American Psycho

There are many different takeaways from this movie. “There is a moment of sheer panic when I realize that Paul's apartment overlooks the park and is obviously more expensive than mine.” This is the perfect window into Patrick’s soul. He is possibly the most insecure character I’ve ever seen portrayed in fiction. He has no sense of identity or self worth. He is hyper aware of his own desensitization and how it is ruining his life. What he wants more than anything is to be recognized, remembered. He doesn’t care about how or why. He doesn’t care about consequences. His own distaste for life has driven him past that. This drives him to be extremely performative in hopes that by pretending to be a certain way, it will begin to become his reality. The problem is, all he does is emulate others around him, and they are all out of touch as well. His colleagues are drowning in confusion and superficiality as well. There is nothing real about any of them. It’s all just for shits and giggles. There is no authenticity. Bateman’s wish does come true. The facade he maintains does come to fruition. He just failed to realize there was no meaning in any of those people either. It’s ironic honestly. Here’s the real question: did he actually kill anyone? I think yes… and no. Hear me out. I like to think of it as Schrödinger’s Bateman, if you will. From the perspective of the audience using our real world logic, it seems impossible that he could’ve done everything as portrayed without being caught. I think this is valid and intentional. However, the story is told by Bateman. It is even narrated by him. We see his perspective of everything. He wants to get caught. He wants to achieve some kind of social image and fame, even if it is infamy. He just wants recognition. He seeks identity. We see him at his most vulnerable and most exposed. We see everything that the rest of his world doesn’t. The murders were experiments once again emulating others to try and find purpose. Hence his confession over the phone. It makes absolute sense from his line of thinking that he would actually do everything that was shown. And it makes even more sense that he’s almost angry that nobody seems to care about what he did. “There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed… But even after admitting this… my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself… This confession has meant nothing.” There’s so much more to say about this movie. I haven’t even touched on the cultural commentary, cautionary aspects, or toxic masculinity. But I’ll let others address this topics. The last thing I’ll leave you with is those. Who is Patrick Bateman? He is nobody.