American Psycho: Killer Collector’s Edition should be
a necessary part of any well-to-do Wall Street Vice President’s DVD collection.
If you don’t fit that category and are a bartender, artist, homeless person,
or other pointless individual, than I would like to a) “stab you in the
face and play with your blood” and b) recommend this movie to you as well.
No film delves into the pathological mentality of the elite in American culture
with as much irony, sardonic humor progressive shifts of brilliance and ridicule
as American Psycho. The picture exposes the integral relationship
between the wealthy and the wildly psychotic in hilarious and horrific satiric
exaggeration. Mary Herron’s adaptation of the highly controversial Brett
Easton Ellis novel embodies a style of social satire that does for America what
the early 70’s works of Stanley Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson did for Britain.
The story progresses as a character sketch of one, Patrick Bateman, Harvard
Business Grad / Vice President of dad’s Wall Street Company / soft rock
connoisseur / serial killer. One of the most hilarious and disturbing sequences
in the film (and arguably in the post-modern epic) begins with Patrick sitting
in a board room next to his fellow vice presidents comparing business cards.
As he realizes that his Bone hued card with Caelian Brail font has been outdone
by the hue and font of a card that looks virtually identical to his own, belonging
to a man dressed in a suit and glasses virtually identical to his own, his eyes
grow half-lidded and ominous. His voiceover, listing the color, font size and
type of his competitor’s card, smolders with sudden anguish. Cut to him
walking home that night, and as a release of the tension built up in the scene,
stabbing a homeless man to death. Few films have so selflessly risked the likeability
of their protagonist with so strong and damning a satirical hand.
The extras include exclusive interviews with the director, Mary Herron, along
with her co-writer, producer and a number of assorted scholars and 80’s
history buffs. Herron discusses why she chose to cast Christian Bale, or our
latest Batman, as Bateman. Turning down a number of other leading
men, including Billy Crudup, Herron went with Bale because he was the only actor
who didn’t try to figure out the psychology of the character. Bale understood
that Batemen was a monster, as well as a ritualistically uncool millionaire,
and wanted to emphasize the shell of the character by playing him to as absurd
an extent as possible while maintaining the barest semblance of reality. The
outcome is tremendous; Bale’s performance is one part cogent character,
ten parts Whitney Houston Liner Note meets Male Cosmetic Ad Pastiche. He is
often not a man but a pure volatile indictment of high commercial culture. And
as tiring as this could become, Herron and Bale keep the pace and narrative
moving in warped speed, allowing contrast and digression to alter pitch and
hold interest.
Herron and producers go in depth about one of the most fascinating stories
surrounding the film: Lenardo DiCaprio accepting the Patrick Batemen role, shortly
after his success with Titanic. The move prompted Herron to
leave the film, until Gloria Steinem apparently convinced Dicaprio that he couldn’t
take on brain-eating, misogynist/rapist/ killer Batemen when he was the crush
of millions of teenage girls. Herron came back on with Bale, while, in a cosmic
twist, Steinem went on to later become Bale’s Stepmom.
The commentary is informative, with Herron and co-writer Guinevere Turner addressing
the seemingly hallucinatory overtones of the ending, revealing it as their failed
attempt to illustrate that Bale has actually killed his victims, in a culture
where no one notices.
The DVD also includes some (better-off) deleted scenes, an audio essay by Holly
Willis called The Pornography of Killing, and a special feature interview piece
on life in New York City during the 80’s, with great commentary from self-proclaimed
“survivors” and supremely cheesy video graphics and low production
values, even for a potential homage to the beginning of MTV.
All together, the DVD is worth tearing open with a chainsaw and turning inside
out. I.E. Check it out as soon as you can.
Movie Score: A+
Special Features Score: A-
Overall DVD Score: A
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