"This haunting study of suburban angst may be the best movie of the year." (Sub-heading, not in the body of the review)
"‘American Beauty’ is a flat-out masterpiece, surely the best movie of the year; indeed an all-time classic."
"It is one of the most artistically accomplished, truthful and altogether breathtaking motion pictures… Very few movies are genuinely unforgettable. This is one of them."
"…‘American Beauty’ undermines your expectations, deftly, brilliantly."
"By the end of the movie, which concludes with a moment of metaphysical grace as unforeseen as it is gorgeous, you realize that Ball has shown you something profound about America’s soul."
"No performance in the captivating, uncannily entertaining ‘American Beauty’ is anything short of great, and no film in recent memory has been so perfectly of its moment."
"The hauntingly sublime ‘American Beauty’ is the way we live now."