American Psycho Is A Great Movie That I Saw Way Too Late In Life
"Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?"
Last night when all my homework was finished up I decided to sit down and watch a movie that many people would describe as a “classic”. And after watching it, I understand why.
Just before I get started, there will be spoilers in this article so if you’ve never seen it and want the movie to stay a surprise, click right out of it.
The Mary Harron, comedy slasher/thriller film released in 2000 and stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. Bale is accompanied by Jared Leto as Paul Allen and Williem Dafoe as detective Donald Kimble.
Right from the jump you see the wild lifestyle of twenty seven year old investment banker, Patrick Bateman.
Bateman is a big fan of attending night clubs, dining at the most hip restaurants in NYC, and picking up hookers. To coincide with this, Bateman does a thousand crunches a day, jump ropes, and partakes in a rigorous routine of washing his face and moisturizing his body.
Bateman’s goal is to make his exterior existence look as perfect as possible. He wants to appear perfect with his fiancé Evelyn, who is played by Reese Witherspoon. Bateman also wants to seem “better than” to his colleagues and friends, but he secretly loathes them.
To keep up this exterior perfection, he flaunts his fancy suits and business card in a meeting, only to be one upped by Paul Allen. The kicker of this is, is that Allen thinks that Bateman is somebody else. He thinks he is Marcus Halberstram.
Bateman bottles his rage up and takes it with him after work where he encounters a homeless man and his dog.
He stops to talk to the homeless man where initially he comes off as kind, like he’s going to give him money or food. Bateman then ridicules the man and tells him to get a job right before stabbing him in the stomach and stomping the dog out.
I was RATTLED to say the least when this scene happened. It was nuts.
This becomes a theme in the movie. When Bateman gets pissed off or rattled or even just perturbed in the smallest way, he lashes out on someone else and either kills them or severally hurts them.
At a Christmas party, Bateman runs into Paul Allen who still believes Bateman is Marcus Halberstram. The two schedule dinner together and Bateman gets Allen shit faced. He brings him back to his apartment, and the most famous scene of the movie ensues.
Bateman sits Allen down in a chair with newspaper around him and his furniture covered. He asks Allen if he likes Huey Lewis and the News and talks about the artistic flare of the groups album before hacking him to death with an axe.
Even though I knew the scene was going to happen, it was still shocking.
This scene has actually taken off a good deal with my generation as people have remade it while talking about some of their favorite artists.
Bateman goes to Allens apartment and packs a suitcase while also leaving a voicemail saying he went to London.
Bateman is later questioned by detective Donald Kimble at his office and gives off very manic energy, yet doesn’t seem to set off any red flags with Kimble.
Following this, Bateman picks up a prostitute and calls another sex worker to his apartment. He names the two girls "Christie" and "Sabrina" and has them dance naked and eat each others ass while he talks about the band Genesis in the same way he spoke about Huey Lewis and the News.
After the trio has a threesome that Bateman recorded, he pulls out a knife and a hanger and assaults the two sex workers. They leave his apartment bloodied.
This whole scene here was very uncomfortable, like my skin was crawling the whole time. I wanted to look away, but couldn’t as Bateman tried to impress the sex workers with his job while telling them he was Paul Allen.
A few scenes later, Bateman is sitting at a lounge or bar with some colleagues talking about girls and dinner reservations when one of their colleagues Luis Carruthers, who is played by Matt Ross, approaches them.
Earlier in the film, Bateman describes Carruthers as a loser who has no style. Carruthers shows off a new business card that resembles the one Paul Allen had. After showing it to the men, Carruthers goes to the bathroom.
In a fit of rage, Bateman trails Carruthers to the mens room and while he’s peeing at the urinal, he attempts to strangle him. Carruthers thinks that Bateman is coming onto him and out of disgust, Bateman storms out.
I really found it wild how rattled Bateman got from this and I feel that this scene was the real spiral of Patrick Bateman.
This train of events leads Bateman to kill a model and then nearly kill his secretary with a nail gun the size of a bazooka.
Bateman and detective Kimball meet again and Kimball just tries to get more details about the case, but Bateman continues to be cryptic.
The same night Bateman picks up the same prostitute he assaulted earlier and brings her back to Paul Allens apartment while he’s in “London”. He then again calls another sex worker and he gets the two drunk.
While having sex, he kills the sex worker he called and the prostitute he picked up runs around the apartment finding dead bodies as Bateman chases her with a chainsaw. She escapes the apartment and as she’s almost free, Bateman drops the chainsaw on her which kills her.
This scene was WILD. Absolutely WILD. My jaw was on the floor as I watched a naked and bloody Christian Bale sprint around with a chainsaw.
The next morning, Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn.
That same night, Bateman has what seems like the ultimate fever dream. As he’s taking cash from an ATM he tries to kill a cat, but then kills an old lady. He then kills a handful of cops while fleeing to his office. He enters the wrong office and kills a doorman and janitor.
While under a desk, he sees a police chopper and it prompts him to call his lawyer. He leaves a voicemail where he confesses to killing Paul Allen, eating other victims, and ultimately reveals that he killed twenty to forty people.
The next morning is an odd scene that I still do not understand. Bateman returned to Paul Allens apartment to clean up from two nights prior and the apartment is vacant and for sale. Bateman says that he is there to buy the apartment, but the relator knows he isn’t. She tells him to leave and never come back in a very cryptic way as Bateman walks out the door.
Bateman and Kimball meet for a final time where Kimball tells Bateman that he Allen just skipped town last minute to London.
Now let me make it very clear. At this point, I’m confused. I cannot comprehend what is happening.
While this is going on, Batemans secretary that he almost killed finds his notebook that is filled with extremely graphic drawings of people being killed and tortured.
In one of the final scenes, Bateman is at lunch with his colleagues and sees his lawyer and approaches him about the voicemail he left him. His lawyer breaks out in a laugh and tells Bateman that the voicemail was a great joke.
Bateman is just as confused as I am. He stops his lawyer multiple times from walking away as he is trying to admit to what happened, but Bateman is left in disbelief when his lawyer states that him and Paul Allen had dinner in London a week ago.
Bateman returns to his friends and the Batemans narration realizes that his confession means nothing and that there is a possibility that no crimes were committed. He is living in his own hell.
I was left shocked and entertained as the credits rolled. Great movie.