American Psycho

There was an attempt at psychological depth, I suppose, but it came out like a mess, because in my view it doesn’t fully explore the psychological character. I don’t understand why it was necessary to involve crimes against women—if the goal was to highlight Patrick’s mental deterioration (or whatever his name was), it could have been done without so much violence toward women. Too much ruins it. Sure, I get that it satirizes the corporate obsession with perfectionism, but if that was the main focus, it fell flat and didn’t deliver. Patrick’s misogyny was disturbing, and the way women were portrayed and treated in the film was upsetting. If someone tells me “that’s how cinema was back then” or “that’s exactly what makes it psychological,” I still think there are countless masterpieces from 20 years ago that are underrated and handle these themes better. Personally, the film gave me vibes similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I actually think Patrick was gay. The film emphasizes that he’s straight through all the magazines with women, lesbian pornography, and the staged scenes with women, but during the sex scenes he looks in the mirror to feel aroused—a subtle clue, in my opinion, that isn’t about dandism, because there are plenty of well-groomed men who aren’t gay. I still can’t get over how overrated this film is. Sure, there are psychological aspects—the protagonist’s mental deterioration, his obsession with perfection—but it’s a bit cliché, with a rudimentary approach to characterization. The “charm” that got so much social media attention is that Patrick Bateman is presented as a respected, independent man, when in reality he is the opposite. Most people fail to see this subtle psychological layer beneath the surface. He is treated as a nothing; his colleagues always have better—business cards, apartments, wives—while Patrick is mediocre in every way. The true psychological essence of the film, in my opinion, lies in Patrick’s internal monologues. For example, when a woman at a club asks what he does, he says “I kill women,” but it’s unclear if she gets the answer; she continues as if he said “finance and banking.” Here, viewers might miss how Patrick dissimulates his identity, taking his colleagues’ names or switching names altogether. Personally, I got the psychological intention, but many viewers might only see Patrick as an idolized womanizer, when the film’s message is darker. I think the criminal aspect could have been better constructed. At some point, it becomes ridiculous that no one catches him. In American Psycho, the film tries to convey that the crimes weren’t real, but if that was the point, the whole sequence with the women and Paul Allen should have been shown entirely as Patrick’s imagination, without involving real people. As a viewer, it’s confusing—if I see a detective investigating Paul’s disappearance and at the end his lawyer says Paul is actually in London, the logic doesn’t hold. It’s not that I can’t follow the story—it’s poorly framed. At one point, I thought Patrick took his colleagues’ identities out of envy. He had a colleague he resembled, Marcus or something, and people confused them, but my theory doesn’t really hold. Around the middle of the film, when Patrick is called two or three different names, I thought he had a personality disorder, like in Split. Occasionally, when a “click” happens, he switches personalities. I still entertain that idea.