Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Charlene Lydon, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.
This time, continuing our Summer of ’99 season, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty.
1999 was a great year for movies, with a host of massively successful (and cult) hits that would define cinema for a next generation: Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, Fight Club, The Green Mile, The Insider, Run, Lola, Run. The Summer of ’99 season offers a trip through the year in film on the IMDb‘s 250.
Trapped in a loveless marriage and father to a daughter who wants him dead, Lester Burnham finds himself going through a midlife crisis. In the year leading up to his death, Lester attempts to reconnect with his youth and rediscover the man that he once was before the embers die out for good.
At time of recording, it was ranked 73rd on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the best movies of all-time.
Show Notes:
- Note: Darren spends a lot of time mispronouncing “Alan Ball” as “Alan Bell” in this episode. We apologise for the confusion.
- Recorded 31st August 2019.
- American Beauty at The Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDB 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
- Follow Charlene on Twitter.
- Visit the Lighthouse Cinema’s homepage.
- Follow the Lighthouse Cinema on Twitter.
- Billy Dukes at Taste of Country offers a brief introduction to Chris Gaines, June 2019.
- Aoife Barry at The Journal offers a brief timeline of the scandal involving Garth Brooks and Croke Park, July 2014.
- Dustin the Turkey discusses his “Stamp Out Line Dancing” campaign with RTÉ, March 1995.
- Michael Starr at The New York Post reports on the success of The Sopranos at the Emmy nominations, July 1999.
- David J. Kelley reflects on his 1999 Emmy wins with Variety, September 2019.
- David Chase talks to The New York Times about creating and writing The Sopranos, January 2019.
- Matt Zoller Seitz names “College” as the best episode of The Sopranos at Vulture, June 2012.
- Ben Lindbergh at The Ringer discusses the legacy of the Sega Dreamcast, September 2019.
- Jesse Hassenger at The A.V. Club on the diminished reputation of American Beauty twenty years after its release, August 2019.
- Britt Hayes at Birth.Movies.Death on the inevitability of the backlash to American Beauty, January 2015.
- Steven Hyden at Uproxx argues for American Beauty as the worst Best Picture winner, September 2019.
- Guy Lodge at The Guardian on the complicated legacy of American Beauty, September 2019.
- Claudia Eller at The Los Angeles Times on the unlikely international success of American Beauty, March 2000.
- Bernard Weinraub at The New York Times on the production of American Beauty, September 1999.
- Alan Ball discusses the legacy of American Beauty with The Huffington Post, December 2017.
- Eric Killelea at Rolling Stone takes a look at the case of the “Long Island Lolita”, May 2017.
- Sam Mendes talks to The New York Times Magazine about his career, July 2002.
- Kevin Spacey talks to The Dissolve about working with Sam Mendes, May 2014.
- Alan Ball talks to The Telegraph about his own career, May 2001.
- Cybill Disobedience, Cybill Shepherd, April 2000.
- Randall Roberts at The Los Angeles Times on the music of Charles Manson, July 2019.
- Sam Mendes discusses his work on American Beauty with The Guardian, January 2000.
- Sam Mendes talks to The New Yorker about learning the art of direction, September 2018.
- Sam Mendes discusses his relationship with Conrad Hall in The Los Angeles Times, January 2003.
- Alana Massey at Cosmopolitan on the public’s sense of ownership of Britney Spears, February 2017.
- Neil McCormick at The Telegraph on the public’s obsession with Britney Spears’ virginity, February 2002.
- John Cusack denies being in American Beauty, December 2007.
- Ross from Friends without a laugh track, May 2017.
- Ross from Friends without an inner monologue, March 2017.
- Julia Lynn Rubin at Fatherly argues that Euphoria represents a cultural reckoning with American Beauty, August 2019.
- Christina Hendricks confirms on Instagram that it was her hand in the poster for American Beauty, August 2014.
- Thora Birch talks to The Guardian about what happened to her career, January 2014.
- Jay Boyar at The Orlando Sentinel on the “smugness” of American Beauty and Donald Trump, September 1999.
- Alex Wilson at Flypaper on Thomas Newman’s score for American Beauty, August 2018.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: anxiety, awards, best picture, charlene lydon, controversy, film, imdb, kevin spacey, masculinity, millennial, Movie, Oscars, podcast, summer of '99, The 250 |
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