History YMMV / AmericanBeauty

* SignatureScene: Lester imagining a naked Angela above him, surrounded and covered by roses,

** In many ways, ''American Beauty'' is a spiritual successor to ''Literature/{{Babbitt}}'' by Creator/SinclairLewis. Both stories explore the shallowness and boredom of middle-class American life through the experience of a white-collar worker who seems to be living well, yet casts off his previous existence for something more rebellious but proves not to be as meaningful as he thought, and comes back enlightened and ready to make a more serious change.

* {{Narm}}:
** While the message--that beauty is all around us if we know where to look--is fine, many viewers found the way that several of the characters regarded that little plastic bag blowing in the wind as being a little bit overwrought and pretentious. It's a bag caught in an updraft; it might make a very nice image, but it's hardly the cure for cancer or anything as groundbreaking or awe-inspiring as the characters seem to think it is. It's worse when you know the effect is completely artificial; there were two guys with leaf blowers standing just out of the frame to keep it moving for that long.

* ValuesDissonance: The criticism from most of the negative reviewers came mostly about the film appearing to glamorize Lester's chosen lifestyle ''after'' he starts neglecting his responsibilities to his family in favor of buying drugs from and trying to seduce high-school students as a middle-aged man, as well as further trying to avoid responsibility by getting an entry-level job, despite his family's middle-class lifestyle and daughter approaching college age (and also despite the fact that he had blackmailed his way into a nice severance package beforehand and therefore didn't really need a job). Years later, it's much more difficult for viewers to sympathize with Lester's [[FirstWorldProblems boredom with his comfortable life]] and his attempts to find fulfillment, especially after the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11 attacks]] and the Great Recession made a huge impact on American culture.
* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, with the COVID-19 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.

* ValuesDissonance: The criticism from most of the negative reviewers came mostly about the film appearing to glamorize the lifestyle of the man ''after'' he starts neglecting his responsibilities to his family in favor of buying drugs from and trying to seduce high-school students as a middle-aged man, as well as further trying to avoid responsibility by getting an entry-level job, despite his family's middle-class lifestyle and daughter approaching college age (despite the fact that he had blackmailed his way into a nice severance package beforehand and therefore didn't really need a job). Responsibility doesn't seem to go hand in hand with happiness for the protagonist, although it's debatable how "happy" he was at any point in the film.

** Is Lester Burnham a HenpeckedHusband whose pot-smoking, burger-flipping, irresponsible rebellion long-overdue, or is he a jerkass ManChild who antagonizes his family in a case of DisproportionateRetribution — all while fantasizing about a girl his daughter's age?

* RetroactiveRecongition : The hand model for the film's poster is Creator/ChristinaHendricks

* DesignatedHero: Lester Burnham. The whole movie is supposedly him learning how to live his life again after being crushed by a boring, soul-crushing job, hyper-critical wife, and moody teenage daughter, but in doing so he makes everyone around him ''miserable.'' Lester develops a highly creepy and inappropriate crush on his daughter Janie's best friend, Angela. Then he quits his job and blackmails his boss into giving him a severance package, plus benefits, by threatening to accuse him of sexual harassment. When Carolyn calls him out for making her the sole breadwinner without even telling her beforehand, Lester counters that he already has another job...but it's working at a ''burger joint'' for minimum-wage because he wants to feel like a teenager again and he violently throws a plate at the wall to scare Carolyn and Janie into shutting up. Then there's the fact his newfound "freedom" involves him regularly insulting his wife and daughter, buying weed off his teenaged neighbor, Ricky. When Carolyn resorts to having an affair with Buddy King, Lester acts all superior over when he catches them despite [[{{Hypocrite}} leching on teenager]]. 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!". Even though Lester declines to sleep with Angela when the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler: because he finds out she's a virgin]], 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]].

* EsotericHappyEnding: For Jane. Hooray, she's escaped the soul-crushing banality of the suburbs and run off to New York!...at the age of 16, with her drug-dealer boyfriend. Also, the boyfriend's dad killed hers and is implied to have gotten away with it.

** Creator/ThoraBirch plays a teenager whose father struggles to connect with her. In the 2000s her own father (who acted as her manager) would cost her numerous roles because of his StageDad tendencies, him being the reason she was fired from the off-Broadway revival of ''Dracula'' and her career took a serious hit.

* 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 Jane'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. 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.

* 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 Creator/KevinSpacey 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. That being said, there is still an equal number of people who continue to at least praise the film for its artistic value while acknowledging its controversial premise from a modern-day lens.

* 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 Creator/KevinSpacey 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. That said, there is still an equal number of people willing to at least praise the film for its artistic value while acknowledging its controversial premise from a modern-day lens.

* 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 Creator/KevinSpacey 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. That said, there is still an equal number of people willing to at least acknowledge the film for its artistic value while acknowledging its controversial premise from a modern-day lens.

* 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 Creator/KevinSpacey 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.

** Creator/ThoraBirch goes topless at the age of 16. In her next project after this--''Film/TheHole''--her co-star Creator/KeiraKnightley would do the same. And she was only 15, also playing an Angela-like character.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: For present-day viewers, the whole thing with Lester in love with a teenager.

** Creator/ThoraBirch plays a teenager whose father struggles to connect with her. In the 2000s her own father (who acted as her manager) would cost her numerous roles because of his StageDad tendencies, him being the reason that she was fired from the off-Broadway revival of ''Dracula'' and her career took a serious hit.

** Creator/ThoraBirch plays a teenager whose father struggles to connect with her. In the 2000s her own father (who acted as her manager) would cost her numerous roles because of his StageDad tendencies, and her career took a serious hit.

** Colonel Fitts is an abusive father a stereotypical bigot. We later discover [[spoiler: that the main reason he acts the way he does is that he needs a front of tough machismo to hide his homosexuality]]. Becomes something of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds when he [[spoiler: murders Lester.]] Lampshaded by Ricky, whose last words to his father are to say that he pities him (implying that Ricky knows or at least suspects his father's secret shame).

** Colonel Fitts is an abusive father a stereotypical bigot. We later discover [[spoiler: that the main reason he acts the way he does is that he needs a front of tough machismo to hide his homosexuality]]. Becomes something of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds when he [[spoiler: murders Lester.]]

** Angela is vapid and superficial, and it's possible she's only using Jane to feel better about herself. However, 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 offer the world besides her beauty. Her reaction to Ricky telling her she's ugly is actually pretty sad.

* 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.

* 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 Jane'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.

* 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.

** 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 nonconsensual sexual experiences with Spacey when they were underage.

* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, with the COVID—19 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.