Both entertaining and thought provoking

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2020)

I decided to watch American Beauty again to see whether my initial rating of 9 would hold up after all of these years. And it does! The work is exquisitely crafted but also manages to walk a fine line between cynicism and hope, which is a rare feat indeed.
Lots of topics are broached here and some will certainly offend some viewers--especially the derogatory depiction of a military family--but as a record of the twentieth-century suburbs, American Beauty no doubt hits home with the many people who grew up in neighborhoods just like Lester´s, peopled with families just like his, with children who attend schools just like his daughter´s, and who had ¨friends¨ just like hers.
Given all of the many plot strands, it is something of a miracle that the director (Sam Mendes) managed to pull this off, and all the more, given that this was his debut. Yet he did. American Beauty richly deserves the acolades heaped upon it and is a true example of tragicomedy for the modern world.