Buy it.

Rating: 10/10 (12 May 2000)

This is, without a doubt, one of the best motion pictures I have ever seen. Simply amazing. "American Beauty" is like a horrible dream that is so bad, yet so fascinating you don't want to wake from it because you have to see just what nastiness could possibly happen next. I loved the characters in this movie--all of them. So multi-dimensional, so real. I've read some of the other comments from people who say the movie was too dark, or too depressing, or even too predictable. Well, I've never seen any movie that could turn a flying plastic bag into a work of visual poetry. My only regret after having watched "American Beauty" (apart from not having known people like these in real life) is that there are too many good zingers in the dialogue to even try to remember them all. I simply must get the video when it comes out.