Talk:American Beauty (1999 film)

Cast section
While I think this is a good article on the film, would it not be a good idea to actually have a section on who plays who and a short blurb on each character?

It must be the first film article I have seen without it.

It all just seems "messages" and "meanings" and "themes"

If no one disagrees I will do it in a week or so.

--TheMightyAllBlacks (talk) 01:40, 28 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi, . I don't know how it looks on the device you're using, but the Plot section has a boxout that lists the main actors and their roles. This is fairly conspicuous on the desktop I'm using. Then, in the Production sections later in the article, there's more of an in-depth Casting subsection. This, combined with the Plot section and cast boxout to my mind would make a separate Cast section redundant. Steve  T • C 20:48, 28 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I came here looking for cast information also, specifically who played which character. It is conspicuous by absence and out of line with all the other major film articles. Can someone please add it? 174.0.48.147 (talk) 23:48, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Madagascar spoof
Should it be on the Reception and Legacy section or not? Espngeek (talk) 12:36, 11 April 2022 (UTC)


 * This reference should be fine, though its spoof from Family Guy might deserve to be mentioned alongside it as well. The latter spoof was a reference point in The Huffington Post's retrospective article on the film in 2019. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-beauty-legacy-20-years-later_n_5d5c344fe4b0d1e1136902be) H.AFI.17 (talk) 14:50, 5 May 2022 (UTC)H.AFI.17

Under Reception and Legacy, should there be separate titles for 'contemporary' reviews and 'retrospective' reviews?
On Wikipedia's entry for the film Titanic (1997 film), its section for critical reception has separate titles for contemporary and retrospective reviews. I think American Beauty should have two separate titles for contemporary and retrospective reviews due to the film's notorious backlash from major publications, as noted in this entry's section for Reception and Legacy:

"A few months after the film's release, reports of a backlash appeared in the American press,[193] and the years since have seen its critical regard wane.[194][195] In 2005, Premiere named American Beauty as one of the 20 "most overrated movies of all time."[196] Mendes accepted the inevitability of the critical reappraisal, saying in 2008, "I thought some of it was entirely justified—it was a little overpraised at the time."[195] In 2019, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, The Huffington Post's Matthew Jacobs wrote that "the film's reputation has tumbled precipitously," adding, "Plenty of classics undergo cultural reappraisals [...] but few have turned into such a widespread punchline."

Additionally, Wikipedia's entries for The Great Ziegfeld and Diamonds Are Forever (film) have separate distinctions for contemporary and retrospective reviews. H.AFI.17 (talk) 14:43, 5 May 2022 (UTC)H.AFI.17

I have two new sources to contribute to American Beauty's retrospective reviews.
Under Reception and legacy, Wikipedia cites several sources for the film's negative reappraisal it received years after its initial popularity. I found two articles that would be worth citing, from The Guardian and Time respectively.

For American Beauty's 20th anniversary, Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine stated, "In 2019, beating up on Sam Mendes’ multi-Oscar-winning American Beauty, released roughly 20 years ago this week, is so painfully easy that it seems unfair. The Best Picture winner has fallen largely out of fashion; it rarely appears on critics’ lists of favorite movies, and its memory seems to have faded for most moviegoers, too."

H.AFI.17 (talk) 15:47, 5 May 2022 (UTC)H.AFI.17

There should be a separate Wikipedia page for American Beauty's themes
I was reading discussions here on editing the tone of American Beauty's themes and analysis section. Should there be a separate Wikipedia page for it as there are separate pages for themes of various films like Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Avatar? This would also help this primary page for American Beauty be more concise.

H.AFI.17 (talk) 00:44, 14 May 2022 (UTC)H.AFI.17H.AFI.17 (talk) 00:44, 14 May 2022 (UTC)