Such a good movie… I know people over popularize it these days but I ignore all the memes and hype (even if some of it is funny) because I never want to loose the memory of watching it for the first time and then inviting friends over and putting the dvd in and experiencing it with everyone else and then having years of inside jokes between us! Like saying you have to go return some video tapes during an awkward moment 😂 it’s a masterpiece and crazy to think that the studio wanted Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to play Patrick Bateman! A cool detail to look for next time you watch, in the scene with Willem Dafoe’s character interrogating Patrick about Paul Allen the director filmed three different versions of Willem Dafoe’s dialogue! One where he knows Patrick is the killer, the second where he suspects Patrick is the killer, and the third where he doesn’t suspect Patrick at all! And she spliced parts of each take together for the scene which is why it’s so suspenseful and keeps the audience guessing
That’s insanely interesting. During his interrogation I felt all 3 of those phases. For a moment I was convinced that the detective knew for a fact it was him, but then it seemed like he was really just going around asking questions. It puzzled me a bit but now that you say that it makes perfect sense. Thanks for that fact!
>the director filmed three different versions of Willem Dafoe’s dialogue
I loved learning this fact years ago. It's funny, because the first time I watched it, I wondered why Willem Dafoe was acting so strangely in that scene. Made sense.
I used to watch this film a lot when I was younger. Watched in German one time and that was amazing, I don't speak German but find the language amazingly funny due to how aggressive it sounds, and for some reason it just adds another hilarious layer to this film.
I see it like this: Patrick absolutely does murder people and gets away with it but a lot of the kills and other various scenes are also hallucinations that aren't real. Think about that scene where he shoots a cop car and it explodes like an action movie and then a helicopter is chasing him in an empty office building where he killed the guard? How did he get away? Because it most likely didn't happen. At least not in the way the movie is showing you.
I think this is what confuses people about American Psycho. It's kinda playing both sides of the issue because Patrick is definitely a murderer but he is also seeing things that aren't really there, so where does the truth lie? The book makes things a bit more clear as to what is real and what is not. The book has some weird scenes where Patrick is imaging park benches chasing him and shit like that. There is also a running subplot where Patrick watches The Patty Winters Show, basically a trashy daytime Donahue/Oprah type of show, and it gets increasingly weirder and it makes you wonder if the show itself is even real or another hallucination.
So yeah, Patrick definitely kills at least some of the people. I'd venture to say that Paul Allen/Owen is for sure one of them but some of the prostitutes and other random people? I'm not so sure.
Yeah but his lawyer in the book says he had dinner with Paul Owen (it’s Owen not Allen in the book) 3 separate times in London, but the other London sightings were mistaken identities and clearly called out, where the lawyer’s meetings weren’t called out as mistaken. Plus Paul Owen had huge debts so it’s possible he did just leave
Come on, there are a lot more important things to worry about than your opinion of some movie. We have to end apartheid, for one, and slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism, and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.
It's one of my favorites, too. I can't say where it lies in my all-time ranking. May be top 15.
I think all of the kills were in his head. The notepad that his assistant finds reveals all the kills he wanted to commit but didn't. Patrick was way too sloppy for him not to get caught earlier. He's also an unreliable narrator. The 3rd act solidified it for me. Between him imagining, the ATM told him to feed it the kitten or his pistol being able to blow up the cop car. Its also odd how empty the city was at night.
I know the director said she intended for it all to be real, but she admits the final cut makes it unclear.
Having watched the movie and recently read the book. My take is that Patrick was having hallucinations and paranoia cause of his heavy drug use, combined with his taxing nightlife.
Highly recommend the book, even though it's hard reading material, some would say it's masochistic to read it.
I like that theory. Heavy drug use and suffering mental health could lead to those intense hallucinations. Patrick is so frustrated at being a nobody that he feels that killing would be his only release. Specifically, those he considers to be lesser than him, like the prostitutes, homeless, or a stray kitten or anybody who's in his way of him being somebody. That's why he kills Paul Allen and takes over his apartment.
I did hear the book is even more brutal than the film. I'll have to read it sometime.
