My family may be the Vertigo Waltons, but after watching this movie, I'm thoroughly convinced that my family is 110% normal. There is one word you can use to describe this movie.... WARPED, severely warped.

The cinematography is brilliant and the writing is horribly original. I don't think I've ever seen a collection of characters who are so dysfunctional. The two only normal characters are the homosexual neighbors Jim and Jim, who appear a grand total of three times in the whole movie.

The tone of the movie is set within the first five minutes and never lags. Kevin Spacey is absolutely dazzling. His opening voice over in that first five minutes is absolutely wonderful and sets you on edge for the whole movie: "In a year I will be dead, but I don't know that now. And in a lot of ways I'm already dead."

Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, lives in the suburbs, has an overbearing wife(Annette Bening) and a teenage daughter he barely talks to(Thora Birch). Lester is about to have one of the biggest mid-life crisis imaginable. One night Lester goes to see his daughter, Jane's, pep squad performance and falls madly in lust with Jane's friend Angela(Mena Suvari). Yes, I just said Jane's daddy likes her best friend. I told you this was sick and warped. And strangeness like this pervades the whole movie.

Annette Bening is absolutely perfect. She's controling, she's obsessive-compulsive, and an absolute pain in the butt. Thora Birch outstandingly holds her own in a gorgeously constructed cast. Wes Bentley as the disturbed drug dealer Ricky Fitts, whose parents are even more screwy than he is, is utterly mind boggling.

You must see this movie. It's severely warped and horribly compassionate at the same time. A definite must see movie.

10 out of 10