BY THOMAS WOOD

In the early spring months of the year 2000, a movie was released by the name of American Psycho. Mimicking the book of the same name, the movie ended up garnering a sort of cult following as the years went by, even regaining some popularity two decades after its release. But why did this resurgence in viewership happen? Is the movie really that good, or was it simply the effect of an online trend? Let’s find out. 

The movie stars Christian Bale (Patrick Bateman), a Wall Street businessman looking only to forward his endeavors in the silly 1980s. The viewer soon realizes, perhaps by Bateman’s inner monologue, that something isn’t quite right. In fact, something is very wrong with Bateman. He cares not for others’ safety or emotions, forwarding his own agenda using underhanded tactics. Throughout the movie, he misleads, drugs, and even slaughters people to get his way. In this sense, Bateman is the titular American Psycho.

The plot of this movie is something of an enigma. However, I’d be remiss to say that it’s bad. The movie has little to no actual coherent plot, which at first glance might make the film seem purposeless. However, in a satirical movie such as this, the lack of plot helps influence the spontaneous nature of events, leading to even more funny or ironic twists. The lack of a coherent plot also bolsters the ending, which is known to be one of the most ambiguous conclusions in narrative history. After you watch American Psycho, you will be genuinely confused. However, seeing how that’s exactly what the authors were going for, they struck gold. 

The comedy of this movie is another main selling point. American Psycho is hilarious. My friends and I found ourselves laughing extremely often throughout the movie, mainly due to the sheer absurdity of many of the film’s events. Every time Bateman overreacts to something mundane or over explains a boring process in his head, it ends up being extremely funny due to Christian Bale’s performance. One scene stood out as the funniest scene of the movie, and that’s when Bateman is doing intense ab crunches in his apartment to the symphonic screams of Texas Chainsaw Massacre on his TV. Comedy gold.

All in all, I’d greatly recommend American Psycho to a viewer that wants a satirical comedy film and can stand a little fake gore. The movie is incredibly good, and I even ended up wishing it was longer than its already 104 minute runtime. Even though many points of the movie are confusing, that works out in the movie’s favor, only furthering its satire. American Psycho is a delightful watch. Give it a try.

Overall: 9/10