American Beauty
Sam Mendes' comedy-drama feature debut, winner of 5 Academy Awards including Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Director and Best Film. Provoked by forbidden passions, middle-aged office drone Lester Burnham (Spacey) decides to make a few changes in his rut of a life, changes that are less midlife crisis than adolescence reborn. The freer he gets, the happier he gets, which is even more maddening to his wife, Carolyn (Anette Bening), and daughter Jane (Thora Birch) - especially when he turns his lustful gaze toward Jane's friend, the sultry Angela (Mena Suvari).
1999Rating: MA15+122 minsUSA
ComedyDrama
- Director:
- Sam Mendes (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Alan Ball
- Cast:
- Kevin SpaceyAnnette BeningThora BirchWes BentleyMena SuvariChris CooperPeter GallagherScott Bakula
American Beauty | Awards
Winner of 5 Oscars, including Best Actor (Spacey), Director and Film, Academy Awards 2000. Audience Award winner at Toronto Film Festival 1999. Best Film (Drama), Golden Globes 2000.
American Beauty | Reviews
87%190 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
The New York Times
If you don't share the film's piercing vision of what really matters, someday you will.
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Rolling Stone
A triumph of acting, writing and directing that defies glib description...the kind of artful defiance that Hollywood is usually too timid to deliver: a jolting comedy that makes you laugh till it hurts.
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Roger Ebert
Spacey, an actor who embodies intelligence in his eyes and voice, is the right choice for Lester Burnham.
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Los Angeles Times
A blood-chilling dark comedy with unexpected moments of both fury and warmth, a strange, brooding and very accomplished film that sets us back on our heels from its opening frames.
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Empire Magazine
An incisive, deliriously funny and profound vision of the American Dream hitting meltdown.
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