AMERICAN PSYCHO (Harron, 2000)

I didn't like AMERICAN PSYCHO when I first saw it, upon its video release. I think maybe I was still a bit too young and didn't really understand what it was going for. Which is strange, as at the time that I saw it, I was going through a total Marxist phase, power to the people and such, and was in an AP American History class where I openly mocked neocon classmates and called them Nazis. Why didn't AMERICAN PSYCHO resonate on a deeper level with me?

It's not like it's subtle or anything (though I did just catch the "Just say no" part for the first time upon this viewing). The social commentary is basically the equivilant of a sledgehammer (or an axe) (or a chainsaw). Bateman dances, fucks, snorts, murders, and lies his way through the full 90 minutes, ensuring that each and every second is filled with action of some type. It's all so over the top that you would think it's impossible to hold a grudge.

But a lot of people don't care for AMERICAN PSYCHO, which I guess I can understand. It paints in broad, damning colors, it's got bright pop music used ironically (and effectively), and it's got Jared Leto in it. There's a lot not to like here. But like it I do, just the same, and truly, I like it more because of all of these things. Leto gets axed in the head, the soundtrack is garish and horrible (excepting New Order, natch), and every male character is portrayed as sexist, racist, homophobic, Republican, and white. There is no room for the other here, but that's the point, obviously.

And that's the thing. Everything about AMERICAN PSYCHO is so obvious and superficial, it's hard to believe that there's anything working underneath. Even the subtext is plain spoken. Just the same, I think that there is a real undercurrent of pain and isolation. One review of the novel noted that all of Bateman's murders are attempts to connect to something real and geniune, outside of his plastic, material existence. That never really comes through in the film, but I think that there is a real attempt on Bateman's part to attain something abstract or intangible. The fact that he takes mercy on his secretary on their "date" is proof that there is something else to him, that Bateman is more than just pure instinct and animalistic rage. It's a single, fleeting moment, but it's there just the same.

Other than that, Bateman is a monster, a funny and realistic monster (which is, of course, the best kind). AMERICAN PSYCHO is a horror film, a fact which I've neglected up until this point, and it's a very good one at that. There are moments of intense violence and bright red gore (though nowhere near the level of the book's descriptions), and in one scene, Bateman even watches THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (for inspiration?). He's clearly a fan of the genre, and every fan of the genre should be a fan of AMERICAN PSYCHO. Great flick.