Review of American Beauty (1999) by Dylan D — 16 Dec 2015

Director Sam Mendes achieves with American Beauty an accomplishment that but a few filmmakers can boast. No, it's not just the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars adorning his mantle, but the way in which he has crafted a picture of such great thematic importance with both the respect the material deserves and craftsmanship that's second-to-none.

Mendes' picture superficially examines sexual, personal, and psychological tensions in and around what might be described as a "typical" slice of suburbia, but he balances it all with an honest look beyond the superficial and an ending that, in the picture's own way, comes to define beauty as it's been hinted at throughout the story, even through the gloominess of a dark and unforgiving final setting.

It's that contrast between light and dark and inner and outer beauty that seems so simple but is so effectively balanced, illustrated, and understood here that the picture was chosen as year's best and Mendes, most deservingly, as top director.

If only Road to Perdition several years later had also earned him the same deserved accolades.