Review of American Psycho (2000) by Tom S — 16 Jul 2013

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen this film yet, why not?

Around 1AM in my best friend Snake's basement during the winter of 02', Snake grabbed his "Channel Selector" and tuned into this movie "I had to see." Ninety percent of the movies the elder Snake gave this preface to turned out to be brilliant films, "Goodfellas", "Good Will Hunting", "The Big Lebowski", "Dazed and Confused" but the last feature he wanted to watch in his ample basement on his sharp yet colossal 88 inch TV was "40 Days and 40 Nights" starring Josh Harnett. So I was a little uneasy when Snake declared we were watching "American Psycho", alone, in a dark winter's night, in his basement.

"No Josh Harnett is not in this movie dude but Christian Bale is and he's fucking awesome.".

"Never heard of him.".

"You will dude.".

And thus commenced my first experience of American Psycho.

I guess I got part of the joke on the first try--a dude that puts that ridiculous of an amount of chic sounding products on his face every morning and tells us about his morning ritual, "in the morning if my face gets puffy, I'll put on an ice pack when I'm doing my stomach crunches. I'm up to a thousand now!" couldn't meant to be taken literally. So I laughed with him as told his fiancée he didn't want to marry her because he "can't take the time off work", visibly annoyed as he tried to listen to his new Robert Palmer tape. I got the irony of someone trying to order a "J & B straight and a Corona" in a completely stern, tough guy voice. But when Bateman starting interpreting Huey Lewis lyrics just before he hacked Jared Leno up with an axe, and saw it portrayed in very graphic and bloody fashion, little 16 teenage year old Tommy was confused. As the graphic murders and the ridiculously pretentious gatherings and the obsession with other people's opinions rambled on, my patience waned. And I am very ashamed to report that my first experience of this film took me through about the first hour and no more-I made Snake turn it off after Bateman flexed his muscles in the mirror while having a threesome to Genesis "Su Su sucidio".

I thought the film was "too weird"--the juxtaposition of a graphic axe murder with an interpretation of a Huey Lewis album just irked me, in his hindsight, because I wasn't yet refined enough in my six sense (my sense of irony and humor) to understand that laughter should be the primary reaction of the wise to this film.

Yes, unease, squeamishness, disgust, envy, fear are inevitable biological reactions to parts of American Psycho, especially for virgin eyes, but the belly laughs should outweigh the bellyaches as Christian Bale brings us some of the greatest lines and distinctly unprecedented moments we'll ever witness. He didn't kill Paul Allen because he was at a play, "Oh Africa, Brave Africa" which, in his words, "was a laugh riot." His peers' business cards are so refined that it causes him to sweat and summon all of his powers in restraint to keep from impulsively choking one of them to death. He gives hookers new names and tells them to "answer and respond only to it", then he gets out his video camera and films their threesome with Genesis' "Su su sucidio" blaring in the background as he flexes his muscles at the camera.

"Pumpkin, you're dating a dickweed. Pumpkin, you're dating a tumbling, tumbling dickweed.".

"I have to return some video tapes.".

"You like Phil Collins?".

"Don't just stare at it, eat it.".

"Mistletoe alert.".

"Kristi, that's a very expensive Chardonnay you're not drinking.".

"Hey Paul! Ahhhhhhh!!!!".

"Well he was probably a closet homosexual who did a lot of cocaine. That Yale thing.".

This film is filled with deep reserves of quotables and memorable moments if you just tune your mind in the subtle brilliance of the dialogue, story and Christian Bale's performance of Patrick Bateman. Refrain from taking American Psycho literally, see it as a satire of the Wall Street yuppie alpha dog mindset and whole new viewing experience emerges.

I have seen this film at least twenty times since that winter's night in Snake's basement and each time, I pick up on a subtlety that previously went over my head. What I've grown to understand is that there is only an idea of Patrick Bateman, the human being behind these brutal serial killings simply was not there because no real creation, one that that comprised of more than just flesh and bone, could be capable of these monstrosities. These murders which may or may not have actually happened (the author of the book this film was adapted from, Brett Easton Ellis leaves this issue intentionally open ended, as does the film) are so much more of an indictment of the Wall Street investment banker ego--the need to "fit in", to be seen at the almighty Dorsia with someone else of inflated importance, to have the most impressive business card, the most luxurious condo, etc and Bateman's homicides, whether real or imaginary, represent this ego's grotesque shadow live in Reagan 80's Manhattan.

It's a shadow that shouldn't be dismissed as illusory. The greed and megalomania at its core have led to the second great depression and the largest gap between the 1% and everyone else in our nation since the JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie robber baron days. But after America Psycho, this shadow will never be presented in a more lucid and darkly comedic light.