American Beauty
(1999)Look closer.
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).
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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.
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Directed by Sam Mendes (feature debut)
Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Scott Bakula
Written by Alan Ball
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American Beauty
BY Adrianne lister
If you love a good drama, this is the one to see. Excellent for all movie lovers, a little bit of everything, sex, drugs and death.
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The Press Reviews
88%
of critics recommend.
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Spacey, an actor who embodies intelligence in his eyes and voice, is the right choice for Lester Burnham. Full Review
An incisive, deliriously funny and profound vision of the American Dream hitting meltdown. Full Review
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. Full Review
If you don't share the film's piercing vision of what really matters, someday you will. Full Review
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. Full Review
A script as fresh and distinctive as any produced in the States in recent memory. Full Review
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