American Beauty
Directed By: Sam Mendes
Produced By: Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks
Written By: Alan Ball
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper
Edited By: Tariq Anwar and Christopher Greenbury
Music By: Thomas Newman
Distributed By: Dreamworks Pictures (September 1999)
Budget: $15 million (domestic box office $356 million)
Rating: 10/10
This is one of those films everyone has heard about, be it in references or, if a student, the inevitable analysis in textbooks. For American audiences, raised upon the patriotic ideal of two-parent households in a lovely suburban home with front and backyards, a dog, and Home Owner Associations, American Beauty is the ultimate critique of that. Except its themes can be applied not only to the States, for the cultural problems presented are widespread. Alan Ball’s masterpiece of storytelling takes all the things not only Americans but people in general hide yet are inherently the most important issues of all. In doing so, Ball/Mendes show them off in all their beauty, and all their ugly.
–BE WARNED THAT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HIGH-LEVEL SPOILERS–
