Decently acted by Spacey and Bening, but movie overall relies too much on sex.

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2017)

I cannot believe that IMDb movie reviewers gave American Beauty an 8.6 and audience reviewers an 8.4. This film relies a great deal on sex- serious to silly - and a Lolita theme for it success.
Under the bell curve, either they are too young to have seen really great actors/actresses with real,authentic and thought provoking plots, or they are millennials smoking 'pot' or some other drug.
Since most of them were not exposed to the really great films of the 20th century rated by Columbia in 2001 ; ie, Gone with Wind 8.2, Citizen Kane 8.3, Lawrecne of Arabia 8.3 , Vertigo 8.3 , To kill a Mocking bill 8.3, all below Am. Beauty on IMDb, my reliance on IMDb ratings is dininished greatly, as I am sure many 1000's like me are.