Patrick Bateman works in a business his father owns and looks like everyone else in his industry. His biggest concerns in life are getting a reservation the most exclusive restaurant, choosing the best business card, and torturing and killing women. In between grooming himself impeccably and creating a semblance of being normal, his homicidal tendencies threaten to overtake his vapid life.
American Psycho is a dark and biting satire on 80's excess and toxic masculinity. The film brilliantly distills the extremes of the novel and gets all the large concepts across successfully. Patrick Bateman admits at the outset of the film that there is no real him, that he's constructed an illusion of a person. His appearance is impeccable and he looks just like everyone else on Wall Street: slick back hair, horn rimmed glasses, trim figure, and designer suits. As he talks about a figurative mask he has constructed, he tears off a literal face mask in an unexpectedly chilling and pat scene. Patrick knows what to say in front of people, admonishing a friend for an anti-semitic remark and advocating for helping the poor and equal rights for women, but it's vastly different from his actual opinions. He is never seen doing any actual work for his job and his girlfriend reveals that he doesn't even need it as it's owned by his father. He snaps back at her that he does it to fit in with everyone else. Every interaction with people who matter to him is carefully curated and designed to be what he views as the best of that realm. Much of the film is blur of designer clothes, upscale restaurants, luxury brands, and pop musicians.
Even though he has groomed himself into what he thinks a rich man should be, Patrick fails on almost every front. He can't get a reservation at the most exclusive reservation called Dorsia. Even though it's extensively mentioned, we never see the building at all. He goes so far as to drag his drugged mistress to another restaurant and tells her it's Dorsia. She falls asleep during the dinner and wouldn't know where they were anyway, but it's a part of his fantasy. Patrick doesn't do any actual work at his job. His business card isn't the most impressive, much to his dismay that borders on panic. He looks so much like everyone else in his industry that they are regularly mistaken for each other because there is nothing distinguishing them. They are all essentially interchangeable with exactly the same looks, personalities, and opinions. By the end of the film, his lawyer reveals how people see him as a "dork" and a "boring, spineless lightweight." Despite trying to fit in, Patrick's carefully constructed facade fails.
The rest of the film is the real Bateman underneath the facade. His true feelings come out when talking to people he views as beneath him. One of the first scenes in the film has him in a loud club ordering drinks from bartender. She refuses his drink tickets and he tells her, masked by the booming music, that he wants to kill her and play with her blood while addressing her by explicit names. He treats his secretary Jean appallingly, telling her to wear a skirt and heels because he prefers it and she's "prettier than that." Patrick's actions escalate as he approaches a homeless man on the street and lures sex workers to his house. He teases the homeless man with the possibility of help or a job, but only mocks him before brutally murdering him and his dog. The two sex workers he lures to his house are commanded on every action they take and what names to respond to on top of being only chosen for the color of their hair. When a colleague enrages him, Patrick escalates his behavior further and attempts to murder Carruthers in the bathroom, but the man sees the strangling as a sexual advance. A shocked and disgusted Bateman leaves with an inane explanation. Although it didn't end as he intended, Patrick was going to kill a man in a public place in broad daylight who he saw as beneath him.
Although the whole film is amazingly shot, the scenes I noticed most were those with Patrick and the sex workers. Patrick chooses them for their blonde hair, tells them what name to respond to, and orchestrates their every move. This is the realization of his fantasy commanding the blonde women in his life, his girlfriend and his mistress, that would never happen because of their status. Even though he's paying them and bosses them around, he still craves the sex worker's approval and interest. They don't care where he works or what he does and are only there for their job. These women are objectified by Patrick, but not by the camera. They are portrayed as cautious, sensible women and the audience is squarely on their side. Their bodies are not sexualized or even focused on because Patrick is more interested in himself. The vast majority of violence takes place offscreen or out of view and I felt their horror and fear. Humanizing these women is such an important part of this film. These scenes could have easily been incredibly exploitative and objectifying in other hands.
The rest of the film has Patrick's facade breaking away little by little. He has moments where he confesses an act to someone or says something completely outrageous that is almost always misinterpreted or simply ignored. Eventually, he confesses everything to his lawyer only to be completely dismissed and insulted. Patrick finally realizes his facade is a failure. He also either didn't commit the crimes at all or is entrenched in such a shallow society that it doesn't even matter because no one knows who anyone is and everyone is too self absorbed to look at anyone else. American Psycho is such a unique film that succeeds in being horror with a healthy dash of dark comedy that completely embodies the era and its excesses.
My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins
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