The Story Archive

American Beauty

Sam Mendes · 1999 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

A suburban magazine writer announces in the first minute that he will be dead within the year, then quits, blackmails his employer, buys a muscle car and starts lifting weights because of his daughter's friend. His wife works real estate and an affair; next door a retired marine colonel searches his son's room. Mendes came from the London stage and took Best Director and Best Picture with his first feature.

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