I personally thought American Beauty was very, very overrated. The Best movie of the year was obviously The Matrix, as we all know, but it wasn't nominated, though it did win 4 technical awards. THe Best film out of the nominees for me was "The Green Mile", but it had the least chances of winning. All things considered this awards show was considerably less entertaining than the one of 1999, when there was real tension between Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love, and when we saw Roberto Benigni, the most spontaneous and outrageous Oscar winner ever, scream and laugh with joy on the stage. Also 1998's one was quite amazing, with Titanic winning almost everything. I like it better that way than when everything is divided between movies, as happened this year (2002), and last year too.
Review of The 72nd Annual Academy Awards
