The Best Film Of The Year

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 1999)

Films like "American Beauty" reinstall my often decreasing faith and love for American cinema. This film showcases in heartbreaking clarity the desire to connect with another human being that each one of us feels. Lester is trying to connect to his daughter through her best friend, his wife is trying to connect with him through having an affair, and his daughter is trying to connect with him through her boyfriend. The boy next door is trying to connect with the beauty he sees in the girl next door, and his father has a desire to connect with his "secret," but pushes that away through his homophobic rantings.
This film vividly portrays how disconnected American society has become by showcasing the "American Dream" as a dreary, empty bore.
I also applaud this film for both laughing at and deeply appreciating all the characters. In the beginning each is a stereotype who evolves through the movie's progression into real people who feel empty and who eventually learn how to enjoy life on some level.
I hope there will be Oscars all around for this film and Kevin Spacey will inevitably win Best Actor. However, I fear this film may suffer a similar fate that "Bulworth" did in 1998. That too was a biting social satire that was grossly underrated by both the public and the Academy.