It's like Norman Bates getting good advice from Mother.

As the latest mainstream movie symptom of our premillennial malaise, American Beauty is so brilliantly acted, written, directed and visualized that for all its despondency and despair, it is a lot of fun.

An incisive if over-the-top take on familial dysfunction.

Above all, "American Beauty" is about finding peace and a sense of wonder in the least likely of places, such as your inner torment or, failing that, perhaps a floating plastic bag.

Brit Sam Mendes makes an impressive directorial debut with a glossy, well-acted satire of the American burbs, a theatrically stylized meditation that combines the zeitgeist of 1950s Eisnehower with that of 1990s Clinton.

Dark, intelligent, scandalous, emotional, and truthful -- one of the year's best.

This is what movies are all about.

Complexity, say quite a few of my colleagues. Lies, I say.

As the world changed in the past five years, so did the relevance of American Beauty.

A stylish film about an American family that pretends to be moral and enlightened, but revels in its mean-spirited sarcasm and its championing of self-interest.