Review: American Psycho

       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.

Review: The Dark Knight Rises CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

     The Dark Knight Rises was arguably the most anticipated movie of this year. 2008's The Dark Knight is widely considered the greatest comic book movie ever made, and Christopher Nolan is, in my opinion, the best director making movies right now. Obviously the expectations for the final film in Nolan's Batman trilogy are very high, and it largely delivers. I do have to say that Rises isn't quite as good as it's predecessor, which is largely a factor of the difference in villains and Heath Ledger's unforgettable performance as the Joker. All things considered, The Dark Knight Rises is a fitting end to the what is arguably the best series of movies of the past decade.

     I'm going to warn you now, there are going to be spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the film yet, everything you need to know about my opinion of the movie has been described in the above paragraph. Only continue reading if you have already seen the movie or don't care about having it spoiled for you.

Spoiler-filled summary and analysis after the jump.

Review: The Dark Knight

     Christopher Nolan is the best director in Hollywood right now. Period. Out of all of his films, his worst is Insomnia, which is the only film he directed that he didn't also write, and would be the an average film for any other director. Nolan's always has such a complete vision for his films that you can only get from a director who writes his own movies as well. Nolan's movies have such rich plots and well developed characters, you know that if his name is attached to a film, you are in for a treat. I also enjoy his frequent use of philosophical themes, usually raising questions about what is real and what is not (Following, Memento, The Prestige, Inception). The Dark Knight's main themes don't deal with such metaphysical issues, but rather moral issues, but the film is just as entertaining as any of Nolan's other works.