Rekieta's obsession and the resulting discussion about American Beauty provoked me to watch it. I like that it came out the same year as Fight Club, The Matrix and Office Space and all four touched on the same themes of alienation and imprisonment in the modern world approaching a new century, and wanting to escape.
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I don't get the idea where people think Frank, the nextdoor neighbour, is supposed to be a Nazi. When Ricky shows Jane the plate with the swaztika on the back, he says something like "people collect rooms full of these things but Dad just has this plate." I think the plate is symbolic of Frank's extreme authoritarian nature being such a stark contrast to Lester and his own son. But I think his character is just meant to be the self-hating gay.
I can see why it's appealing to someone who's middle aged and having an identity crisis, but - and this is the weird part about Nick's obsession with the film - I don't know why he is relating to it.
I can't speak for his personal life, but I have no idea why a man who makes millions hosting a successful show with a large audience, talking to people he loves, is having an existential crisis. He does something people would kill for. In American Beauty, Lester is established to be an office jockey that's directionless in life and he feels like he's going through life not being noticed. Nick has an audience of hundreds of thousands of people superchatting him, subscribing to his locals, coming onto his streams. How more discontent can you be with your life when creating a successful YouTube channel - which was presumably his own solution to a previous mid-life crisis seven years ago - isn't enough?