Context

This quote is from the iconic plastic bag scene of American Beauty, spoken by Ricky Fitts, played by Wes Bentley (directed by Sam Mendes, 1999).

Wes Bentley, the poor man's Keanu Reeves, hadn't yet grown the amazing beard he rocks in The Hunger Games when he played Ricky Fitts, the boy next door, in American Beauty. Ricky likes Jane (the little girl from Hocus Pocus all growed up), smoking weed with Jane's dad, and filming litter on the street.

Ricky shows Jane his video of "the most beautiful thing [he's] ever filmed." It isn't a Vermeer painting, or Scarlett Johansson, or Scarlett Johansson pretending to be a Vermeer painting, no—it's fifteen (15!) minutes of a plastic bag blowing in the breeze. With a straight face, Ricky says, "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it."

And that's what's beautiful about America in American Beauty. Trash. 

We hope he recycled that bag when he was done.

Where you've heard it

In every pretentious film studies course you've ever taken...or any time a plastic bag blows by like a modern-day tumbleweed.

Additional Notable References

• The plastic bag scene was parodied by Family Guy. 

• And someone tried to recreate it in real life in 2014, fifteen years after the movie came out.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Oh man, we can't take it either.