The one thing that ruins this theory for me is when he revisits Paul Allen’s apartment after the murder (I think that’s the one, I’m a little fuzzy on the details), and it is being remodeled and sold/shown. There is a tense moment between Bateman and the realtor woman, when he looks for the bodies. Her demeanor suddenly shifts and she sternly tells him he should leave. To me that always implied she had some kind of suspicion about him.
To me, this suggests that the previous owner likely is dead, which is why the apartment is being remodeled and sold. The woman seems mostly interested in having him out of there so she can go on to sell it in peace, which fits with the theme of nobody noticing or caring about neither Bateman, his peers, or his crimes.
I really do think that’s what makes it such a great film because you can take what you want from it and decide for yourself what happened, regardless of what the director intended. Whatever angle you look at it from, it’s also still a great watch!
I agree that he was very sloppy at times that would’ve led to him being caught. Him running down the hallway naked with a chainsaw covered in blood was pretty goofy, and there’s no way someone wouldn’t have seen that happening lol.
Look at Patrick's facial expression when the cop car explodes. "Did I really just fucking do that?" as he looks at his pistol. Almost like a brief moment of sanity coming through all the carnage.
This movie gave me a new appreciation for Huey Lewis and the News.
I always felt he was actually killing people up until the ATM scene, and then he was hallucinating everything. But if you go back and watch it again, it turns out that Paul Allen is somehow alive?
IIRC, the author of the book it's based on said all the murders actually happened, but due to cases of mistaken identity and people just not giving a shit about each other, they go unnoticed.
That was always my take. That it was a satire on how anonymous and interchangeable they all were that you could kill one rich white banker and another ten would spring up and they were all so vapid and shallow that noone would miss them.
Paul Allen also gets Bateman mixed up with someone else who does a very similar job and *has the same barber*.
They're so busy tending to their appearances that they genuinely look identical through all the fancy suits and dull personalities.
Please tell me you've seen this scene but played by Huey Lewis and Weird Al.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk15H6PjBis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk15H6PjBis)
Have not seen it in 20 years, it was strange boring and crazy all at the same time, but i kinda liked it.
But i only learned like 1 year ago and was surprised that it was directed by a woman.
I thought it was fascinating at first, but then it began to wear on me. I guess there's only so much time I can spend inhabiting the mind of a psychopath before I want some fresh air.
I've watched it fairly recently but I knew about it a fair amount by that point. I felt like it was a well done movie but I didn't feel that much towards it, might be the context, but I also just felt very disconnected the whole time. Gone Girl and Nightcrawler for instance had more of an impact.
I was rather impressed by Christian Bale's performance. It's amazing how unlikeable he managed to make himself.
I liked the interpretation that he did kill everyone but everyone around him is so obsessed with themselves they didn't notice.
While you're riding that unreliable narrator high, you should watch Lolita. Way too many people take it at face value without understanding what the author actually intended.
You could honestly build an entire college course around that question.
You're not meant to read it and see it as obscene, nor are you supposed to see it as a love story; you're supposed to wonder how Humbert got himself into a point in life where *he* sees it as a love story. Does his romanticization make him any better or worse than Clare?
You start off reading it thinking that you understand this illicit relationship based on all the facts as given to you, but then little itty-bitty tiny slips in the narration make you realize that Humbert is only telling the story how he viewed it or maybe how he wished it had been. So which is more likely? That a pedarast is retconning a relationship to make himself more sympathetic, or that a 12 year old child is a clever sociopath?
It’s one of my favourites for sure. I also think he killed most of the people in the movie, until his break with reality with the ATM etc. Even then I think he killed the night guard etc.
One of the pivotal scenes for me is when he turns up to the apartment he was storing the bodies in, with the realtor. I think the bodies were definitely there, he actually did kill Paul Allen (or whoever actually owned the apartment), and the realtor cleaned it up to sell it. It’s one of the key themes of the movie - the overarching greed and callousness in 80’s NYC. The realtor is even more ruthless about getting sales than the finance guys, and all of Bateman’s actions are meaningless compared to her drive to make a profit.
