I would like to apologize, first and foremost, for the shortness of this review, Recently I’ve been having some writers block. Hopefully it goes away soon.
Right, so… American Beauty. This film reached out to a lot of audiences back in 1999, but is it still effective today? Some would argue that the film hasn’t held up very well, but I beg to differ. I was legitimately surprised by how good this film was.
Personally, I related to a lot of what this movie had to say, about the difficulty but also the beauty in simple suburban life. And I think that’s why the movie did so well, because everybody could relate to something in this movie.
The film is very similar to Ordinary People. The film has many, many characters. and I can see how that would be convoluting to some. But the film succeeds because we care about these characters, and the ensemble has great chemistry, which helps. The film might have been considerably weaker without some wonderful performances by Kevin Spacey, Anette Bening, and especially Chris Cooper. Unfortunately, the cast does have one weak link – Thora Birch, whose underacting can get pretty distracting. (Hey, that rhymes!)
The pitch perfect cinematography, editing and score prove to enhance the film, and the film never fails at being engaging. Not to mention that Sam Mendes direction really pushes the film to the next level. I enjoyed this film a lot, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it.
*****
Hey, I think I found where they got the inspiration for Beyond: Two Souls!
CONMAN AT THE MOVIES 
The one thing, above all else, that I admire so much about this film, is Mendes’s direction. The way that he balances the comedy and the drama…those tonal shifts, is so wonderful. Without his skirting of so many lines the film would be campy and laughable.
im so glad they chose not to make it a courtroom drama.
I think u r right and it does hold up. I loved it when it came out and then there were a few years where I enjoyed it a bit less, but I once again loved it a few years back and now think great things about it
great review!