History YMMV / AmericanBeauty

* ValuesResonance: With the pandemic and the following Great Resignation, Lester quitting his unfulfilling job and getting a different one that makes him happy is seen a lot more favorably.

* CondemnedByHistory: The film was a huge hit on its 1999 release with both critics and audiences, winning the Best Picture Oscar in what is still acknowledged as a monumental year for Hollywood. However, 9/11 made its concerns seem shallow, and within 10 years people were reassessing it. In TheNewTens, it has made more than a few "most overrated" film lists, and after #MeToo, the storyline with Lester and Angela began to seem too problematic to overlook the way most audiences had in 1999; it didn't help at all that Lester's actor Kevin Spacey had also been the subject of several allegations that he had molested young men. "The profound ideas at which [the film] grasped now seemed passé at best and clueless at worst," the ''Huffington Post'' wrote on the film's 20th anniversary. Interestingly, Creator/SamMendes and Creator/AlanBall, the film's director and writer, [[CreatorBacklash accepted the film's declining reputation]], with Mendes stating that he felt that his directorial debut was overpraised at the time of release, while Ball said that Spacey's current reputation made the film harder to watch in a current light.

* CondemnedByHistory: The film was a huge hit on its 1999 release with both critics and audiences, winning the Best Picture Oscar in what is still acknowledged as a monumental year for Hollywood. However, 9/11 made its concerns seem shallow, and within 10 years people were reassessing it. In TheNewTens, it has made more than a few "most overrated" film lists, and after #MeToo, the storyline with Lester and Angela began to seem too problematic to overlook the way most audiences had in 1999; it didn't help at all that Lester's actor Kevin Spacey had also been the subject of several allegations that he had molested young men. "The profound ideas at which [the film] grasped now seemed passé at best and clueless at worst," the ''Huffington Post'' wrote on the film's 20th anniversary.

** The gay couple being the most normal characters in the film was intentionally abnormal, that was the point of their role in the film. Surrounded by all these dysfunctional people who are either heterosexual or closeted gay, the openly gay couple who actually knows who they are and aren't afraid of it are of course the happiest people in the film. Alan Ball once witnessed a "bland and boring" heterosexual couple wearing the same outfit, and he said "I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring." Thus, he obviously knew being gay was not considered normal at the time and wanted to portray them as normal as possible in order to smash that negative stereotype of homosexuality being weird or unusual and show the furious stupidity of homophobia, especially evidenced by Frank and Ricky's conversation in the car after first meeting the Jims.

* CondemnedByHistory: The film was a huge hit on its 1999 release with both critics and audiences, winning the Best Picture Oscar in what is still acknowledged as a monumental year for Hollywood. However, 9/11 made its concerns seem shallow, and within 10 years people were reassessing it. In TheNewTens, it has made more than a few "most overrated" film lists, and after [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor #MeToo]] the storyline with Lester and Angela began to seem too problematic to overlook the way most audiences had in 1999; it didn't help at all that Lester's actor Kevin Spacey had also been the subject of several allegations that he had molested young men. "The profound ideas at which [the film] grasped now seemed passé at best and clueless at worst," the ''Huffington Post'' wrote on the film's 20th anniversary.

*** Ricky does not call Jane a proud freak. Jane calls herself and Ricky freaks.

** The film is portraying Lester's fantasies, which end up contrasting heavily with the real thing when it comes to him, hence his turnaround in the moments before his death. How else do you think a film should show a man's sexual fantasies without them being erotic? Seeing the absurd exaggerated eroticism of the fantasies is what allows the contrast of the real thing to feel so off for Lester. Without seeing what he was seeing in his head, we would have a harder time understanding why he declines when he's about to get the real thing.

** There is absolutely no implication that Frank gets away with it in the final cut of the film. There are implications he gets away with it in cut footage, but that has no bearing on the final work, wherein all we see is him going home in a blood-covered shirt. A trial would certainly investigate the neighbors and it's entirely possible they would find that the bullet markings match the weapon that fired it when they inevitably find all of Frank's firearms.

*** ...Huh? Nobody treats it like "the cure for cancer," it simply inspired Ricky and gave him a revelation about the life in all things and the fact that if you look for it, there's beauty everywhere, even in the seemingly mundane. And while the effect in the film is artificial, it was inspired by a real event where writer Alan Ball saw a plastic bag blowing around in the wind, which inspired him to write this film in the first place. If not for a plastic bag blowing around in the wind, this film wouldn't even exist, which alone is a testament to the power of the right image in the right place at the right time being seen by the right person.