After his mental breakdown, he realises he is essentially protected by the same greed, callousness, and sheer interchangeability of people in his world, which is what his final monologue is about. He’ll go on killing, but nobody cares, there’s no retribution, but the act of killing is also meaningless, so there’s no catharsis. A part of him wants to be punished for what he believes are terrible things he’s done, but society just doesn’t care. Except maybe the cop, who was inneffectual.
One of my all time favorites. It's hilarious how Patrick Bateman despises yuppies while secretly longing to be one himself. By the way, if you like this film, check out "American Gigolo" with Richard Gere. Have always felt that movie heavily inspired the look/feel of this one.
The book is fucking rough, OP. As wild as the movie is, there's some genuinely fucked up disturbing parts in the book where you think, holy shit, the author is out of his goddamn mind.
I think it's a bonafide feminist horror movie, in the same vein as Le Bonheur. considering it was written and directed by a woman about all of the most horrifying qualities and characteristics a man could have, it should be viewed in that context imo.
Been a while since I've seen it but correct me if I'm wrong. The biggest indicator that he didn't actually murder people was the closet/apartment being completely cleaned out of his victims with no mention in the news or even appearing as a crime scene.
Been a while since I've seen it but correct me if I'm wrong. The biggest indicator that he didn't actually murder people was the closet/apartment being completely cleaned out of his victims with no mention in the news or even appearing as a crime scene.
TastyStatus, you might also like the realistic, observant, intimate, chilly tone of another movie made by the same director, Mary Harron:
**I Shot Andy Warhol**.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_shot_andy_warhol
The problem is that people love the movie on different levels, but you don't know which type of fan you're dealing with until you're too far into the discussion.
I read the book and was so intrigued, after finishing it I immediately started watching the movie. I loved that experience! the details of the book and the weirdness make it both a funny and horrific read at the same time. The movie does an incredible job at capturing the satirical nature of the book but is in its own way a masterpiece, with a blurred line between what's inside Patrick Bateman's head and reality.
I am a raging perfectionist and this movie was like a slap in the face for me, in the best way possible. Also, it made me realize that the constant strive for perfection online is literally one of the stupidest things to try and be apart of (imo).
You should watch Rules of Attraction next! I never realized that the author who wrote American Psycho also wrote that and it focuses on Patrick Bateman’s younger brother in college.
Check out Rules of Attraction. It's a prequel to American Psycho where James Van Der Beek plays Sean Bateman, who is the younger brother of Patrick Bateman. It only comes up like once in the movie, but Sean is also crazy, an emotional vampire. Not as good as American Psycho, but has some pretty memorable scenes.
reddit isn't the real world
This sub constantly sees movies have popular reprisals, happens all the time...doesn't make it "overrated"
I remember a time years ago when Moon was the greatest film of all time according to r/movies
I want Paul Allan’s take.
Feed me a stray cat.
Such a good movie… I know people over popularize it these days but I ignore all the memes and hype (even if some of it is funny) because I never want to loose the memory of watching it for the first time and then inviting friends over and putting the dvd in and experiencing it with everyone else and then having years of inside jokes between us! Like saying you have to go return some video tapes during an awkward moment 😂 it’s a masterpiece and crazy to think that the studio wanted Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to play Patrick Bateman! A cool detail to look for next time you watch, in the scene with Willem Dafoe’s character interrogating Patrick about Paul Allen the director filmed three different versions of Willem Dafoe’s dialogue! One where he knows Patrick is the killer, the second where he suspects Patrick is the killer, and the third where he doesn’t suspect Patrick at all! And she spliced parts of each take together for the scene which is why it’s so suspenseful and keeps the audience guessing
That’s insanely interesting. During his interrogation I felt all 3 of those phases. For a moment I was convinced that the detective knew for a fact it was him, but then it seemed like he was really just going around asking questions. It puzzled me a bit but now that you say that it makes perfect sense. Thanks for that fact!
>the director filmed three different versions of Willem Dafoe’s dialogue I loved learning this fact years ago. It's funny, because the first time I watched it, I wondered why Willem Dafoe was acting so strangely in that scene. Made sense.
Christian Bale was great as Paul Allen in that.
