Halloween reviews: American Psycho

I am not going to review Screams 3-4, simply because Welshy of bliptv. did such a good retrospective, that I won't touch anything other than the first two. My review of Scream 2 is on mattcottermovies.blogspot.com, to coincide with the 2-movies-a-day for October. Today I look at Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' dark psycholgocial satire novel: American Psycho, which mocks 1980's yuppie Wall Street culture. The film is both a brilliant satire, and brilliant psychological horror film. Well, let's take a look at this cult hit based off a cult novel. (Some Mild Spoilers!!)

American Psycho:
Patrick Bateman is a rich, multi-billionaire, self-absorbed yuppie businessman in 1987, surrounded by self-absorbed yuppied billionaire friends. He begins to take a hobby in serial killing to take out his anger and resentment for his own life and high society. But, his views of the world become warped, and he begins to loose his grip on reality. Is Bateman really committing these grisly murders, or is he overly enwrapped in his twisted fantasy life? The film plays brilliantly, with surreal and creepy sequences, which are elevted by the pitch-perfect performance by Christian Bale as Bateman. Being a method actor, Bale saw the character as Ellis and director Mary Harron did, and went through months of physical and mental training to, in essence, become Bateman. This is a truly brilliant performance, Bateman's inner monolgue is twisted and shows what he truly thinks about high society. Bale plays even the most strange and odd scenes straight, and, on a whim, switches mentally from high society asshole, to suave Bond-like figure, to hapless drunkard, to goofy jokester, to unstable psychotic serial killer. The supporting cast are great as well. Willem Dafoe (Boondock Saints, Spiderman) plays an FBI investigator, Donald Kimball. While his role is minor, he comes off with this oura of strangeness to him, that makes him memorable. In fact, the world Bateman inhabits is so strange, he, the psycho killer, is the most relatable. The film centers around him, everyone else being strange little figments of his world. Reese Witherspoon plays Bateman's ditzy fiancee, Evelyn Williams. Chloe Sevigny plays Jean, Bateman's secretary, and the most non-shallow person in his life. Jared Leto (fresh off his brilliant role in Requiem for a Dream) plays Paul Allen, the richest, most stuck-up douchebag in the business world, and one who Bateman both admires, and despises, one he wants to murder, but aspires to be like. Bateman's jealousy and rage towards Allen prompts him to kill him in the infamous axe murder scene. The rest of the cast are great, but Bateman's performance is without a doubt the most powerful. (That's strange, I should have wrote Bale's performance, not Bateman's, that's how good it is, you forget he's acting, you really think he is a psycho killer.) The writing and direction are amazing, and the ending has confused many. I won't give it away, but it lets you decide what to believe, even though the director and writer clearly state what it's supposed to mean. Overall, if you want a trippy, well-acted, sophisticated, satirical, dark horror-thriller with a brilliant lead performance, see American Psycho. 5/5 stars.