I just finished rereading the book American Psycho and then I rented the movie for $3.99 on Amazon in the next few minutes. I have't read the book since about 2003ish and I haven't seen the movie in well over 15 years, how do they hold up?
American Psycho as a book is incredible to believe was actually published. The book is obviously well written, is a satire, and it is brutal, but moreso it is trying to be offensive in every single way possible and slamming you over the head with it in every way. The main character commits every sin, breaks every taboo, is racist and sexist and homophobic, and all while wearing this guise of not just normalcy but upper crust priviledge that you are foced to contend with what it is saying; we allow and even encourage depravity in our society and we enjoy looking the other way when it shows it face.
The book and the movie both center around Patrick Bateman, a 27 year old Harvard graduated Vice President at a law firm who does nothing (sloth) all day except worry about his image (pride) and envy what others have. He dines out at the best restaurants (gluttony) and fucks various prostitutes and others girlfriends (lust). He is also a serial killer (wrath) who wants everything (greed).
The first 150 pages are a showboat of his moral depravity in various ways as he goes about the little playground that is New York to the rich, and you begin to wonder where this is all going, until he kills a homeless man. Similarly, in the movie, that is paralleled. Once that wall is broken, there are brief sexual forays and violence, clulminating in a crazy night of killings and him getting chased by the police, where he gets away and the end is left ambiguous.
There is certainly in both mediums a heavy amount of suggestion that nothing is indeed happening, that deaths are made-up and that the character is simply experiencing drug hallucinations or fantasies or what-have-you.
The whole dialogue in this case about book versus movie is pointless, because the book is obviously way better, but the cool thing about both is they have stylistic flourishes, hilarious scenes and dialogue, and they truly paint a realistic picture of just how disgustingly vapid, empty, and inhuman the characters in their subject matter are.
The strangest thing I found about the movie on this rewatch is that some of the shots are embarrassingly amateur, and the soundtrack despite being by John Cale is completely unremarkable. If not for Christian Bale, this movie would likely have completely failed. But it is riddled with talent beyond him, and they have quite the cast in this, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Jared Leto, Chloe Sevigny, it's a massive cast of future megastars.
The book is an insane experiment that I wonder what else is even similar to. The movie is fine, a good coming of age movie for me and one that I will always look back on fondly, but honestly 3 stars is what it likely deserves.
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