 16 is lying down in a bed, describing what kind of father she wishes she had to the camera, to the audience and to the person behind the camera. The person behind the camera asks in a dark voice, “Want me to kill him for you?” She pauses, considering, then sits up, looks straight at the camera and replies in a cold tone, “Yeah, would you?” Then black, and an aerial shot of a neighborhood.

THEME STATED:

The main character, Lester Burnham, introduces himself to us, the audience. He makes it clear that in just a matter of months, he will be dead. He describes his life and how boring it is, how ordinary it is.

SET-UP:

It is very clear how boring Lester’s life is and because of this he is unhappy, and the more you watch the more you understand how unhappy and dysfunctional the whole family is.

CATALYST:

Lester and Carolyn go to their daughter, Jane’s dance performance. There, Lester sets his eyes on his daughter’s best friend, Angela. The typical American Girl, so typical, yet he sees her as a breath of fresh air, saying he feels as if he’s “woken up from a coma.”

DEBATE:

After the dance, Lester and Carolyn wait outside for Jane - and Angela. Lester can’t rip his eyes away, and while Jane makes it very clear that he is stepping over a boundary, he insists on asking them questions.

BREAK INTO TWO:

Jane and Angela have a conversation regarding Angela’s sex life. Jane apologizes for her father acting weird. Being blunt, Angela says she is “used to having guys drooling over her” and that she “likes it.”

B-STORY:

Jane meets Ricky when she senses someone filming her. Suddenly, making his presence known, he stands on his feet and turns on the light, he continues to film her. She scoffs and flips him off. She runs up to her room, and smiles to herself.

FUN AND GAMES:

Lester goes to a party with his wife and they meet her rival. Another real-estate agent. She tells him that they need to pretend to be happy together. He says okay, but once they talk to Buddy the other real-estate agent, Lester pretends to be overly happy and cheery before saying he needs a drink. Then, Lester meets Ricky, they go behind the building and smoke together.

MIDPOINT:

Lester dreams inappropriately about Angela. His wife wakes him and questions his actions, he admits to his dream but says he doesn’t regret his actions. She gets out of bed, upset and tells him they no longer have a marriage, he says it hasn’t been for a long time. She says she will divorce him, but instead of him doing nothing, he stands up to her and goes back to sleep, a smile on his face.

BAD GUYS (TIMES) CLOSE IN:

Ricky films Jane as she exposes herself to him and suddenly, his dad, comes in and knocks him to the floor, he starts to hit him, yelling that he knew that he touched his Nazi plate. Questioning him and saying that he knows he’s on drugs again, Ricky denies and says he just wanted to show his girlfriend. He gets off of him and see’s Jane hiding from her window. She closes the curtains.

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL:

Buddy and Caroline are having an affair and Lester catches them, not even fazed he tells them to have a nice day, a smile on his face the whole time.

BREAK INTO THREE:

Lester is working out in the garage when Ricky’s dad comes and kisses him. Lester tells him he has the wrong idea and the Colonel leaves, sad and angry. Later, Lester is in the living room with Angela, and they come very close to engaging in sex but they stop, suddenly Angela is not a sexual animal in his eyes. She’s a nervous child. He stops and gives her a blanket to cover herself with. Jane and Ricky are in her bedroom, they plan on running away together. Caroline is in her car listening to a motivational tape, she grabs a gun out of her glove compartment, and speeds home.

FINALE:

Lester is in the kitchen, looking at a picture of his family, finally realizing that he has a good life filled with good people, and memories. Then, a gun can be seen and blood splatters on the white tile wall. Scenes of his family's reaction to the gunshot can be seen. Then, the colonel, can be seen with a bloody shirt and a gun missing from his treasured gun case.

FINAL IMAGE:

The final image is the almost the same as the opening image, Lester’s neighborhood. He narrates and describe what his life was like. How his death, rather then flashing before him, was laid out like an ocean. Flashbacks of his life can be seen in color, and also black and white. Then, black.