I've heard about American Psycho for
quite a while now. It's cultural relevance has been on the rise with
the online popularity of .gifs taken from the film, as well as the
recent increased star power of Christian Bale since becoming Batman.
I was surprised not by the level of violence and sex in the film (I
was expecting that). What surprised me was the amount of satire. Not
only does the film lampoon the Yuppie culture of the 1980s
(conformity and the importance of social standing and financial
success), but also the satirization of male vanity. Christian Bale
plays Patrick Bateman not like the Norman Bates type serial killer
from Hitchcock's Psycho, but
as an outgoing, ambitious businessman whose dog-eat-dog professional
viciousness is paralleled in his murders. American Psycho
was billed as the next Fight
Club, and while the two films
are cut from a similar cloth, American Psycho lacks
the fun quirkiness and impact of it's predecessor.
