The last time I wrote a movie review was in 2013 – and honestly, that’s about the last time I watched a movie. Kevin and I have been anti-TV and movie for years and years – largely because most of the stuff that is out there is crap. At least in our experience. We were tired of being disappointed and always wished for our two hours back.
I would much rather watch YouTube – “real life” people doing “real life” things, that continues to be a lot more interesting to me.
Our interests in movies, or perhaps I should say MY interest in movies, started back up when Kevin and I went to an actual movie theater (*gasp*) to watch “Maverick”, the sequel to Top Gun. More on that movie later. But that re-awakened my interest in movies again.
Halloween rolled around and we invited our grown boys, men now, over for tacos and a movie. After dinner, we sat down to decide what movie we wanted to watch. Blake, our oldest son, is not a fan of scary movies but he stumbled onto American Psycho one night browsing YouTube. Someone had uploaded the movie, (and was forced to take it back down) and Blake watched it.
He suggested it and we all agreed. I had heard about the movie but knew little about it.
So we watched it.
To say it was a bit awkward watching the nudie scenes with our sons would be putting it mildly but I have to say, it was interesting in a macabre way.
“I think my mask of sanity is about to slip”. That’s a line from the movie and it perfectly describes what happens to Patrick Bateman’s humanity.
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
What’s interesting about this movie is you’re left wondering about a lot of things.
Some interesting points:
- The business cards. Patrick is obsessed with other successful people’s business cards. It was a symbol of elitism and power. The better quality card, the more that person demanded respect and was envied by his peers. We actually laughed out loud at the number of times Patrick and his co-workers would whip out their business cards and show off the “quality” of their cards. Patrick would ultimately be disappointed in that his card wasn’t as good as everyone else’s and he would end up bitter and resentful fueling his desire to up his card game the next go around.
- The fact that no one listened to anyone else. Patrick would say the most outlandish things but the people around him never paid close enough attention to actually listen to him. He felt overlooked and inconsequential even though he prided himself on being “perfect” on the outside. He was craving true connection but no one in his life cared enough outside of themselves to really SEE him.
- His demented sense of humor while he was carrying out horrific acts of violence left the viewer wanting to laugh but feeling guilty wanting to laugh.
- The fact that he made an obscene amount of money but did very little to earn it. You never really saw Patrick DO anything other than go to endless business lunches or meet people after hours for drinks. This was a man with too much time on his hands and very little to show for it.
- Patrick’s obsession with himself – with his hair, his skin, his body. Again, I think this goes back to the fact that no one really paid attention to him so he gave himself too much attention. This lead to narcissistic tendencies. It was funny at times, but mostly sad.
- The fact that everyone kept calling him by the wrong name. No one knew who Patrick Bateman really was. Even his fiancé only wanted his wealth and status, she was not interested in Patrick, the man.
At first, you’re distracted by the fact that this is one sick individual and disgusted by his sick and twisted needs. And though these events only get bloodier as the movie progresses, they also get more and more frenzied so that by the end of the movie, Patrick has completely lost touch with reality and desperately wants someone to stop him.
But the lingering question is: Did Patrick really do all of those terrible things? Or did he only fantasize about doing those terrible things?
It was a disturbing movie but a fascinating look at the human psyche. I think it was also a social commentary on how we’re all so deeply entrenched in our own lives that we don’t truly see anyone outside ourselves anymore. We only see what we want to see – the exterior, the façade.
Rating: B
Write From Karen 