27 Years Ago Today, This Kevin Spacey Film Premiered, Then Ranked No. 11 Among the Greatest Movies of All Time

Twenty-seven years ago today, on September 7, 1999, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty premiered in Los Angeles, introducing audiences to one of the most unsettling portraits of American suburban life of its era.

Written by Alan Ball and led by Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch, the film turned the apparently comfortable world of manicured lawns, immaculate houses, and family dinners into a darkly comic study of dissatisfaction, desire, and emotional decay.

Its impact was immediate. By March 2000, American Beauty had collected five Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Mendes, Best Actor for Spacey, Best Original Screenplay for Ball, and Best Cinematography for Conrad L. Hall.

An Oscar Winner That Entered the Canon

The more interesting part of American Beauty’s legacy, however, is how firmly it entered popular conceptions of the greatest films of its generation. Empire’s all-time polling provides unusually clear evidence.

In the magazine’s 2003 ranking of the 100 greatest movies of all time, American Beauty landed at No. 31, ahead of films including Aliens, Back to the Future, and Apocalypse Now. It performed even better in Empire’s 2007 poll, reaching No. 11, placing it among films such as The Matrix, Goodfellas and The Empire Strikes Back.

Indeed, American Beauty did rank above both The Matrix and Goodfellas in specific Empire polls conducted over the years.

Poll	American Beauty Rank	Goodfellas Rank	The Matrix Rank
Empire (2001 Poll)	14	8	5
Empire Australian Edition (2007 Poll)	12	10	11
Empire (2014 Poll)	30	13	23

The table above show how American Beauty performed better relative to these two films in earlier polls. It did rank lower than both The Matrix and Goodfellas in the 2001 poll, but by the 2007 Australian poll, it had climbed to #12, placing it just behind Goodfellas (#10) but ahead of The Matrix (#11). Then in later years, such as the 2014 poll, both Goodfellas and The Matrix were ranked significantly higher.

Time Has Complicated Its Reputation

Its standing has since become more complicated. While Empire’s 2017 readers’ poll placed American Beauty at No. 60 (a substantial fall from its earlier positions), sharing the 100-film canon with The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo, and Seven Samurai is no small feat after nearly two decades.

In fact, the fall to no.60 says something important about the film’s place in cinema.

American Beauty may no longer command the near-universal reverence that greeted it around the turn of the millennium, yet its presence across multiple all-time polls demonstrates remarkable staying power. Its sharp performances, stylized cinematography and brutally observant examination of suburban emptiness made it far more than an Oscar winner.

For a film released in 1999, its journey through successive “greatest” lists remains an unusually revealing measure of how cultural reputations evolve.

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3 Major Questions ‘Silo’ Still Needs to Answer

It’s been a long time since I can remember a show increasing the stakes like Apple TV’s Silo just did. A slow-burn drama for its first couple of seasons, the third season kicked everything up several notches in the last three episodes by tying the past and present timelines together and delivering answers about the show’s lore that we’ve been curious about since the beginning.

There are still plenty of questions left entering the final season next summer. Here are three major ones.

Are Daniel and Juliette related?

The two protagonists that we’re rooting for might be connected more than we could have imagined at the beginning of the season. Could Daniel and Juliette be related? Is Juliette an ancestor of Daniel? It would make sense since Daniel’s pregnant wife is stuck in Silo 18 now, and that’s where Juliette is living. The camera work is also a key here. A strong focus on Daniel looking at Juliette’s eyes has to mean something, right? They wouldn’t just do that for no reason. This will surely be answered as the two characters meet and interact in the final season.

Where is Per Stenson?

Colin Hanks and Jessica Henwick in “Silo” Season 3

Apple TV

Stenson was the man who funded the silo project, but he was nowhere to be seen in the final episode of season 3. Is he not as important as we thought? Perhaps he just served as the financial means to an end, and the government officials, specifically Rosalind Thurman, are the ones who make the final decisions. We thought he was the one to blame for everything, but perhaps there’s someone even deeper down that deserves the antagonist label.

How far did the apocalypse spread?

Now that we see the air is actually clean outside the silos, it’s fair to ask how far the apocalypse actually spread. Is the world fine outside of where the nuclear weapon was dropped in Georgia? Or was there an even greater catastrophe that we haven’t seen yet?

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WWE’s Cody Rhodes Shares Heartfelt Tribute to Andy ‘The Butcher’ Williams

The wrestling and music worlds continue to mourn the loss of Andy “The Butcher” Williams, who sadly died after suffering a medical emergency near the end of his tag team match at Enjoy Wrestling on Sept. 5. He was 48.

Cody Rhodes, who was involved in Williams’ All Elite Wrestling debut in 2019, has since issued a heartfelt tribute to him. Rhodes, a former EVP and in-ring performer for AEW, admitted that he didn’t spend as much time with Williams on a personal level as he would have liked. Still, Williams’ kind and creative spirit was clear.

