After being filmed in California from December 1998 to February 1999, American Beauty was released by DreamWorks Pictures in North America on September 17, 1999, receiving widespread critical and popular acclaim.

DreamWorks launched a major campaign to increase American Beauty's chances of Oscar success following its controversial Best Picture snub for Saving Private Ryan (1998) the previous year.

Lester quits his job, blackmails his supervisor Brad into giving him a generous severance package, and starts working as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant.

He also buys his dream car, a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, and starts regularly exercising with coaching from the Jims after overhearing Angela teasing Jane that she would have sex with Lester if he improved his physique.

[6] Mendes considers the voice to be Ball's, but even while the writer was "strongly influential" on set,[5] he often had to accept deviations from his vision,[6] particularly ones that transformed the cynical tone of his script into something more optimistic.

[nb 2][24] The feminist academic and author Sally R. Munt argues that American Beauty uses its "art house" trappings to direct its message of nonconformity primarily to the middle classes, and that this approach is a "cliché of bourgeois preoccupation; ... the underlying premise being that the luxury of finding an individual 'self' through denial and renunciation is always open to those wealthy enough to choose, and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically as a rebel.

The opening combines an unfamiliar viewpoint of the Burnhams' neighborhood with Lester's narrated admission that this is the last year of his life, forcing audiences to consider their own mortality and the beauty around them.

[28] Even Lester's transformation only comes about because of the possibility of sex with Angela; he therefore remains a "willing devotee of the popular media's exaltation of pubescent male sexuality as a sensible route to personal wholeness".

[43] Professor Vincent Hausmann charges that in their reinforcement of masculinity "against threats posed by war, by consumerism, and by feminist and queer challenges", these films present a need to "focus on, and even to privilege" aspects of maleness "deemed 'deviant'".

"[47] The film implies two unfulfilled incestuous desires:[22] Lester's pursuit of Angela is a manifestation of his lust for his own daughter,[48] while Col. Fitts's repression is exhibited through the almost sexualized discipline with which he controls Ricky.

[61] Alan Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus that accompanied the Amy Fisher trial in 1992.

[64] Ball did not expect to sell the script, believing it would act as more of a calling card, but American Beauty drew interest from several production bodies.

[67] With the help of executives Glenn Williamson and Bob Cooper, and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as studio partner, Ball was convinced to develop the project at DreamWorks;[68] he received assurances from the studio—known at the time for its more conventional fare—that it would not "iron the [edges] out".

[nb 7][66] In an unusual move, DreamWorks decided not to option the script;[69] instead, in April 1998, the studio bought it outright[70] for $250,000,[71] outbidding Fox Searchlight Pictures, October Films, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and Lakeshore Entertainment.

[93] Ball remained involved throughout production;[74] he had signed a television show development deal, so had to get permission from his producers to take a year off to be close to American Beauty.

[94] His original bookend scenes—in which Ricky and Jane are prosecuted for Lester's murder after being framed by Col. Fitts[95]—were excised in post-production;[65] the writer later felt the scenes were unnecessary, saying they were a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see § Editing).

"[97] Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway sequence; set in a schoolyard, it presents a "turning point" for Jane in that she chooses to walk home with Ricky instead of going with Angela.

Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a "PTA president coif" hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail-order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a "spotless suburban manor".

[108] He lent Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song "Don't Rain on My Parade", which she enjoyed and persuaded the director to include it for a scene in which Carolyn sings in her car.

"[108] Mendes cut much of Barbara's dialogue,[119] including conversations between Colonel Frank Fitts and her, as he felt that what needed to be said about the pair—their humanity and vulnerability—was conveyed successfully through their shared moments of silence.

[134] He shot the whole film at the same T-stop (T1.9);[143] given his preference for shooting that wide, Hall favored high-speed stocks to allow for more subtle lighting effects.

[146] Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script: "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve [that].

[173] On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted strongly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, markets traditionally "not receptive to this kind of upscale fare".

The website's critics' consensus reads: "Flawlessly cast and brimming with dark, acid wit, American Beauty is a smart, provocative high point of late '90s mainstream Hollywood film.

[190] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who awarded the film four out of four stars, singled Spacey out for successfully portraying a man who "does reckless and foolish things [but who] doesn't deceive himself".

"[198] In The Guardian, critic Guy Lodge wrote "the pushback against American Beauty in the intervening two decades has been swift and merciless – taking root well before Spacey's personal and professional downfall, though that certainly hasn't helped.

Ask film critics of various ages about it now and you will tend to meet with a uniform sneer, along with a blanket dismissal of its cheap-shot picket-fence satire, its broad characterisation, its purportedly misogynistic view of career women, or its awestruck command of metaphor as flimsy and floaty as, well, a plastic bag dancing in the breeze."

Lodge also stated, "You might hear grudging acknowledgement of its formal artistry, including the satin tactility of the late Conrad L Hall's cinematography, or the eerie, echo-y, endlessly imitated percussion of Thomas Newman's once-ubiquitous score.

"[199] Similar to Matthew Jacobs's assessment, Stephanie Zacharek for Time wrote, "In 2019, beating up on Sam Mendes' multi-Oscar-winning American Beauty [...] is so painfully easy that it seems unfair.

It was never intended as straightforward drama, but as garish suburban burlesque: a distorted funhouse mirror reflection of America already at its ugliest, with its performances and petal-strewn visuals expertly heightened to match.