American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty commits to a conclusion that not everyone will appreciate. I found it perfectly right — it refuses easy comfort. If you want tidy resolution you may be frustrated. If you want truth, it delivers.

I didn't expect American Beauty to affect me so deeply. The way Sam Mendes handles repression and release is unlike anything I'd seen before. I came out of it looking at the world differently.

The music in American Beauty is so deeply married to the images that you almost can't separate them. It stays in your head days later and when you hear it again the emotions return immediately.

I first watched American Beauty as a teenager and thought it was fine. Rewatched at 30 and it hit completely differently. The beauty in the mundane undercurrent makes total sense now in a way it didn't before.