American Beauty (1999)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Flawlessly cast and brimming with dark, acid wit, American Beauty is a smart, provocative high point of late '90s mainstream Hollywood film.
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Cast
as Lester Burnham
as Carolyn Burnham
as Jane Burnham
as Ricky Fitts
as Angela Hayes
as Buddy Kane
as Frank Fitts
as Barbara Fitts
as Jim Olymeyer
as Jim Berkley
as Brad Dupree
as Sale House Woman No. 1
as Sale House Man No. 1
as Sale House Man No. 2
as Sale House Woman No. 2
as Sale House Man No. 3
as Sale House Woman No. 3
as Sale House Woman No. 4
as Spartanette No. 1
as Spartanette No. 2
as Spartanette No. 3
as Spartanette No. 4
as Spartanette No. 5
as Spartanette No. 6
as Spartanette No. 7
as Spartanette No. 8
as Spartanette No. 9
as Spartanette No. 10
as Teenage Girl No. 1
as Teenage Girl No. 2
as Christy Kane
as Catering Boss
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Critic Reviews for American Beauty
All Critics (182) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (161) | Rotten (21) | DVD (16)
American Beauty is deeply disturbing, acerbically funny, brilliantly acted, breathtakingly original and highly sophisticated.
This is Spacey's best performance since he took home an Oscar for The Usual Suspects.
Why, then, did I enjoy it so little? Because of its unrelenting self-importance: American Beauty wants us to know, in every shot at every turn, just how clever and mercilessly cutting it is.
Kevin Spacey gives the performance of his life.
Alan Ball's script is a terrific piece of material, and Mendes responds directly to its subversive, provocative vision of a curdled American Dream.
American Beauty approaches a manic, almost cartoonish edge without falling over. Both Spacey and Bening use extraordinary comic timing to bring these very sad, lost characters to life.
Audience Reviews for American Beauty
Love this movie, it never seems dated.
Super Reviewer
Exceptionally quirky, entertainingly intelligent and witty and finally and importantly, stirringly poignant.
Super Reviewer
Lester Burnham is undergoing a serious midlife crisis; pining for his lost youth and obsessing over a teenage cheerleader, he's married to a joyless go-getter who encloses herself in an armour of sarcasm and self-help and has a daughter who he cannot communicate with and clearly hates his guts. Most of the laughs in this film are provided by Lester's social rebellion, but it's communication (or lack thereof) is what this wonderful film is all about. Full of people who feel suffocated by their own apparently meaningless lives, it's a story of ordinary people full of wants and needs but unable to express them because of the overwhelming feeling that they must do what is expected of them; they must at least APPEAR to be "normal". Lester's fantasies about the young girl are just projections of what he feels is missing from his life, just as his wife's desperate need for "success" are. The cast are all perfect, the multi-layered script sparkles with witty dialogue and it's full of memorable moments, culminating in a deeply moving, insightful and thought provoking finale. Genuinely beautiful.
Super Reviewer
American Beauty Quotes
| Ricky Fitts: | But it helps me remember... I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in. |
| Ricky Fitts: | It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in. |
| Ricky Fitts: | She's not your friend. She's just someone you use to feel better about yourself. |
| Ricky Fitts: | It's like God's looking right at you, just for a second, and if you're careful... you can look right back. |
| Jane Burnham: | And what do you see? |
| Ricky Fitts: | Beauty. |