Ditayangkan di Amerika Utara pada 15 September 1999, American Beauty diterima secara positif oleh pengkritik dan penonton. Filem ini mengutip $356 juta di seluruh dunia. Di Anugerah Akademi ke-72 filem ini memenangi kategori Filem Terbaik, Pengarah Terbaik, Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik (untuk Spacey), Lakon Layar Asal Terbaik dan Sinematografi Terbaik.
Anker, Roy M. (2004). "The War of the Roses: Meaning and Epiphany in American Beauty". Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: 345–363. ISBN0-8028-2795-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Chumo II, Peter N. (January 2000). "American Beauty: An Interview with Alan Ball". Creative Screenwriting Magazine. Los Angeles: Creative Screenwriters Group. 7 (1): 26–35. ISSN1084-8665.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Furby, Jacqueline (Winter 2006). "Rhizomatic Time and Temporal Poetics in American Beauty". Film Studies. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press (9): 22–28. ISSN1362-7937.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Hall, Ann C. (2006). Fahy, Thomas Richard (penyunting). "Good Mourning, America: Alan Ball's American Beauty". Considering Alan Ball. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company: 23–32. ISBN978-0-7864-2592-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Lowenstein, Stephen, penyunting (2008). "Sam Mendes on American Beauty". My First Movie: Take Two. New York: Pantheon: 243–275. ISBN978-0-375-42347-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Munt, Sally R. (September 2006). "A Queer Undertaking: Anxiety and reparation in the HBO television drama series Six Feet Under". Feminist Media Studies. London, UK: Routledge. 6 (3): 263–279. doi:10.1080/14680770600802017. ISSN1471-5902.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)