American Psycho (2000)

A mixture of psychological horror, black comedy and social satire, American Psycho is the cinematic adaptation of author Bret Eastons Ellis 1991 novel of the same name. American Psycho is a sendup examination of 1980's Wall Street, yuppie culture, but taking its central character of a 'the heartless investment banker' to the absolute extreme, making him literally a serial killer. Christian Bale gives a memorable performance as Patrick Bateman, a successful, ambitious, cocaine using, philandering, psycho killer. Bateman has apparently enjoyed killing for some time, but lives a mask of respectability (so called) on the surface, including pretend friendships, and even a fiancé (a young Reese Witherspoon), thought in his internal narration he claims to feel nothing for no one (so in many ways he's reminiscent of Dexter Morgan, though less principled). As the film goes on Bateman appears to be losing what grip on reality he has and starts killing more and more people, less and less discriminatingly, all leading up to a somewhat ambiguous conclusion. It's obvious that author Ellis greatly disliked the Reaganite Wall Streak lackies of the 1980's, but he so bludgeons you (like Bateman) with his judgments, that they come off as heavy handed and overinflated, there is no nuance here, though I think there potentially could have been, and that would have been real interesting (I don't know, maybe that stuff's in the book). Still the movie has some memorable moments, a few surprises, and is kind of riveting in a car wreak sense. I enjoyed American Psycho, but found its insight more limited then it appeared to think it was. ***