Quiet, understated brilliance in Bale's (re)breakout role

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2019)

American Psycho is a genre-defining piece, if only for its quotability and warped outlook on the modern USA. Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) is the ultimate pseudo-horror character: precise, meticulous and superficially perfect. However, below this exterior, Bateman shows a twisted mind obsessed with murder and torture, a profile he struggles to hide throughout his everyday life. As the film progresses, the mannerisms of Bateman begin to make more and more sense - always calculated and disguised, but verging on being discovered for who he truly is.
Bateman's interactions with his closest "friends" are the most fascinating to watch, as he pretends to buy into the high life of Manhattan purely to maintain his social image. Talking to his fiancee Evelyn (Reece Witherspoon) seems like an actual chore to Bateman, from which his only real reprieve is 80s music. Ultimately, you don't watch the film for the violence and the brief scenes of madness, but for the tightrope Bateman walks in living an everyday, affluent life.
Overall, American Psycho is a cultish classic, but still offers a brilliant story of insanity through an antagonist's eyes, whilst being instantly memorable.