“When I was away from WWE, I actually — him and Blade (also known as Pepper Parks) and Bunny — we had recruited them to do this really fun debut,” Rhodes told Outkick in a new interview. “He came up under the ring and they beat me up, and I definitely didn’t get to spend near enough time with him as a person. But all the things you’re hearing about him in terms of how warm and charismatic and interesting — not a guy that needed the gig, he had another gig, and super cultured and intelligent. And again, The Butcher — you see this big, just the mustache and the tattoos and the muscles. Maybe if you had judged that book by its cover, you wouldn’t know how truly special, intelligent, artistic, and beautiful of a person that he was.”

Guitarist Andy Williams of American hard rock group Every Time I Die performing live on the Maverick Stage at Download Festival, on June 13, 2015.
(Photo by Adam Gasson/Total Guitar Magazine/Future via Getty Images)

Rhodes further described Williams as a man that touched the lives of those around him, so much so that all “100%” of the locker rooms have “a good memory and a good story about him.” Williams spent nearly seven years working in AEW alongside The Blade, his tag team partner. Outside of wrestling, he performed as the guitarist for the metal band Every Time I Die.

Rhodes left AEW in early 2022. He marked his official return to WWE shortly after at WrestleMania 38.

Next: Top WWE Superstar Takes on the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS

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New U.S. Nutrition Guidelines Make Surprising Reversal on Full-Fat Dairy

America’s decades-long push toward skim milk just hit a major reversal. The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 say, “When consuming dairy, include full-fat dairy with no added sugars.” The document adds, “Dairy is an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.”

That puts whole milk, plain full-fat yogurt, and traditional cheese back on the table. It does not make saturated fat irrelevant; it suggests that automatically choosing fat-free dairy is no longer the government’s default answer.

Next: 4 Popular Grocery Items Don’t Need Refrigeration, but Americans Keep Chilling Them

Full-Fat Dairy Didn’t Worsen Key Heart Markers

Phot by Getty Images

Scientists call the context the dairy food matrix: Fat arrives alongside protein, calcium, phosphorus, and other components whose structure may affect the body’s response.

In a randomized controlled trial, 72 adults with metabolic syndrome ate diets rich in low-fat dairy, full-fat dairy, or limited dairy for 12 weeks. Researchers reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that full-fat dairy “had no effects on fasting lipid profile or blood pressure” versus the other diets. They concluded: “Dairy fat, when consumed as part of complex whole foods, does not adversely affect these classic CVD risk factors.”

That is reassuring, but the relatively small, short trial does not prove that unlimited full-fat dairy prevents heart disease.

Next: Popular Sugar Substitute Linked to 57% Higher Risk of Heart Attack or Stroke

The Heart-Health Advice Is Not Settled

The American Heart Association has not followed the federal pivot. Its current dairy guidance says, “For adults and children age 2 and older, we recommend choosing milk and milk products that are low in dairy fats.” It adds: “Fat-free and 1% fat milk provide slightly more nutrients than whole milk and 2% fat milk and are much lower in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories.”

Translation: Full-fat dairy can fit, but your LDL level, family history, and overall saturated-fat intake still matter.

Next: New Study Reveals Why Taking a Break From Your Diet Could Help With Fat Loss

Don’t Overstate the Vitamin D Advantage

Vitamin D is fat-soluble, and a randomized trial found that fat eaten with a vitamin D supplement “significantly enhances absorption”. But the study tested supplements with meals—not fortified whole milk against skim milk. Other meal fat can help, so it does not prove full-fat dairy is superior.

Fat supplies nine calories per gram, versus four for protein or carbohydrate. Choose the version you enjoy and can portion consistently; favor unsweetened yogurt and minimally processed cheese over sugary dairy desserts.

Related: I’m a Nutritionist: This Is What People Get Wrong About the Sugar in Fruit

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'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' Ranked 'Best Western Movie in Film History'

Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone were a match made in Western movie heaven. The Dollars Trilogy is iconic in every sense of the word, with Leone paving the way as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western. Consisting of A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), the legendary filmmaker’s trilogy is still revered today as the gold standard of Westerns, spaghetti or otherwise.

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ Ranked ‘Best Western Movie in Film History’

Recently, Collider published a list of the “10 Best Western Movies in Film History.” Sitting pretty at No. 1 is the finale of Leone’s famed trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s a well-deserved designation for this film.

Released on Dec. 23, 1966, in Italy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (for the uninitiated) follows three men “in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.” It stars Eastwood as Blondie (“The Good”), Lee Van Cleef as Sentenza (“The Bad”), Eli Wallach as Tuco (“The Ugly”), Aldo Giuffrè as Alcoholic Union Captain, Antonio Casas as Stevens, Rada Rassimov as Maria, and Luigi Pistilli as Father Pablo Ramirez. Leone directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Luciano Vincenzoni and Age & Scarpelli, based on a story by Leone and Vincenzoni.

Reviews were mixed at the time of the beloved Western’s release, with critics taking aim at Leone’s depiction of unmitigated violence. However, Leone intended to satirize the violence in Westerns and capture a realistic portrait of modern society. ”The West was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures,” he explained.

Of course, retrospectives have painted The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in a much better light over the decades. It boasts near-perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes, sitting at 97% on the review aggregator’s Tomatometer and Popcornmeter.

