American Beauty is a wonderful movie about the dark side of suburbia, and that all that seems well on the outside is not always great on the inside, and what seems creepy on the outside, just really, sometimes, is. It stars Kevin Spacy as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged guy in a failing marriage who goes through a mid-life crisis after being laid off from his job (after managing to extort a great severance package), including buying a convertible, starting work at a fast food place, and trying to nail his high school daughter's best friend, a seemingly slutty cheerleader played by Mena Suvari.
The writing and acting are both top-notch. It has a great ensemble cast with a mix of notable actors and newcomers including Annette Benning as Lester's wife Carolyn, Thora Birch playing Lester's daughter Jane, Wes Bently as Ricky the weird neighbor kid who videotapes almost everything and sells pot, Ricky's abusive and homophobic father played by Chris Cooper, and out of it mother played by Allison Janney. All of the cast members give great performances and the movie definitely deserved its best picture win.
The movie has been re-released on DVD and blu-ray over the years, but for those who get the 1999 original release on DVD, the extras include a commentary track on the movie by the director Sam Mendes and writer Alan Ball, a 22 minute behind the scenes featurette, storyboard sequences, cast and crew biographies and the theatrical trailer. Plus, there is some DVD-ROM content if you play it on a computer.
Overall, the movie is great. Of course, these days, there is the catch-22 of supporting Spacey who has numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him and has basically been blackballed from Hollywood. Of course, he is still likely getting royalties from any sales of the movie, so any purchase does put money in his pocket, but it also supports the other people who made the movie what it was. Even though Spacey was clearly the star of the movie and the fact that he may be an asshole in real life, he was a great actor and his performance certainly did not entirely carry the movie. If you are looking for a great drama (and are one of the few who have not seen the movie yet, some 20 years later) it is definitely worth checking out.
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