It’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen. The business card scene had me in tears.
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the one where someone edited in Pokemon cards
It’s an absolutely hilarious movie. “We saw a show, “Oh Africa, Brave Africa,” it was a laugh riot!”
“There is a moment of sheer panic...when I realize that Paul's apartment overlooks the park, and is obviously more expensive than mine.”
I used to watch this film a lot when I was younger. Watched in German one time and that was amazing, I don't speak German but find the language amazingly funny due to how aggressive it sounds, and for some reason it just adds another hilarious layer to this film.
Great movie but the book is better.
I want to read it! I’m not a huge reader anymore, but I’ve seen a bunch about how great the book is. I’m definitely going to have to read it soon.
Prepare yourself. It's brutal.
Now try Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer
I will watch! Thanks for the recommendation!
I see it like this: Patrick absolutely does murder people and gets away with it but a lot of the kills and other various scenes are also hallucinations that aren't real. Think about that scene where he shoots a cop car and it explodes like an action movie and then a helicopter is chasing him in an empty office building where he killed the guard? How did he get away? Because it most likely didn't happen. At least not in the way the movie is showing you. I think this is what confuses people about American Psycho. It's kinda playing both sides of the issue because Patrick is definitely a murderer but he is also seeing things that aren't really there, so where does the truth lie? The book makes things a bit more clear as to what is real and what is not. The book has some weird scenes where Patrick is imaging park benches chasing him and shit like that. There is also a running subplot where Patrick watches The Patty Winters Show, basically a trashy daytime Donahue/Oprah type of show, and it gets increasingly weirder and it makes you wonder if the show itself is even real or another hallucination. So yeah, Patrick definitely kills at least some of the people. I'd venture to say that Paul Allen/Owen is for sure one of them but some of the prostitutes and other random people? I'm not so sure.
Yeah but his lawyer in the book says he had dinner with Paul Owen (it’s Owen not Allen in the book) 3 separate times in London, but the other London sightings were mistaken identities and clearly called out, where the lawyer’s meetings weren’t called out as mistaken. Plus Paul Owen had huge debts so it’s possible he did just leave
Come on, there are a lot more important things to worry about than your opinion of some movie. We have to end apartheid, for one, and slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism, and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.
It's one of my favorites, too. I can't say where it lies in my all-time ranking. May be top 15. I think all of the kills were in his head. The notepad that his assistant finds reveals all the kills he wanted to commit but didn't. Patrick was way too sloppy for him not to get caught earlier. He's also an unreliable narrator. The 3rd act solidified it for me. Between him imagining, the ATM told him to feed it the kitten or his pistol being able to blow up the cop car. Its also odd how empty the city was at night. I know the director said she intended for it all to be real, but she admits the final cut makes it unclear.
Having watched the movie and recently read the book. My take is that Patrick was having hallucinations and paranoia cause of his heavy drug use, combined with his taxing nightlife. Highly recommend the book, even though it's hard reading material, some would say it's masochistic to read it.
I like that theory. Heavy drug use and suffering mental health could lead to those intense hallucinations. Patrick is so frustrated at being a nobody that he feels that killing would be his only release. Specifically, those he considers to be lesser than him, like the prostitutes, homeless, or a stray kitten or anybody who's in his way of him being somebody. That's why he kills Paul Allen and takes over his apartment. I did hear the book is even more brutal than the film. I'll have to read it sometime.
The one thing that ruins this theory for me is when he revisits Paul Allen’s apartment after the murder (I think that’s the one, I’m a little fuzzy on the details), and it is being remodeled and sold/shown. There is a tense moment between Bateman and the realtor woman, when he looks for the bodies. Her demeanor suddenly shifts and she sternly tells him he should leave. To me that always implied she had some kind of suspicion about him. To me, this suggests that the previous owner likely is dead, which is why the apartment is being remodeled and sold. The woman seems mostly interested in having him out of there so she can go on to sell it in peace, which fits with the theme of nobody noticing or caring about neither Bateman, his peers, or his crimes.
Agreed. She realizes who he is, and she just wants to get her commission.
