There were two novels written about the 1980s corporate greed culture. Bret Easton Ellis's gory American Psycho. Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities.
Both novels were difficult to adapt. Feminist director Mary Harron aims to make the story a barbed satire of American corporate Yuppies. Part black comedy and horror.
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is the shallow successful commodities broker and vice president. His life revolves around personal grooming, working out, eating at exclusive restaurants, British pop music and kinky sex with hookers.
Bateman also fantasises about killing people. Homeless peoples, prostitutes and even rivals. There is an amusing scene where his colleagues compare business cards. Bateman is visibly shaken when one of them has a better business card.
Harron wants to highlight the selfish empty vanity of these people. Bateman is empty inside. The only thing that makes him feel alive is going on a killing spree.
The film has an emphasised surreal edge. Maybe it is all in Bateman's mind.
It has an intense performance by Bale. He also gets the black humour that Harron is aiming for. The movie however just peters out in the end and it loses its tension.
American Psycho is also a film that seems to be admired by the same type of audience that liked Fight Club. Not realising that is satirising the boorish machismo men featured in it.
Both novels were difficult to adapt. Feminist director Mary Harron aims to make the story a barbed satire of American corporate Yuppies. Part black comedy and horror.
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is the shallow successful commodities broker and vice president. His life revolves around personal grooming, working out, eating at exclusive restaurants, British pop music and kinky sex with hookers.
Bateman also fantasises about killing people. Homeless peoples, prostitutes and even rivals. There is an amusing scene where his colleagues compare business cards. Bateman is visibly shaken when one of them has a better business card.
Harron wants to highlight the selfish empty vanity of these people. Bateman is empty inside. The only thing that makes him feel alive is going on a killing spree.
The film has an emphasised surreal edge. Maybe it is all in Bateman's mind.
It has an intense performance by Bale. He also gets the black humour that Harron is aiming for. The movie however just peters out in the end and it loses its tension.
American Psycho is also a film that seems to be admired by the same type of audience that liked Fight Club. Not realising that is satirising the boorish machismo men featured in it.