{"id":349,"date":"2025-08-01T02:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=349"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:38:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:38:26","slug":"american-beauty-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=349","title":{"rendered":"American Beauty-1999"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Beauty-1999<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Sam Mendes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #136<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #70<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60000407\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed June 25, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

American Beauty is a film that holds up magnificently well and packs the same punch as it did when I originally saw it premiered in 1999.<\/p>\n

The film won the Best Picture Oscar in 1999, surprisingly so, as it is not a mainstream film and is edgy, artistic, and poetic.<\/p>\n

The film is a thought-provoking story of the American Dream gone wrong and how most people live ordinary, humdrum, on the surface, happy lives, but ultimately are unhappy, damaged, or otherwise unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

It is a truthful film and reminds me quite a bit of The Ice Storm, a film from 1997.<\/p>\n

American Beauty is not a downer but rather is witty, dark-humored, and filled with dry sarcasm.<\/p>\n

Kevin Spacey is tremendous as the central character going through a mid-life crisis and Annette Bening is frighteningly good as his neurotic, controlling wife.<\/p>\n

Their daughter, played by Thora Birch, has her teenage angst and falls in love with a neighborhood misfit. Every character, even small and supporting, is troubled in some way.<\/p>\n

American Beauty (1999) is a film that was loved or hated at the time of its release; some did not get it or did not want to invest in the thought it requires, but, to me, it’s a work of art, which has achieved a timeless quality.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 5 wins-<\/strong>Best Picture (won)<\/strong>, Best Director-Sam Mendes (won)<\/strong>, Best Actor-Kevin Spacey (won)<\/strong>, Best Actress-Annette Bening, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (won)<\/strong>, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography (won)<\/strong>, Best Film Editing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Beauty-1999 Director Sam Mendes Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening Top 250 Films #136 Scott’s Review #70 Reviewed June 25, 2014 Grade: A American Beauty is a film that holds up magnificently well and packs the same punch as it did when I originally saw it premiered in 1999. The film won the Best Picture … Continue reading American Beauty-1999<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,42,49,179,1589,2071,1777,2110,2112,2111,7464,2578],"tags":[7869,94,1925,1692,58,2116,252,180,1595,2078,1779,2114,2117,2115,7460,2580],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1999-films","category-bestpictureoscar","category-comedies","category-darkcomedies","category-kevin-spacey","category-mena-suvari","category-peter-gallagher","category-sam-mendes","category-scott-bakula","category-thora-birch","category-top-250-films","category-wes-bentley","tag-136-favorite-film","tag-1999-movie-reviews","tag-allison-janney","tag-annette-bening","tag-best-picture-oscar-winners","tag-chris-cooper","tag-comedies","tag-dark-comedies","tag-kevin-spacey","tag-mena-suvari","tag-peter-gallagher","tag-sam-mendes","tag-scott-bakula","tag-thora-birch","tag-top-250-films","tag-wes-bentley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21903,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/21903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}