Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

By Jack Pooley / March 6, 2018

34. American Beauty (1999)

Though Alan Ball and Sam Mendes' smash hit drama has taken on an unfortunate, queasy new meaning in recent months, American Beauty is a fantastically-wrought character piece about suburban discontent that managed to prevail in a fairly so-so year.

Almost two decades later, the movie has been parodied, dissected and copied enough that some elements don't seem quite so alluring or convincing, but the performances - especially Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Chris Cooper - are never less than first rate.

Yes, the bag scene is a toe-curler and the blowjob misunderstanding feels immensely hokey for a Best Picture winner, but American Beauty's meditations on middle-class existential angst are nothing if not intoxicatingly powerful all the same.