In a world increasingly obsessed with appearance and superficiality, the film reminds us that the important thing was, and will be to look closer and find beauty in truth and authenticity. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 10/10 | May 10, 2025

With its clever and thought-provoking exploration of middle-class life, American Beauty continues to ignite conversations and debates, setting it apart from many other films

| Jun 14, 2023

[It's] a movie that years from now will end up on the lists of greatest movies ever made. It's a complete original, at once hugely entertaining and deeply thoughtful, combining comedy, tragedy and philosophy in surprising and gratifying ways.

| Feb 4, 2022

It's a love story, a tale of redemption, a drama of unraveling lifestyles and psychological corrosion, and a poetic tragedy, all wrapped up together.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 9, 2020

[The skewed morality] is not a happy note. But it is a powerful one. That's the thing that makes American Beauty such a compelling feature even now.

| Dec 19, 2019

...a particularly embittered entry in the suburban satire genre.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 16, 2019

American Beauty (1999) is a tragic, absurdist, satirical and dark domestic tale - and the debut feature film of British-London theatrical-stage director Sam Mendes.

| Original Score: A+ | Sep 27, 2019

As faux-deep Oscar bait goes, American Beauty is as broad and predictable as an episode of Three's Company.

| Sep 16, 2019

American Beauty wields its title as a double-edged sword -- as a profoundly harsh and ironic assertion of misplaced values and wasted lives on one side; but as a subtle statement of hope and kindness on the other

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 21, 2019

We never really see the downtrodden nature of Burnham's life pre-awakening, we just take it as a given from Burnham's own sarcastic narration.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2018

The highly entertaining dark comedy American Beauty uses its cardboard characters very well.

| Mar 2, 2018

...magnificent, fresh, debatable, funny and tragicomic. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 27, 2018

American Beauty is deeply disturbing, acerbically funny, brilliantly acted, breathtakingly original and highly sophisticated.

| Feb 22, 2015

A tightly coiled rage seethes beneath the pretty surface of American Beauty, a wickedly funny black comedy directed by newcomer Sam Mendes.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 22, 2015

This is Spacey's best performance since he took home an Oscar for The Usual Suspects.

| Feb 22, 2015

This seriocomic autopsy of middle-class virtue has the capacity to startle and surprise, and a gift for finding grim humor at the heart of tragedy.

| Feb 22, 2015

This engrossing centrepiece meshes with subplots involving Burnham's dysfunctional family and unbalanced neighbours, in a virtuoso study of isolation, repression and fulfilment. Mendes infuses the lush visuals and lyrical script with dramatic panache.

| Feb 22, 2015

The writing is acidically amusing without ever trying to conceal the loneliness at the heart, the direction a perfect frame for the characters and the wonderful performances that create them.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 22, 2015

Kevin Spacey is the greatest actor of his generation, hands down, no contest.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 22, 2015

The film is stunningly poignant, and when first time cinema director Mendes turns his hands to the serious aspects of the disintegration of human souls, the funny lurches to the profound with hardly a flicker of disruption.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 22, 2015