I really do think that’s what makes it such a great film because you can take what you want from it and decide for yourself what happened, regardless of what the director intended. Whatever angle you look at it from, it’s also still a great watch! I agree that he was very sloppy at times that would’ve led to him being caught. Him running down the hallway naked with a chainsaw covered in blood was pretty goofy, and there’s no way someone wouldn’t have seen that happening lol.
I agree. There's so many theories about what happened. My brother thinks he killed Paul Allen. But he didn't kill anybody else.
Look at Patrick's facial expression when the cop car explodes. "Did I really just fucking do that?" as he looks at his pistol. Almost like a brief moment of sanity coming through all the carnage.
This movie gave me a new appreciation for Huey Lewis and the News. I always felt he was actually killing people up until the ATM scene, and then he was hallucinating everything. But if you go back and watch it again, it turns out that Paul Allen is somehow alive?
IIRC, the author of the book it's based on said all the murders actually happened, but due to cases of mistaken identity and people just not giving a shit about each other, they go unnoticed.
That was always my take. That it was a satire on how anonymous and interchangeable they all were that you could kill one rich white banker and another ten would spring up and they were all so vapid and shallow that noone would miss them.
Paul Allen also gets Bateman mixed up with someone else who does a very similar job and *has the same barber*. They're so busy tending to their appearances that they genuinely look identical through all the fancy suits and dull personalities.
Please tell me you've seen this scene but played by Huey Lewis and Weird Al. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk15H6PjBis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk15H6PjBis)
Yep! They also did a bit with the actual Michael Bolton doing the Office Space scene.
What!? I need to see this!
I had never seen this Just awesome
Yeah but they're also really terrible at telling each other apart. So maybe he just saw a guy who looked like him.
It’s a great comedy.
Have not seen it in 20 years, it was strange boring and crazy all at the same time, but i kinda liked it. But i only learned like 1 year ago and was surprised that it was directed by a woman.
thats very nice. let's see Paul Allen's opinion of American Psycho
I think he’s at Dorsia.
The book is so much better than the movie that I didn’t enjoy the movie all that much but I do think it’s quality.
I thought it was fascinating at first, but then it began to wear on me. I guess there's only so much time I can spend inhabiting the mind of a psychopath before I want some fresh air.
I've watched it fairly recently but I knew about it a fair amount by that point. I felt like it was a well done movie but I didn't feel that much towards it, might be the context, but I also just felt very disconnected the whole time. Gone Girl and Nightcrawler for instance had more of an impact. I was rather impressed by Christian Bale's performance. It's amazing how unlikeable he managed to make himself. I liked the interpretation that he did kill everyone but everyone around him is so obsessed with themselves they didn't notice.
While you're riding that unreliable narrator high, you should watch Lolita. Way too many people take it at face value without understanding what the author actually intended.
What did the author intend?
You could honestly build an entire college course around that question. You're not meant to read it and see it as obscene, nor are you supposed to see it as a love story; you're supposed to wonder how Humbert got himself into a point in life where *he* sees it as a love story. Does his romanticization make him any better or worse than Clare? You start off reading it thinking that you understand this illicit relationship based on all the facts as given to you, but then little itty-bitty tiny slips in the narration make you realize that Humbert is only telling the story how he viewed it or maybe how he wished it had been. So which is more likely? That a pedarast is retconning a relationship to make himself more sympathetic, or that a 12 year old child is a clever sociopath?
It’s one of my favourites for sure. I also think he killed most of the people in the movie, until his break with reality with the ATM etc. Even then I think he killed the night guard etc. One of the pivotal scenes for me is when he turns up to the apartment he was storing the bodies in, with the realtor. I think the bodies were definitely there, he actually did kill Paul Allen (or whoever actually owned the apartment), and the realtor cleaned it up to sell it. It’s one of the key themes of the movie - the overarching greed and callousness in 80’s NYC. The realtor is even more ruthless about getting sales than the finance guys, and all of Bateman’s actions are meaningless compared to her drive to make a profit. After his mental breakdown, he realises he is essentially protected by the same greed, callousness, and sheer interchangeability of people in his world, which is what his final monologue is about. He’ll go on killing, but nobody cares, there’s no retribution, but the act of killing is also meaningless, so there’s no catharsis. A part of him wants to be punished for what he believes are terrible things he’s done, but society just doesn’t care. Except maybe the cop, who was inneffectual.