** Ricky too, considering he lives with an abusive father and a depressed mother. He's also a bully victim and mocked at school for being different.

** Angela nearly lets a friend's middle aged father take her virginity, and tearfully admits how stupid she feels for it. In 2021, Creator/MenaSuvari revealed in her autobiography that, at the age of 12-13, she was stalked and, eventually, raped by a friend of her brother's and, for a long time, had an unhealthy view of sex. She also revealed that, at the age of 15, her agent tried to abuse her confidence and have sex with her, and, from her 17 to her 20 years, her boyfriend both sexually and psychologically abused her.

** The whole character arc about an older man (played by Creator/KevinSpacey) nearly taking the virginity of a teenager and stopping himself at the last minute when he realizes this is a terrible thing to do, is newly awkward following numerous allegations from men that they had sexual relationships with Spacey when they were underage.

** Lester having to turn down [[spoiler:Frank Fitts who mistakenly believes Lester to be gay]] when Creator/KevinSpacey has viewed himself as bisexual, and in 2017 declared he now would be living completely as a gay man.

** Carolyn treats her family more like employees or pieces of furniture to make her life look better than it actually is. And that's not to mention having an affair. But looking at Lester's flashbacks of her, she was a happy woman once, and just became obsessed with being perfect. She does seem genuinely remorseful when Lester busts her for her affair.
** Angela is vapid and superficial, and it's possible she's only using Jane to feel better about herself. But it's clear that the girl has defined her entire worth to be based on how she looks, and feels she doesn't have anything to owe the world besides her beauty. Her reaction to Ricky telling her she's ugly is actually pretty sad.

** Creator/KevinSpacey's frozen, slack-jawed expression that the camera zooms in on when he sees Angela for the first time, though he was probably meant to look dumb there.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Like several other movies released that same year, such as ''Film/FightClub'' and especially ''Film/OfficeSpace'', this film's depiction of the (predominantly white) American middle class as lacking a clear sense of vision and identity thanks to the banality of day-to-day life, a social issue that has been rendered mostly irrelevant after events such as 9/11, the 2008 recession, and the rise of social media, firmly roots it to the late 90s. Also, Lester's pot smoking being depicted as rebellious would be pretty quaint considering the more relaxed views surrounding marijuana in TheNewTens. Not to mention the gay couple Jim & Jim being considered the most normal couple (and characters) on the film, at a time where homosexuality was considered ''ab''normal and large parts of society did not accept [=LGBT=] people.

* AwardSnub: Despite the praise it received, Music/ThomasNewman's score failed to win a Oscar. Some also were disappointed that Creator/ChrisCooper didn't receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role.

** Angela nearly lets a friend's middle aged father take her virginity, and tearfully admits how stupid she feels for it. In 2021, Creator/MenaSuvari revealed in her autobiography that, at the age of 13, she was stalked and, eventually, raped by a friend of her brother's and, for a long time, had an unhealthy view of sex.

** Angela nearly lets a friend's middle aged father take her virginity, and tearfully admits how stupid she feels for it. Later, Creator/MenaSuvari told the public that she regretted whom her first time was with (albeit this was a "loser" by her words, not a much older man).

* DesignatedHero: The whole movie is supposedly Lester Burnham learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a hyper-critical wife, moody daughter and a boring, soul-crushing job, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' After developing a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela, Lester decides he wants to get in shape because he "wants to look good naked". Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, and tells his boss he'll accuse him of sexual harassment if he doesn't comply. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner and quitting his job without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint''. Even if the family are fine for a while because of the money Lester blackmailed out of his boss, he's still working a minimum-wage job because he wants to feel like a teenager again and violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Jane into shutting up when they challenge him on it - you know, like an abuser. (Not to mention the company could easily disprove his sexual harassment accusation, since the burden of proof would be on Lester and he made it all up.) This is framed as Lester standing up for himself, but Carolyn was right no matter how abrasive she was being about it. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbour, Ricky, who has an extremely controlling father who already sent him to rehab once and having sexual fantasies about fifteen-year-old Angela. Carolyn is so frustrated and upset by her own mundane life and by Lester's behavior she retorts to having an affair with Buddy King, which Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite, you know, [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on a teenager and accusing his wife of being frigid and bloodless for not putting out when he wants her to.]] Meanwhile, Jane gravitates towards Ricky because Carolyn undermines her constantly and Lester outright ignores Jane while lusting over Angela. When Jane calls Lester out on how disgusting his crush on Angela is, he tells her she's "turning into a real bitch - just like your mother!" (which is the last thing in the movie he says to her, by the way). Lester only doesn't outright cross into VillainProtagonist because he declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], but even then he was still willing to get a very vulnerable, emotional teenager naked.

