American Psycho (2000)

Title: American Psycho

Year: 2000

Genre: Crime | Drama |

Runtime: 102 min

Director:   Mary Harron

Starring:  Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Chloë Sevigny

7.6/10

A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.

ARTIFICIAL REALITY BECOMES REALITY?

Whatever you might think about a movie, the common opinion change with time as different definitions seem to achieve a changed perspective on the whole thing. It might even become a controversy for some people because of the mature nature of the story in the film. That fact still seems to remain but is also an instant classic when it comes to a movie like American Psycho. It’s absurd at sometimes and degenerates some instant moments to a degree where you don’t know what the true reality looks like. It plays with your mind. It has some surrealism violence, an absurd black comedy that would offense everybody these days. It’s misogynist for its graphic storytelling. But you want to absorb it anyway. You’re drawn in and embrace it more as you seem to know these characters.

For the time being, it’s regarded as a classic. A monument to what it stands for; as it plays around with a different reality just like what Fight Club (1999) and David Fincher did. The novel by Bret Easton Ellis, this adaptation is based on is far by graphic than what this movie depicts. It has been a lot more violent but this one has surrealism behind it to make it less real, I guess.

Christian Bale is a transformative actor, he goes all in for the character he’s playing with diet and strict training. This was his first movie where he took all confident to the role just like other parts he agreed on. His character – Patrick Bateman, a wealthy Wall Street finance man, delves deep in his own psychopathic fantasies.  He is narcissistic and self-aware of his present. But all he wants to do is to fit in with his colleagues. He wants to be part of the club but after the violence and crime he committed, he still doesn’t been taken seriously. He’s a joke to his colleagues.

There’s a lot of signs display explicit to that this is his fantasies played out from his mind. He tries to commit horrible crimes it stills doesn’t work. So, what’s the point if it’s just dreams and fantasies? If it all is fake, why even see this movie?

The execution – direction by Mary Harron is probably what’s saves this movie. Before the instant reveal, which happens at the beginning of the movie, it more like how it’s told. How the story progresses an escalated of a fantasy dream. She showcases through the direction to make this narcissistic and the absurd mind of Bateman to make it realistic, even if it’s a fake out. She makes it believable until the end. The storytelling through selective imagery and cinematographic boundaries pushes the imaginary world a step further to the audience. To control them right to the real reveal of Bateman’s state of mind.

This is a movie that should be so popular but its satiric enough to become appealing for a broader audience. It combines and cross-references several genres as it’s hard to define the true genre of the movie. It wouldn’t work to be released 2019 or 2018. People cry for nothing and complains about everything; it doesn’t work with how the world works now.

It’s a masterpiece and signature of its own time.