American Psycho
using this to justify a quick american psycho analysis
this year, annoyingly, the only book i read was american psycho. and i’m immensely glad it was. i could go on for pages and pages why bret easton ellis is a literary genius and how patrick bateman is a warning, but that’s the book and i have a separate notes tab for that one.
the movie itself is a brilliant adaptation of the book and should be judged by the highest standards. the message of it is admittedly hard to interpret at first but a quick google search fixes this problem. perhaps christian bale (who is exactly who i imagined patrick bateman to be) and his cuttingly charismatic performance in this film was too good, and the meaning got lost in his phenomenal ability to act out a homocidal lunatic that is spiralling into madness; drowned out by luxury and the egotistical self-centred nature of 90s-yuppie-wall-street. what i mean by this (if my rambling thoughts haven’t skewed my train of thought) is that bale’s performance was soo good that people thought batsman’s actions to be acceptable, the norm and actually desired because he’s good-looking, wealthy and charismatic—the sheer amount edits, memes and accounts of patrick bateman are concerning enough. wait lemme take it back to the movie.
when you actually understand the meaning of the movie itself becomes guiltily entertaining to watch—nothing actually matters for him and he can get away with saying it doing anything he wants as everyone is too self-obsessed to see what is happening (which not only relate to the murders but also actual social problems that elite society ignores) around them. watching christian bale make snarky comments about not being noticed for 1h and 42m was extremely funny and he managed to present bateman as an extremely pathetic man who is ignored by his friends and everyone.
this isn’t actually a full analysis either, just gotta justify my 5 star rating. all time favourite movie; is immaculate.
(also i do not endorse or admire bateman or his disgusting actions, the movie’s ability to manipulate its audience and make me lose my appetite is what fascinates me)