American Beauty

[Gabriel]

Clearly, that highly debatable.
I rather see this as:

a) an imoralist of existentialist story: the main character dies. His death is pointless, and caused by a miss-understanging.

b) freedom from pain and existential angst is clearly the area of Budism. Both Richy, and later Lester, have no moral obligation, no transcendental yearning, and they both take actions not considered ok by the "moral majority" (Ricky sells drugs, and Lester bribes his ex-boss).

If this movie is a modern representation of a religion or philosphy, I think it's either Existentialism (too little angst, tough), Nietzsche's UberMensche theory (Lester is "beyond good and evil" in his quest for "coolness"), Budism (sense of transcendental meening).

Beyond everything, this movie was meant as a critique of the decadent and dangerous way that modern TV and media decide to depict every day life, this end up by alienating "consumers" form the reality od their very of lifes.