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

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.