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• Details: 1999, USA, Cert 18, 110 mins, Comedy / Drama, Dir: Sam Mendes

  With: Annette Bening, Kevin Spacey, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Wesley Bentley

  Summary: Kevin Spacey's suburban everyman, married to the uptight Annette Bening, jacks in his job to work in a fast-food restaurant and sets off in lusty pursuit of his daughter's cheerleading classmate.

Our reviews

• Philip French

  Philip French: Mendes manages to give individuality and distinction to some extremely familiar material... the performances are first-rate... [and] the movie has a stylised look that is at once painterly and theatrical

• Peter Bradshaw

  Peter Bradshaw:Flaws and all, this is intelligent, exhilarating, effervescent film-making, and a remarkable debut from Sam Mendes for whom an Academy Award - along with prizes for Spacey and Bening - would now appear to be in order

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