Review of American Beauty (1999) by Bradley W — 17 Mar 2015

American Beauty is a magical experience, one that leaves you looking at the world in an entirely new view. Sam Mendes crafts a beautiful film about life, personal satisfaction, romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.

Every second grabs you with its transcendent storytelling from Alan Ball's perfect script. It has humor, drama, intrigue, development, and never fails from keeping the viewer engaged. Kevin Spacey is completely and utterly perfect in the role of Lester Burnham.

His hilarious, heartfelt, occasionally dark charisma perfectly matches his characters journey into personal freedom. You could write a book about how this character relates to every human being and what makes him so important, and why Spaceys epic portrayal perfectly captures him.

Annette Benning gives a tragically deep performance about an unhappy wife who takes her depression out on those around her, and its one that is both sympathetic and horribly truthful. You can feel her pain and while she doesn't always do the correct thing, we see something inside her is unsatisfied.

Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper and the rest of the cast are all flawless. Thomas Newman's flawless score also gives the movie a spiritual feel to it. Its rare we see a cast this large and watch them all work this perfectly.

I could go on for hours about what makes American Beauty so perfect and why its so important to cinema. Instead, I will tell you that its a movie you must see because its unlike anything you will ever experience.

What a masterpiece.