Every Sam Mendes Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

3. American Beauty

American Beauty Mena Suvari
DreamWorks

Mendes' cinematic directorial debut ended up winning five Oscars, including Best Picture and also Best Director for Mendes, telling a devilishly witty tale of contemporary middle-class discontent topped by fantastic performances from Kevin Spacey (who won the Best Actor Oscar), Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, and Thora Birch.

Though the film has been undeniably and unfortunately recontextualised by Spacey's real-life behaviours, it's one that's nevertheless fascinating to return to at different stages in your life and consider how differently you relate to it - to the younger characters and then the older ones.

While some of its more flowery observations perhaps haven't aged spectacularly - in part due to being so widely parodied in pop culture - it's still a wonderful character piece bolstered by Conrad L. Hall's gorgeous, Oscar-winning lensing, and Thomas Newman's iconic musical score (which somehow didn't win an Oscar).

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.