Great career move, Christian Bale!

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2000)

I can't get the guy out of my head! The performance is chilling and extraordinary. DiCaprio should be kicking himself for not taking this role. Director Mary Harron has treated the very questionable material by Bret Easton Ellis much better than it deserves. She understands that leaving things to our imaginations is much more powerful than actually showing them and the violence in the movie is doubly disturbing precisely because of that. Is it me or it seems that lately women directors like Harron and Kimberley Pierce from "Boys Don't Cry" are bringing much more cojones to movies than the rest of the Hollywood gang? Their movies are streamlined, intelligent, unsentimental, and very well directed. They are kicking male butt. You go, girls! For one, I think Boys Don't Cry was a much better movie than any of the Oscar contenders this year. As for the eighties portrayed in American Psycho, they are suspiciously similar to the nineties and so far to the zeros as well. Insane obsessions with brands and logos, crazy food, restaurant madnesses and a total disregard for anything but money and greed. Ignorant yuppies ruling the world. Sound familiar? American Psycho could have taken place in New York today. The only difference is that instead of Huey Lewis, Patrick Bateman would be deconstructing Britney Spears.