A Dark and Bloody Satire of Capitalism and Masculinity.

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2009)

American Psycho had to be the most surprising movie ever for me. I just watched it because the title was intriguing, I had heard about it before, I figured it couldn't be so bad. I was very tired and about to sleep, but this kept me up with various conflicting emotions.
It is the story of a wealthy bank executive (Christian Bale) who is greedy to reach the top, and just as bloodthirsty. As his greed grows, so does his vanity, his sexual virility, his desire for success, his yearning to kill.
The screenplay is brilliant, and the direction, nearly so. Mary Haddon did both, which is stunning. She calls the movie a feminist movie, and if you think long and hard enough about it, it really is. The man, Bateman, is so vain and egocentric in a distinctly male way, and it is this that leads to his yearning for blood. Nearly all the male characters are the same, and they usually all mark their manliness through the exploitation of women.
This also surprised me because of how deeply funny the movie can be at times. It is a satire of corporate greed and capitalism. There are a few points that are simple laugh-out-loud funny. Near the beginning, our main character boils with rage when his business card is outdone by another that looks exactly like his. In a scene a little later, he videotapes a threesome between himself and two hookers. He doesn't seem to derive any sexual pleasure from the women, but from admiring himself in mirrors. His long dissertations on conformity in popular music to his victims are highly amusing. He is the ultimate symbol of capitalism.
I didn't really want to like this movie because of Christian Bale. He seems like a horrible person. But his acting is superb, grade A, so I cannot complain about that. This is one of his best performances (I like to think because he relates to this character so much).
The only thing I have to complain about is Haddon's portrayal of violence. Bret Easton Ellis's book's very graphic descriptions of violence are what made it so controversial. However, Haddon backs away from the violence. She doesn't show much of it at all, which is a fault, because it shies away from the symbolism, and in a little bit of a way, makes the violence less of an issue, which it should not be (I subscribe heavily to the message of Funny Games).
But overall, I think it's brilliant. It's demented, it's substantial, it's funny. It's kind of like an even darker American Beauty. And it all completely works.