American Psycho

Well...

In the battle to go back and educate myself on some of cinema's most popular past hits, I guess you could say that you win some, you lose some.

I should preface my review by stating that I am not the world's biggest horror fan, nor am I a very big horror-comedy fan. I think that the definition for "classic" with regards to those types of films means a whole different thing than if I was to call any other film by the same name.

For all intents of purposes, American Psycho and its cult followers deem the film a horror-comedy "classic". Some movies I understand that cherished cult status, some of them I'm even part of the cult, but for American Psycho I just don't get it. Even by the end of the film my first reaction was, "Wait...what?". And that's not because it has some crazy twist or anything like that it's because the movie is conducted in a way that, much like it's main character, is psychotic. It was one of those movies that I enjoyed it for Bale's performance and some of the more iconic scenes, but I thought that everything in between was mediocre.

Apparently nail guns used to be humongous

"This business card got me
so mad right now!!"

The highlight of the film is the main character, Patrick Bateman, played by an absolutely unhinged Christian Bale. The character's little nuances are what make the film actually worth watching and slightly hysterical as they are brought to life by Bale. The multistep moisturizing routine, the obsession with discussing music before he kills people, the deep envy of other people's business cards...it all leads to create a character that you know is nothing shy of bats**t insane. In that regard, the movie is actually really well done and Christian Bale certainly elevates the film overall in one of his more memorable performances. He leaves no crazy stone unturned here and I think for people that are used to a more conservative Christian Bale (such as myself) would be surprised by just how well he plays crazy.

But for me that's about the only highlight of the film. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not the biggest fan of either genre and I felt that the humor in this film was too dark. Some scenes were certainly funny in the sense that I was laughing at how off-his-rocker Bale was, but ultimately I think it says something about a film that classifies itself as a horror-comedy when it goes to the dark places of mutilating prostitutes and/or killing a homeless person and his dog. Granted, those scenes weren't intended to be funny, but they exist in the same movie that tries to make light of other situations. For me, that tonal shift is just too large of a gap to cross.

"But this axe is heavy!"

I also found the film to be horribly edited. Quite possibly some of the worst I have ever seen. Now, I haven't done enough research to know if the filmmaker's intention was to make the film as psychotic as its leading man, but they achieved it either way. On paper, the plot and general direction of the movie is NOT complicated, but the film is edited so poorly that I often had to ask myself what was going on. There were quick cuts to completely different locations, I have a feeling that the film's timeline is not consistent, scenes occur where nothing pertinent to the story is going on, etc. It's all rather a bit of a mess and it made what was really a simple plot about a psychopath who can't contain his need to kill into a confusing story of a-guy-who-likes-to-kill-and-might-have-a-fiancé-but-people-call-him-by-other-names-and-how-does-no-one-notice-whats-going-on. And that's probably the part that confuses me the most as to why this film has a cult following. I completely understand it if you are here for Bale's performance, but other than that, this is really just a mess of a film.

Bale's hips don't lie...he's going to kill you

If it weren't for the absolutely stellar performance of Bale in the main role, American Psycho would probably go down as one of my more unfortunate viewings ever. It's not that its anywhere close to being the worst movie I've ever seen, it's just most definitely not my cup of tea, nor do I think it deserves its cult status in the slightest. In order for a movie to be a "cult classic" it should at least be well made. Other than the lead performance, that is not the case for American Psycho. At least not from this critic's perspective.

CONS:

• Some horrible editing/pacing/order of storytelling. For a plot as simple as this one, why am I ever confused as to what's going on?
• Tonal shifts that are so enormous they are practically uncomfortable. Does the movie have some funny scenes? Yes, in the "Holy s**t, he's crazy" sort of way. But it also has scenes that are VERY far away from funny and the fact that they are in the same film bothers me
• By the end of it all, it becomes apparent that nothing has really happened in the grand scheme of things
• Every other character fails to have any definition. They are all just place holders
• A "cult classic" that doesn't deserve the title

PROS:

• Patrick Bateman is an extremely well defined character. Many of his subtle rituals and behaviors were what I found the most funny. The discussion of music before he killed people was often downright hilarious, as can be seen by the .gif above
• From a horror perspective, there is some well crafted tension to be found as well as some chilling images/kills
• Bale's performance saves the film in my opinion. It's maniacal and you can tell he is having a lot of fun in the role. If there would be one reason to watch the film, his performance is it

Retro Rath's Review Score: 5/10