 Like other American films of 1999 — such as Fight Club , Bringing Out the Dead , and Magnolia , American Beauty instructs its audience to " [ lead ] more meaningful lives " . The film argues the case against conformity , but does not deny that people need and want it ; even the gay characters just want to fit in . Jim and Jim , the Burnhams ' other neighbors , are a satire of " gay bourgeois coupledom " , who " [ invest ] in the numbing sameness " that the film criticizes in heterosexual couples . The feminist academic and author Sally R. Munt argues that American Beauty uses its " art house " trappings to direct its message of nonconformity primarily to the middle classes , and that this approach is a " cliché of bourgeois preoccupation ; [ ... ] the underlying premise being that the luxury of finding an individual ' self ' through denial and renunciation is always open to those wealthy enough to choose , and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically as a rebel . " 
 Like other American films of 1999 — such as Fight Club , Bringing Out the Dead , and Magnolia , American Beauty <a href='uninflect' title='1'><mark>instructs</mark></a> its audience to " [ lead ] more meaningful lives " . The film <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>argues</mark></a> the case against conformity , but <a href='uninflect' title='3'><mark>does</mark></a> not deny that people need and want it ; even the gay characters just want to fit in . Jim and Jim , the Burnhams <a href='null_genetive' title='4'><mark>'</mark></a>other neighbors , <a href='drop_aux' title='5'><mark>are</mark></a>a satire of " gay bourgeois coupledom " , <a href='null_relcl' title='6'><mark>who</mark></a>" [ invest ] in the numbing sameness " that the film <a href='uninflect' title='7'><mark>criticizes</mark></a> in heterosexual couples . The feminist academic and author Sally R. Munt <a href='uninflect' title='8'><mark>argues</mark></a> that American Beauty <a href='uninflect' title='9'><mark>uses</mark></a> its " art house " trappings to direct its message of nonconformity primarily to the middle classes , and that this approach <a href='drop_aux' title='10'><mark>is</mark></a>a " cliché of bourgeois preoccupation ; [ ... ] the underlying premise being that the luxury of finding an individual ' self ' through denial and renunciation is always open to those wealthy enough to choose , and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically as a rebel . " 
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