Movie of the Week #9


American Psycho, 2000
Directed by Mary Harron

Brought to you by request this week. Sorry about the delay.

Patrick Bateman (a nice little Psycho reference) is a successful young yuppie. He is the definition of ‘80s culture: greed, excess, vanity, cocaine, and sex. It would seem that he’s got it all going for him. He’s rich, young, powerful, and attractive. However, there is an underlying darkness that is consuming him. Patrick Bateman is also a psychotic serial killer, brutally taking life anywhere he is able to.

American Pyscho is a film that is rather difficult to classify. Is it horror? Comedy? Drama? Thriller? It’s really a little bit of all of them. Sure, it’s chock-full o’ classic horror elements – chainsaws, axes, murder, and blood – but the film isn’t really meant to frighten. It’s as much a satire on yuppie culture and a tense psychological thriller as it is anything else. But, at its core, this film is a dissection of the mentality of an era. Patrick Bateman leads such a shallow existence and is surrounded by so many empty individuals that he finds himself descending further and further into homicidal madness. He cannot control his anger and frustration, and he begins to recognize it. He begins to fear himself, and he becomes afraid for those around him. He tries to warn others, but he is met only with laughter. Harmless little Patrick Bateman could never hurt anyone…could he? By the end of the film, not even the audience knows for sure. What really happened?

Christian Bale gives a very impressive performance in Psycho, which is saying a lot coming from me, as he has never really impressed me in anything else. Sure, his physical transformation for The Machinist was incredible, but his actual acting was about as weak as his body. Here, he provides just the right mix of irresistible charisma, charm, brooding intensity, and, when needed, murderous rage. Despite Reese Witherspoon’s rather pointless role, Bale is ably backed by the strong supporting cast including Jared Leto, Chloë Sevigny, Willem Dafoe, and Josh Lucas.

American Psycho contains one particularly memorable scene that warrants mention. Bateman gets a colleague named Paul Allen (played by Jared Leto) drunk and lures him up to his penthouse apartment. There he spouts about the genius of Huey Lewis’ “Hip To Be Square”, dawns a raincoat, and dismembers Allen with an axe. It’s one of the most brutally hilarious sequences I’ve ever seen, and it’s played impeccably by Bale.

All in all, American Psycho is an immensely entertaining horror/comedy/drama/thriller with a powerhouse performance from its leading man, hysterical satire, and some delightfully twisted moments of death sprinkled throughout.

Previous Movies of the Week:

#1: Gladiator
#2: The Passion of the Christ
#3: Cool Hand Luke
#4: Fight Club
#5: American Beauty
#6: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
#7: GoodFellas
#8: Boogie Nights

This has been on my to-watch list for years. Every chance I've had to watch it has been diverted. *moves to top of Netflix queue*

The film is good but this is a rare case where the book must be read as well to get a complete appreciation for what's going on.

The history of the novel is quite interesting too.

Go on...

The "Controversy" section in this Wikipedia entry covers it fairly well.

I read an article on this somewhere else but that was years ago. I'll see if I can find it again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Psycho

Sonofabitch, I am so sick of that "violence towards women" argument. Who the fuck actually buys that shit?

If you guys had to bet, would you say I enjoyed this movie?

Not a bad movie. The axe scene is hilarious- the joy in his voice when he goes "Hey (name)!" right before he axes him is great. But because it was a movie with a deliberate point, it sort of petered out instead of building to something great. I gave it 4, after typing this, 3 seems more fitting.

I could never get into this. I didn't enjoy the novel either. The book did have it's moments though. The theme is kind of hitting a little close to home of late. I’ve been talking to a girl who is into a decadent life style that I find slightly similar. A nice combination of cocaine, adderall, booze, and nights that always last until 6 am.

My favorite line is when he says "That's bone." regarding his business card.[/i]

the business card scenes are my favorite scenes of the movie. I love the way that something as simple and seemingly meaningless as a business card can mean so much to a person. it really sums up patrick's desire to "fit in". My favorite line in the film has to be the one when patrick says "....his business card was obviously more sophisticated than mine".


This film was requested by myself this week. It is easily my favorite film. I remember watching it the first couple of times and just not "getting it". There was something about the film that just really intrigued me, so I just kept watching it every chance I had.

Christian Bale's performance is nothing short of spectacular. The makeup in this film is also well done, although one may not notice at first. When watching Patrick's most narcissistic and shallow scenes, notice how his face takes on a shiny, plastic kind of look.

Thanks for granting the request and for the excellent review, LV.

3 stars, though i'm not sure what the difference is between 2 and 3.

"don't just stare at is Sabrina, eat it"

I didn't know it was possible to NOT like Christian Bale.

Great movie.

"Wwhhhaaattt?"

I really liked the film, but never seen myself watching it more than once.

just never held that rewatch appeal for me

3 stars

I have to return some video tapes.

Good movie, it's been too long since I have seen it. I think I will have to rent this again.

I'm not complaining about the choice of movies here, because they have all been great discussions but how have we covered 9 movies and not a single comedy in the bunch. Let's lighten this thing up with a comedy next. Who's with me?

american psycho is hillarious. the part where he's naked chasing the girl down the hall way w/ a chain saw is one of the funniest parts of any movie ever

Well, you got a point there, but I mean a true comedy.