Movie #22: American Psycho

Her Take: After seeing this movie several times, I am still not exactly sure what to make of it. This movie is based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis. The main character, Patrick Bateman as played by Christian Bale, is an investment banker in the 80s. He is engaged to Reese Witherspoon, although he is cheating on her and seems to loathe her. He starts murdering people, beginning with Paul Allen and moving onto hookers and random strangers on the street. Or, does he? I’m still not sure. But what I do know is that Christian Bale is hot and naked in this movie. That about makes it worth it to watch. That and the satire of yuppies in the 80s. I give this movie 3 stars.

His Take: When I was in the Netherlands and it was awesome and we went to a library and as expected they had mostly books in Dutch and I was still learning Dutch, but not that I’ve actually mastered it or anything, and am totally thinking about learning Spanish now instead, there were a few books in English. So few in fact that I ended up reading Bret Easton Ellis’s Rules of Attraction. Being a fan of Hubert Selby, Martin Amis, and Chuck Palahnuik I fell in love immediately. So it’s no surprise that I’m into American Psycho in a big way. Christian Bale is always amazing in everything he is in. (Why do we not have El Maquinista in our collection?) The movie is pretty standard fair. You’ve got anti-Reagan, anti-80′s yuppie coked out scum. It’s very interesting thinking of this piece as a period piece, but ultimately I think that is exactly what it is. More appropriately, an indictment of that particular period. it might be sick, but my favorite parts, as any of my friends can attest to as we generally quote them, changing them to fit our own contexts of course, include “Don’t just stare at it, eat it!” and the moment he drops the chainsaw and it hits the blond call girl. I love how comical the film is, which further adds to how ridiculous the 80′s were. Seeing Christian Bale doing a bunch of crunches is pretty rad too. Man that dood is buff. Not as badass!(TM) as when he drops down from standing into a pushup in Batman Begins though. The other part of this movie is discussing with your friends if you think the guy is really pulling off these murders or if he’s just insane. This particular viewing I have to go with, he’s just insane and no one is actually dead. But this is one of those movies that I keep flip-flopping around on like Total Recall in what is actually going on. Some people have told me to look for the bloodstain on the collar, but I actually couldn’t see it this time. A fantastic view of how disturbed and out of whack modern capitalist America has become. Love its darkness and comedy. 4.5 out of 5