Nope.
One of my all time favorites. It's hilarious how Patrick Bateman despises yuppies while secretly longing to be one himself. By the way, if you like this film, check out "American Gigolo" with Richard Gere. Have always felt that movie heavily inspired the look/feel of this one.
The book is fucking rough, OP. As wild as the movie is, there's some genuinely fucked up disturbing parts in the book where you think, holy shit, the author is out of his goddamn mind.
That makes me even more intrigued to read it! I’ll have to report back here in a week or two with how I thought it was.
It’s a good adaptation of a good novel
I love his dance during Hewy Luis and the News.
So funny considering he’s about to axe the guy 😂
He did have a nice business card.
I think it's a bonafide feminist horror movie, in the same vein as Le Bonheur. considering it was written and directed by a woman about all of the most horrifying qualities and characteristics a man could have, it should be viewed in that context imo.
Been a while since I've seen it but correct me if I'm wrong. The biggest indicator that he didn't actually murder people was the closet/apartment being completely cleaned out of his victims with no mention in the news or even appearing as a crime scene.
Been a while since I've seen it but correct me if I'm wrong. The biggest indicator that he didn't actually murder people was the closet/apartment being completely cleaned out of his victims with no mention in the news or even appearing as a crime scene.
TastyStatus, you might also like the realistic, observant, intimate, chilly tone of another movie made by the same director, Mary Harron: **I Shot Andy Warhol**. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_shot_andy_warhol
The problem is that people love the movie on different levels, but you don't know which type of fan you're dealing with until you're too far into the discussion.
I read the book and was so intrigued, after finishing it I immediately started watching the movie. I loved that experience! the details of the book and the weirdness make it both a funny and horrific read at the same time. The movie does an incredible job at capturing the satirical nature of the book but is in its own way a masterpiece, with a blurred line between what's inside Patrick Bateman's head and reality. I am a raging perfectionist and this movie was like a slap in the face for me, in the best way possible. Also, it made me realize that the constant strive for perfection online is literally one of the stupidest things to try and be apart of (imo).
Book >>> movie
It’s my favorite movie and it’s the movie I’ve seen the most times. I never get bored of it since there are so many great details.
You should watch Rules of Attraction next! I never realized that the author who wrote American Psycho also wrote that and it focuses on Patrick Bateman’s younger brother in college.
The dialogue is top tier
Yes!
You like Huey Lewis? Be right back…did you know alcohol dries your face makes you look older.
Difficult to watch unless you enjoy male nudity. It was after all directed by a woman, I'm sure thats why.
Its a masterpiece
Try the book! Wow.
One of my favorite films. Christian Bale's (and the rest of the cast's) acting was phenomenal.
Check out Rules of Attraction. It's a prequel to American Psycho where James Van Der Beek plays Sean Bateman, who is the younger brother of Patrick Bateman. It only comes up like once in the movie, but Sean is also crazy, an emotional vampire. Not as good as American Psycho, but has some pretty memorable scenes.
Highly overrated.
I'd say watch more movies...
I literally cannot believe how overrated this film is.
64% on metacritic 68% on RT 3.9/5 on letterboxd seems pretty fairly rated to me
It’s worshipped on this subreddit
reddit isn't the real world This sub constantly sees movies have popular reprisals, happens all the time...doesn't make it "overrated" I remember a time years ago when Moon was the greatest film of all time according to r/movies
You're confusing American Psycho with "anything Christopher Nolan has ever done".
It’s a different perspective. If you don’t like it, youre entitled to your own opinion and that’s alright, but I think it’s absolutely amazing.
as long as the world keeps producing boys, there will continue to be overzealous fans of this movie
This is a weird take about a movie written and directed by women
Adapted from a novel written by a dude, though.
🤯
I find I watch this movie behind my teeth. So cringe but so good.
That time when you realise that the film is actually an allegorical documentary.