One of the Best films of 1999!!

Rating: 10/10 (25 September 1999)

A definite addition to my Ten Best List for 1999, is AMERICAN BEAUTY which is sure to earn Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning (robbed in the past for her work in BUGSY and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT), and Alan Ball (most original screenplay to come along in awhile), Oscar nominations. It is the story of what suburban life and the pursuit of the American Dream can do to an American Family. But unlike the critic's darling from a few years ago ICE STORM, which left me freezing, this film is genuinely funny and moving at the same time. The ideas projected by director Sam Mendes literally leap off the screen. Spacey's edgy performance as the ad exec pushed over the brink by the pressures of having to have it all and his passion for "The American Beauty" he missed when he was young enough to enjoy it, offer a visual feast. Annette Benning as the Queen of suburbia, Spacey's wife, is a sort sexy, gorgeous, Martha Stewart gone mad, convinced if she has just one more motivational seminar she will reach nirvana. She is in a word "wonderful." The boy next door is sort of cross between Timothy Hutton in ORDINARY PEOPLE and Benjamin in THE GRADUATE. He deals drugs, observes life around him through a video camera and convinces almost everyone that he is the straight arrow next door. We know immediately, that like everyone else in this movie, he is not as he appears. AMERICAN BEAUTY peals away, layer by layer, this oh so imperfect world of suburbia and those in denial who live there. If you have already seen NOTTING HILL you NEED to see AMERICAN BEAUTY.