Some Spoilers Ahead
I’ve been on a spree of watching cult classics lately, and I had American Psycho on my list for a long time. As a diehard Cristian Bale fan, and post watching “You can always get thinner” reels on the gram. I gave American psycho a try and I’m just blown away because it was absolutely magnificent.
Graphic, satire, a film on the yuppie 80’s culture, pretentiousness, the inflated ego of the protagonist, and blurred lines between fantasy and reality. It had all the elements that made me lose my mind and made me put my thinking cap on.
American psycho (2000), based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis (1991), is the kind of film that delves so deep you can analyse it for hours. Did Bateman kill, or was it all his imagination? A film with an open ending. Yes, please.
Plot:
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a wealthy investment banker with two extreme personalities, one of a perfectionist, more like a narcissist and the other of a cold-blooded psychopath, which he hides well. The film shows you how ‘perfect’ he is, eats right, works out etc., until he’s not. The genre of the film is horror/thriller, and people think it’s the killer’s story. But what if I tell you that it’s not?
American Psycho Is Not A Story Of A Killer
The best description of the film’s protagonist, Patrick Bateman, comes from Christopher Lehmann of The New York Times. “Patrick Bateman lives in a morally flat world in which clothes have more value than the skin, objects are worth more than bones, and the human soul is something to be sought with knives and hatchets and drills.“
The film examines our detachment from reality. Like Patrick Bateman, we may be trapped in the approval of others and fail to distinguish fantasies from reality which might distort our vision.
People’s obsession with others’ perceptions and people-pleasing has no catharsis. Bateman is trapped in his hell because he thrives on validation from others. In the last confession of murders that he allegedly committed. He still looks for that validation from others who are as shallow as him.
Everyone we see in Bateman’s company appears to be the same person because all of them are superficial. Even though Bateman tried to fit in the void and the emptiness of his ‘perfect’ lifestyle, he couldn’t. So to escape his shallow, materialistic lifestyle, He has this alter ego, a killer, where he’s killing people in the most bizarre ways.
American psycho shows the materialistic world we live in, where even though he’s carrying a body in a bag, all people notice is the brand of his bag. People’s obsession with a restaurant where no one can make reservations and peak elitism. This film shows it all and delivers.
Bateman is such an intricate character, don’t look at the surface. Try to look through the layers, and you’d see it. Is Patrick Bateman killing people, or all his killings are a figment of his imagination?
Christian Bale is just phenomenal. His monologues where he’s explaining each music album as he plays the cassette to the guests are so hilarious yet so eerie. That’s the kind of actor Bale is, so natural and effortless. This film has many iconic dialogues and Bale’s confession in the end where he says, “My pain is constant and sharp. And I do not hope for a better world for anyone. I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape.” The ways it’s said with so much ease makes it resplendent. Not a single stale moment in the film, and the acting is just stellar for the least.
American Psycho is a great metaphor on humanity, how people lead double lives, the authenticity is gone and it’s often a blur till you lose yourself completely.
There is just SO MUCH YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS FILM! From every dialogue, every moment. American psycho is not just a slasher. It is a satirical masterpiece that leaves you with a head full of thoughts.
Conclusion
Though it might not be for everyone, as the film has gory, graphic, hard-to-watch scenes. For someone who admires satire. It’s a hard 10/10 for me. But there’s nothing that didn’t work for me about this movie. Just super!