American Psycho as a Tragic Comedy

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2014)

9.1 of 10. It's hard to criticize a film about it's length that is great and part of its greatness is its satirizing of excess, making the length part of the story. Length, however, and a few other things that could have been cut or given more thought prevent this from being perfect. For example, McConaughey, either just before or just after his award-deserving performance in another award-deserving film, Dallas Buyers Club, is miscast. He doesn't need to be in this film and he looks like an underfed, homeless man in a suit. That said, if you can ignore his appearance and misplaced accent, he, like all the cast, does give a wonderfully amusing performance.
I definitely won't complain if this gets awards.
For DeCaprio, this is a wonderful complement to his role in The Great Gatsby. In fact, he fits into this character far better. It would be wrong to call it ironic, but his role here is an inversion of essentially the same character he played in Gatsby.
As for capturing reality in a film based on true, possibly somewhat enhanced, story, it's nearly impossible to find flaws. Because of the lack of cutting, there is at times some sympathy developed for characters that shouldn't be getting any empathy. I would have also made some different soundtrack choices for a film set in the late 1980s/early 90s.
Overall, however, it's an exotic use of time that captures aspects of lesser films this year (I'm thinking Blue Jasmine and All is Lost) all into one masterpiece so you don't have to watch them. If you haven't seen American Psycho, however, be sure to see that. That will help you enjoy the truth is bizarrely similar to fiction elements of this film.