** Thora Birch also goes topless, but this crosses over into FanDisservice since she was [[ValuesDissonance only sixteen years of age.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: For Jane. Hooray, she's escaped the soul-crushing banality of the suburbs and run off to New York!...at the age of fifteen, with her drug-dealer boyfriend. (Also, her mom killed her dad and is probably going to jail.)

* DeaderThanDisco: The film was a huge hit on its 1999 release with both critics and audiences, winning the Best Picture Oscar in what is still acknowledged as a monumental year for Hollywood. However, 9/11 made its concerns seem shallow, and within 10 years people were reassessing it. In TheNewTens, it has made more than a few "most overrated" film lists, and after [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor #MeToo]] the storyline with Lester and Angela began to seem too problematic to overlook the way most audiences had in 1999; it didn't help at all that Lester's actor Kevin Spacey had also been the subject of several allegations that he had molested young men. "The profound ideas at which [the film] grasped now seemed passé at best and clueless at worst," the ''Huffington Post'' wrote on the film's 20th anniversary.

* DesignatedHero: The whole movie is supposedly Lester Burnham learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a hyper-critical wife, moody daughter and a boring, soul-crushing job, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' After developing a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela, Lester decides he wants to get in shape because he "wants to look good naked". Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, and tells his boss he'll accuse him of sexual harassment if he doesn't comply. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner and quitting his job without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint''. Even if the family are fine for a while because of the money Lester blackmailed out of his boss, he's still working a minimum-wage job because he wants to feel like a teenager again and violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Jane into shutting up when they challenge him on it. (Not to mention the company could easily disprove his sexual harassment accusation, since the burden of proof would be on Lester and he made it all up.) This is framed as Lester standing up for himself, but Carolyn was right no matter how abrasive she was being about it. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbour, Ricky, who has an extremely controlling father who already sent him to rehab once and having sexual fantasies about fifteen-year-old Angela. Carolyn is so frustrated and upset by her own mundane life and by Lester's behavior she retorts to having an affair with Buddy King, which Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite, you know, [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on a teenager and accusing his wife of being frigid and bloodless for not putting out when he wants her to.]] Meanwhile, Jane gravitates towards Ricky because Carolyn undermines her constantly and Lester outright ignores Jane while lusting over Angela. When Jane calls Lester out on how disgusting his crush on Angela is, he tells her she's "turning into a real bitch - just like your mother!" (which is the last thing in the movie he says to her, by the way). Lester only doesn't outright cross into VillainProtagonist because he declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], but even then he was still willing to get a very vulnerable, emotional teenager naked.

** Thora Birch also goes topless [[ValuesDissonance at only sixteen years of age!]]

* DesignatedHero: The whole movie is supposedly Lester Burnham learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a hyper-critical wife, moody daughter and a boring, soul-crushing job, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' After developing a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela, Lester decides he wants to get in shape because he "wants to look good naked". Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, and tells his boss he'll accuse him of sexual harassment if he doesn't comply. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner and quitting his job without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint''. Even if the family are fine for a while because of the money Lester blackmailed out of his boss, he's still working a minimum-wage job because he wants to feel like a teenager again and violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Jane into shutting up when they challenge him on it. (Not to mention the company could easily disprove his sexual harassment accusation, since the burden of proof would be on Lester and he made it all up.) This is framed as Lester standing up for himself, but Carolyn was right no matter how abrasive she was being about it. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbour, Ricky, who has an extremely controlling father who already sent him to rehab once and having sexual fantasies about fifteen-year-old Angela. Carolyn is so frustrated and upset by her own mundane life and by Lester's behavior she retorts to having an affair with Buddy King, which Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite, you know, [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on a teenager and accusing his wife of being frigid and bloodless for not putting out when he wants her to.]] Meanwhile, Jane gravitates towards Ricky because Carolyn undermines her constantly and Lester outright ignores Jane while lusting over Angela. When Jane calls Lester out on how disgusting his crush on Angela is, he tells her she's "turning into a real bitch - just like your mother!" (which is the last thing in the movie he says to her, by the way). Lester only doesn't outright cross into VillainProtagonist because he declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], but even then he was still willing to get a very vulnerable, emotional teenager naked. Despite all this [[spoiler: his death]] at the end of the movie is framed as a tragedy and arguably it's only somewhat unfair because [[spoiler: Frank killed Lester over being rejected and terrified he would be outed as gay]] - if it had been Carolyn or Janie, it would have been hard not to cheer them for it.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: For 2010s viewers, the whole thing with Lester in love with a teenager.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation

