"I have to return some videotapes"

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2016)

An adaptation of a novel of the same name, American Psycho stars an excellent Christian Bale as the strutting, Narcissistic corporate high-flyer Patrick Bateman (a nod to Norman Bates?), in a mind-numbingly artificial and greed-obsessed mid 80's. His colleagues and acquaintances (and, indeed, Patrick himself, as he admits in the beginning) are completely hollow, devoid of any emotion and concerned only with prestige enhancing finery like business cards and restaurant reservations. The film oozes eighties cool: the suits, the hair, the music, the clubs, the apartments, the dresses, the dinners and of course the money. Harron and Guinevere Turner's script is crisp, frightening and funny. Although the film is Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) brutal, they skilfully reared it in compared to the source material. The script's quality pulls you in so many conflicting directions: are we supposed to laugh or hide behind our popcorn? Is this happening or not? And the odd feeling of do we want Patrick to get caught or not?
"American Psycho" gets pretty much everything right: music by John Cale will have you singing the pop songs days later; duel visuals by cinematographer Andrzej Sekula shows grim New York streets of the homeless, against the decadence of Wall Street, which keeps in harmony with the film's conflicting theme; Isis Mussenden's costume design is detail perfect, rather than hamming it up with Dallas-like shoulder pads, Mussenden clothes the cast with sophistication and taste; and let's not forget a career launching performance from the always great Bale as Patrick: that glazed stare, privileged accent, creaseless shirt and flawless physique says more about the character than hours of exposition ever could. Bale's performance is outstanding. He shows all the characteristics of a serial killer (obsessive neatness, ridiculous over-articulation and a pedantic hyper-analysis of everything from business cards to Phil Collins albums) but in an incredibly subtle and underplayed way, as befits someone who is trying to keep this in check. The supporting cast is also spectacular; Jared Leto plays an arrogant, ultimately doomed colleague, Chloe Sevigny is Bateman's shy secretary and the only one person who seems to 'get' him. Reese Witherspoon makes brief but brilliant appearances as his fiancé. Bateman's murder sprees are much more amusing than they are disturbing (watch out for him running around naked wielding a chainsaw) and provide a few good laughs, as does his obsession with looking good. Any movie that can have the killer taking time to exfoliate and make it work is a winner in my book! The story is highly original; I won't deny that I was completely lost in the last 5 minutes of the film but it's so entertaining I didn't even mind. This is a top quality film made even better by superb acting and directing.
Overall rating: 9 out of 10.