Post by StevePulaski on Jul 21, 2016 0:42:39 GMT -5
American Psycho (2000)
Directed by: Mary Harron
Directed by: Mary Harron
![](http://images.intouchweekly.com/uploads/images/file/28598/american-psycho-patrick-bateman.jpg?fit=crop&h=510&w=680)
Christian Bale in American Psycho.
Rating: ★★★½
Mary Harron's cult-classic American Psycho is a film that revolves around superficial details. By the end of the film, we don't know a thing about the characters of the film, their personalities or beliefs, but we've been told what kind of font and color they've used for their business cards and how competitive and insecure they get about them. In addition, we learn that they love going to restaurants, but only the type that take and honor reservations in addition to overcharging and under-serving. Finally, we know that our main character loves reading far too deeply into the subtext and nuances of conventional 1980s pop tunes like Phil Collins' "Sussudio" and Genesis's "Invisible Touch."
The superficialities run amok in American Psycho, and what better way to satirize and depict the excess and noise garbage generation known as the eighties? This film is less a black comedy than it is a very sinister, psychological drama, simultaneously fusing the lines of satire, social commentary on mental illness and upper-class blasé disillusionment and blurring those lines to create a wickedly entertaining film on all cylinders.
The film is set in New York in the late 1980s, where we focus on an investment banker named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale). His life can be keenly and accurately summarized as one of incredible riches, predicated upon many visits to classy restaurants with his like-minded, shallow coworkers on top of his concern with petty details, such as the way he applies his facial mask and the way he wears his $1,000 suits. These materialistic accoutrements have worked to define his entire personality, and while we're initially begging for more human interest, we realize that once he goes into a five minute monologue about how he readies his image for public consumption each morning, there's not much more beneath the surface.
Until there is. Patrick is a serial killer, murdering basically whomever he feels like, from those who monetarily get in his way, such as a homeless man, to those who challenge his status and his image, like his coworker Paul Allen (Jared Leto). One day, he invites Paul back to his home where Patrick plays they Huey Lewis and The News' song "Hip to Be Square" on his stereo before viciously bludgeoning Paul with a shiny, chrome-axe in response to Paul flaunting his immaculate business card before him and several other men at work that same day. Upon his grisly murder, Patrick races back to Paul's apartment to stage the incident as if Paul has embarked on a business trip to London, meanwhile, Bateman goes on a lust-spree, inviting two hookers back to both his and Paul's apartment in effort to unleash his own sexual prowess and energy.
But come morning, Patrick is as normal as they come; well, as normal as Harron and Guinevere Turner's screenplay would allow such a strange film to be. Characters in this film talk and speak as if the least important subject or detail enters their mind before any important one has the chance at surfacing, and focuses on the idea that Patrick can commit such contemptible, unforgivable acts of brutality yet still operate like a normal human being hours later. It's that kind of mentality inside of him that leads one of to assume the worst and that is mental illness.
And yet, Harron and Turner, working off of the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, pragmatically emphasize the craziness of the era as a contributing factor in the downward spiral of a once presumably sane man. It's not hard to believe that Patrick was once a simple everyman, proud and ecstatic about his position on Wall Street, in addition to being more driven by relationships rather than blood-lust and carnal sensibilities. However, a culture of lawlessness and debauchery, coupled with the insensitive actions so prevalent on the frontlines of Wall Street seem to have turned this man into someone who obsessively tries to make sure his finer details - his watch, briefcase, wallet, belt, and business card - are all better and more aesthetically developed than his coworkers and his general appearance and mannerisms put theirs to shame.
American Psycho captures a frightening and materialistic reality in a way that horrifies and captivates. Bale gives an amazing, career-making performance, the kind capable of raising the air on the back of your neck while you laud the sheer versatility of him as an actor that he exhibits in this ninety-six minute film that races past. One could ostensibly call it a black comedy if the well-written and incredibly well-performed scenes of Patrick describing his love for specific artists and songs weren't so wonderfully offputting. This is a deeply deranged picture; the kind that functions in its own world when it's not eating the cake it is also having in some ways.
Starring: Christian Bale, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, and Josh Lucas. Directed by: Mary Harron.