** In one scene, when Lester and Carolyn are driving to Jane's high school to watch her dance, Lester complains about "missing the Film/JamesBond marathon on Creator/{{TNT}}". This was about 13 years before [[Creator/SamMendes this film's director]] wound up directing [[Film/{{Skyfall}} the 23rd James Bond film]]. It's made all the more perfect by the fact that, supposedly, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Kevin Spacey was Mendes' first choice for the role of that film's Bond villain]].

* DesignatedHero: The whole movie is supposedly Lester Burnham learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a hyper-critical wife, moody daughter and a boring, soul-crushing job, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' After developing a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela, Lester decides he wants to get in shape because he "wants to look good naked". Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, and tells his boss he'll accuse him of sexual harassment if he doesn't comply. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner and quitting his job without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint''. Even if the family are fine for a while because of the money Lester blackmailed out of his boss, he's still working a minimum-wage job because he wants to feel like a teenager again and violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Janie into shutting up when they challenge him on it. (Not to mention the company could easily disprove his sexual harassment accusation, since the burden of proof would be on Lester and he made it all up.) This is framed as Lester standing up for himself, but Carolyn was right no matter how abrasive she was being about it. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbour, Ricky, who has an extremely controlling father who already sent him to rehab once and having sexual fantasies about fifteen-year-old Angela. Carolyn is so frustrated and upset by her own mundane life and by Lester's behavior she retorts to having an affair with Buddy King, which Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite, you know, [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on a teenager and accusing his wife of being frigid and bloodless for not putting out when he wants her to.]] Meanwhile, Jane gravitates towards Ricky because Carolyn undermines her constantly and Lester outright ignores Jane while lusting over Angela. When Jane calls Lester out on how disgusting his crush on Angela is, he tells her she's "turning into a real bitch - just like your mother!" (which is the last thing in the movie he says to her, by the way). Lester only doesn't outright cross into VillainProtagonist because he declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], but even then he was still willing to get a very vulnerable, emotional teenager naked. Despite all this [[spoiler: his death]] at the end of the movie is framed as a tragedy and arguably it's only somewhat unfair because [[spoiler: Frank killed Lester over being rejected and terrified he would be outed as gay]] - if it had been Carolyn or Janie, it would have been hard not to cheer them for it.

* DesignatedHero: The whole movie is supposedly Lester Burnham learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a hyper-critical wife, moody daughter and a boring, soul-crushing job, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' After developing a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela, Lester decides he wants to get in shape because he "wants to look good naked". Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, and tells his boss he'll accuse him of sexual harassment if he doesn't comply. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner and quitting his job without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint''. Even if the family are fine for a while because of the money Lester blackmailed out of his boss, he's still working a minimum-wage job because he wants to feel like a teenager again and violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Janie into shutting up when they challenge him on it. (Not to mention the company could easily disprove his sexual harassment accusation, since the burden of proof would be on Lester and he made it all up.) This is framed as Lester standing up for himself, but Carolyn was right no matter how abrasive she was being about it. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbour, Ricky, who has an extremely controlling father who already sent him to rehab once and having sexual fantasies about fifteen-year-old Angela. Carolyn is so frustrated and upset by her own mundane life and by Lester's behavior she retorts to having an affair with Buddy King, which Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite, you know, [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on a teenager and accusing his wife of being frigid and bloodless for not putting out when he wants her to.]] Meanwhile, Janie gravitates towards Ricky because Carolyn undermines her constantly and Lester outright ignores Janie while lusting over Angela. When Janie calls Lester out on how disgusting his crush on Angela is, he tells her she's "turning into a real bitch - just like your mother!" (which is the last thing in the movie he says to her, by the way). Lester only doesn't outright cross into VillainProtagonist because he declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], but even then he was still willing to get a very vulnerable, emotional teenager naked. Despite all this [[spoiler: his death]] at the end of the movie is framed as a tragedy and arguably it's only somewhat unfair because [[spoiler: Frank killed Lester over being rejected and terrified he would be outed as gay]] - if it had been Carolyn or Janie, it would have been hard not to cheer them for it.