Brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (25 March 2002)

American Beauty **** First-time director Sam Mendez strikes gold with this brillaintly written and phenomenally acted movie about the horrors of everyday suburban families. Kevin Spacey deserves his Oscar in the title role of Lester Burnham, while Annete Benning, Thora Birch, Mena Suarvi, and Chris Cooper add great support. Mendez's direction is flawless, creating a scary, dark, and sometimes hysterically funny movie, which is one of the best of it's decade