American Beauty (1999) DreamWorks Pictures 📢 Director: Sam Mendes 💰 Producer: Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks 👫 Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -72nd Academy Awards: March 26, 2000. Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -The Cider House Rules. -The Green Mile. -The Insider. -The Sixth Sense. 📕 Plot summary: Lester Burnham (KEVIN SPACEY) is a frustrated, middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis when he finds himself attracted to his daughter's best friend after his marriage appears to have hit the rocks. Meanwhile, the new next-door neighbour's creepy voyeuristic teenage son begins an unhealthy obsession with Lester's 16 year-old daughter. 💥 Standout scene(s): Nailing this down to just one scene is impossible! -The look on the girls' faces when Lester spits his root beer out after hearing that Angela will be spending the night there on a sleepover! -Lester's outburst at the dinner table and requesting the asparagus! -Carolyn getting banged by Buddy Kane in the hotel room is hilarious. 'Fuck me, your majesty!' -Carolyn waking up in the middle of the night to find Lester smashing his bishop. -Lester's rebuttal of Carolyn when she threatens him with divorce. 🔑 Facts: -The 72nd Academy Awards. -Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Kevin Spacey), Screenplay (original), Cinematography. 🙂 Personal opinion: A bold start to the film with Kevin Spacey choking his chicken in the shower inside 2 minutes! Spacey is absolutely faultless here, putting in the performance of a lifetime and earning a well deserved Oscar for Best Actor. He is pervy, creepy, pathetic and yet absolutely loveable all at the same time. He gets an attack of moral conscience towards the end of the film when he refuses to give in to his lust of the young girl and decides not to be the one to take her virginity, ultimately redeeming himself. The plot weaves in and out of the lives of all the fantastically written characters throughout the story. The pervy father, his bitchy wife, their moody daughter, her slutty friend, the regimental, closet-gay, homophobic, controlling colonel from next door and his creepy son: just fantastic. The beautiful music from Thomas Newman where the paper bag gently flies through the air is reminiscent of Forrest Gump's feather. This is one of the best original screenplays for a movie I have ever seen; one of the best performances from a leading actor of all time and just an absolutely brilliant movie from start to finish. I cannot find any fault with it whatsoever. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅Despite some strong competition in what was admittedly a really good year for new movies, AMERICAN BEAUTY simply is the best one. 10/10

Review date: 09 May 2025