American Psycho

Year: 2000
Starring: Christian Bale, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Defoe
Rotten Tomatoes: 66% fresh
IMDB: 7.4
Tagline: "No Introduction Necessary."

BK Review: This film, based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis, is most certainly in my Top 75 of movies all-time. This was the first movie I saw starring Christian Bale (on DVD, shortly before Batman Begins), and it quickly let me know that if Bale was in a movie, it was probably worth seeing. However, this movie is definitely not for all movie-goers. It might seem slow-moving to some, overly violent to others, or lacking a plot structure that makes sense. I actually like all of these qualities - though I don't actually think its pace was too slow.

Essentially, Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street worker who watches co-workers compare the font of their business cards by day and kills people by night. Or does he? That's the real beauty of this movie to me - some of the actions in the movie seem so absurd that you might expect to be listed as "goofs." Scenes where a person who has to believe every scene he is seeing will dismiss the movie as implausible, but I don't think we are expected to believe that every scene we see in the movie is depicted exactly how it happened.

In addition to Bale, Willem Dafor plays his usual creepy and slightly off role, but he does so perfectly as the detective investigating a missing colleague of Bale's. Witherspoon does a nice job as Bateman's fiancee, and Jared Leto does a solid job playing the all important Paul Allen - a man at the center of the whodunit portions of the film.

In the end, I would very highly recommend this movie - though I would caution who I recommended it to. I would not watch this movie with your parents, nor would I watch it on a first or second date - unless you are really putting your new partner to the test. However, I would go out and rent it for someone who is a Huey Lewis fan, as it may change their lives.

Out of 100, I give American Psycho an 80.

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MD review: This movie was released in 2000, a year following one of the best movie years ever. But I think you have to consider this as part of that great wave of non-indie, entertaining, fresh movies from 1996 - 2000 that seemed to dissipate after 9/11 (see Best Movies of '00's Lists - pretty lackluster). Frankly, American Psycho is fun. The first part that always jumps to mind is the business card scene. The embossing, the borders, and who the hell knew there were so many shades of white ("bone"). The rage on Bateman's face after Luis unsheathes his card is priceless.

Shockingly, this movie was directed by a female - Mary Harron - who has essentially done nothing before or since. She also assisted with the screenplay (with another female), and while the characters' dialogue lacks the crispness of Ellison's book, I believe she does a wonderful job with the direction. She gets a great performance out of Bale, as Brian mentioned. We have now seen this type of performance is the norm, but during my initial viewing, I too was in awe with Bale, which eventually led to me actually watching 20 minutes of The Machinist. But it is not just Bale. All the other actors provide realistic, yet disturbing performances. I particularly enjoyed the two actresses playing the roles of prostitutes that visit Bateman's apartment. To me, they seem to act as though they have seen a lot of crazy shit in their time, but this guy, well, he is something else. Another kudos to Harron - the pacing of the movie is very well done. While it could have come across as a disjointed collection of scenes, she never lets the plot lapse, and while the situations increase in their utter ridiculousness towards the end - culminating with Bateman's lunch with Evelyn - the movie holds together.

Oh, and how great is the chainsaw drop? It is almost cheeky, and you expect Bateman to turn to the camera and shrug his shoulders - as if to say "Yea, who the fuck knows how that happened?" I believe the scene is when you know for sure that the line between reality and Bateman's dream world has surely blurred.

I think the other theme that must be discussed regarding this movie is the vanity and materialism of the times. Bateman's routine for preparing in the morning. The clothes. The VHS tapes. The restaurants, not to mention the reservations. To think, just 5 - 10 years before the time the movie was set, this would have all been so foreign. And now, are things even a bit different in NYC? As an outsider, I suspect it is not. While these scenes all provide an obvious appeal for us watching in the 00's, what is also fascinating is that the movie encapsulates the "birth of pop culture". As is so true with our society since the early 80's, people do not like art because it appeals to them, people like art because the art is forced down their throat. Bateman's inclination towards the commercial albums of Huey Lewis and the News and Phil Collins is a great example. He takes the time to learn so much about these, to formulate thoughts and opinions, but really, a 5 year old could offer the same type of analysis. To me, this is "pop culture".

Finally, I could not watch this movie without thinking of The Bonfire of the Vanities. There, the Masters of the Universe at least worked hard. They traded bonds and made millions everyday. In American Psycho, no one worked at all. Every character was obsessed with the fruits of their labor, but yet, there was no labor. What was the point of this? Why so vapid? Really, each character is no different that those business cards.