Collider lauds the spaghetti Western as Leone’s magnum opus (one that holds up remarkably well), bolstered by compelling performances and “some of the most engrossing action scenes in the genre’s history.” Interestingly enough, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was almost Leone’s final Western movie—until a few years later, when Leone’s favorite actor, Henry Fonda, came along, ushering in Once Upon a Time in the West.

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Skechers' Well-Cushioned 3D Energy Slip-in Sneakers Are Now Only $34 at Nordstrom Rack

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In This Story

Skechers Slip-In 3D Energy Sneakers, $34 (was $140)

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Why We Love This Deal

Nordstrom Rack’s Clear the Rack Sale just went live, and you’ll have a chance to save an extra 25% off clearance styles until Sept. 7. Lately, the Rack has been a big hub for Skechers deals, and they’re leaning hard on the brand’s hands-free Slip-In lineup for this event, marking down styles that normally retail for well above $100. One of them is the 3D Energy slip-on, and during the big sale, you can get a pair for under $35. 

The Skechers Slip-In 3D Energy Sneakers would normally run you $140, but thanks to this sale, you can get them for $34. They were marked down to $46, but with the extra 25% that comes from the Clear the Rack Sale, the price gets even sweeter. If you want more options, there are plenty of other Skechers slip-on deals to check out before the event’s over, including running shoes, casual shoes, and more.

Skechers Slip-In 3D Energy Sneakers, $34 (was $140) at Nordstrom Rack

The Skechers Slip-In 3D Energy Sneakers.

Courtesy of Nordstrom Rack

Shop at Nordstrom Rack

What Shoppers Should Know

• Upper: Textile
• Midsole: Air-cooled memory foam
• Outsole: Rubber
• Best For: Everyday wear, errands, extra support

Skechers combined the slip-on ease of the Slip-In line with the 3D Energy’s 3D-printed lattice midsole, resulting in a hybrid pair of sneakers with tons of support. You get an air-cooled memory foam midsole and a molded heel panel that’ll hold shape and keep things hands-free. They’re better for standing and short walks rather than serious running, but the hands-free design makes them an easy choice as a daily driver. 

$34 is much lower than even the sale price of anything in Skechers’ hands-free lineup, because those silhouettes normally retail for $80, and most sales bottom out around $50. So if you’ve been waiting for a big deal, this is the one. 

Related: Skechers Makes a $49 Carbon-Plated Running Shoe That’s Taking on Legacy Running Brands

Skechers’ Slip-In Line

The Slip-In line is built around the Heel Pillow, a molded heel panel that lets you step into the shoes hands-free without them collapsing. And this model pairs that with 3D energy features like the 3D-printed lattice midsole and air-cooled memory foam insole. There aren’t a ton of reviews for this particular model, but the lineup is known for its comfort. 

If you need extra support or just appreciate not having to tie your shoes, the Skechers Slip-In 3D Energy Sneakers are well worth the $34. Just keep in mind that Nordstrom’s Clear the Rack Sale ends on Sept. 7.

Also Check Out

• Skechers Stamina Slip-On Sneaker, $28 (was $100) at Nordstrom Rack
• Skechers Slip-Ins Max Cushioning Running Shoe, $60 (was $200) at Nordstrom Rack
• Skechers Hands Free Slip-Ins Max Cushioning Running Shoe, $60 (was $115) at Nordstrom Rack

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One of the 2000s' Biggest Rock Bands Is Opening the Vault 21 Years Later

The All-American Rejects are looking back at the album that took them from breakout pop-punk band to arena headliners.

The band released a new deluxe edition of its 3x-platinum sophomore album, Move Along, on Sept. 4, celebrating the record’s 21st anniversary with three bonus tracks and newly released archival footage.

Originally released on July 12, 2005, Move Along arrived at a pivotal moment for the Oklahoma rockers. The All-American Rejects had already found success with their 2002 self-titled debut, but their follow-up would take the band to another level.

The album debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, giving the group its first Top 10 entry. It also produced three of the biggest songs of the band’s career: “Dirty Little Secret,” “Move Along” and “It Ends Tonight.”

“Dirty Little Secret” became a particularly massive hit, reaching the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually earning a 6x-platinum certification. More than two decades later, the album has generated approximately 1.6 billion streams across platforms.

The new deluxe edition gives fans a reason to revisit the record while adding three sought-after bonus tracks: “Kiss Yourself Goodbye,” “Bite Back” and “Eyelash Wishes.” The expanded release is now available on vinyl, CD and digital formats, including a limited-edition Clear Glitter Vinyl 2LP available exclusively through the band’s official store and uDiscover.

The anniversary release also opens the vault for a newly released “Dirty Little Secret (Tournado DVD Version)” video. The archival footage was captured during a 2006 performance at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, Minnesota, during the band’s Tournado Tour.

In May, the band released Sandbox, its first full-length album in 14 years, before taking its music directly to fans through a series of unconventional pop-up performances.

RELATED: 61 Years Ago Today, The Doors Recorded Six Songs Before Fame

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