The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1999 features the Academy Awards Best Picture winner, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty. Directed by Sam Mendes from a script by Alan Ball and starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari and Chris Cooper, American Beauty was nominated for eight Oscars and won five, including Best Picture.

The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/american-beauty-1999), Janet Maslin in The New York Times (https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/091599beauty-film-review.html), and David Edelstein in Slate (https://slate.com/culture/1999/09/a-good-year-for-the-roses.html).

Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1999 installment, featuring our producer David Rosen’s pick, Mike Judge’s Office Space.