Oscars Rewind: How ‘American Beauty’ Lost Its Luster At the 2000 Academy Awards, the film won five Oscars, including best picture. Then came 9/11, a tanking economy and Kevin Spacey.

As ‘American Beauty’ approaches its 25th anniversary, Geoffrey Macnab looks back at the Oscar-winning film, and says, it should be judged on its own merits, not dismissed due to a string of ...