American Psycho (2000)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 141
Fresh: 94 | Rotten: 47
If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 16
If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 262,961
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Movie Info
Bret Easton Ellis's dark and violent satire of America in the 1980s is brought to the screen in this unsettling drama with blackly comic overtones. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), the son of a wealthy Wall Street financier, is pursuing his own lucrative career with his father's firm. Bateman is the prototypical yuppie, obsessed with success, fashion, and style. He is also a serial killer who murders, rapes, and mutilates both strangers and acquaintances without provocation or reason. Donald
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Cast
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Christian Bale
Patrick Bateman -
Willem Dafoe
Donald Kimball -
Jared Leto
Paul Allen -
Reese Witherspoon
Evelyn Williams -
Samantha Mathis
Courtney Rawlinson -
Chloë Sevigny
Jean -
Justin Theroux
Timothy Bryce -
Josh Lucas
Craig McDermott -
Guinevere Turner
Elizabeth -
Matt Ross
Luis Carruthers -
Bill Sage
David Van Patten -
Cara Seymour
Christie -
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All Critics (143) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (96) | Rotten (50) | DVD (27)
The slick satire cleverly equates materialism, narcissism, misogyny, and classism with homicide, but you may laugh so loud at the protagonist that you won't be able to hear yourself laughing with him.
Top CriticIt's hard to summon up enthusiasm for a performance so rooted in bloody banality. I mean, as Patrick, Bale's most emotionally pressing dilemma is: Chainsaw or butcher knife?
American Psycho is nearly perfect for what it is, but before we go on, we should ask what that actually amounts to. Can something with so rigid a thesis be a real work of art?
It needs to be seen and appreciated, like a serpent in a glass cage.
Harron's Psycho reps an impressive reclaiming of dubious material.
Conceptually, this savage cartoon ends up as trapped in surfaces as its shallow antihero: it's all dressed up with nowhere to go.
A brave adaptation of a bracing book.
The movie is elegantly shot, but based on what's on screen, it's hard to tell what motivated Mary Harron to direct this emotionally vapid feature
Mary Harron asks what's more unnerving - exaggerated, imagined violence or vacuous realities some wish to be real, psychosis as much in the construct as the character. Thus, "Psycho's" savagery goes beyond a simple screed against 1980s excess and greed.
much like the 80's era that it personifies
Harron' s incisive eye and Bale' s bravura performance carry the day.
American Pyscho is one of those films that makes you laugh uncomfortably throughout and you just walk away feeling disgusted. The flick is definitely an underrated masterpiece.
One can picture Kubrick handling this material with a similar elegant malevolence.
The real shame about Psycho is that there are glimmers of the very smart satire that could've been.
It's a highly entertaining movie with enough edgy humor to prickle our senses.
Mary Harron and Christian Bale create an almost magical balance between the tragic and comic elements of this story.
Production designer Gideon Ponte gives a terrific look to the film, with a hard, ultramodern design that lends sterility to Patrick's personal killing field.
Audience Reviews for American Psycho
Super Reviewer
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- Patrick Bateman: I'm in touch with humanity.
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- Patrick Bateman: There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory. Although I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand a feel flesh gripping yours, and even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.
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- Patrick Bateman: Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you fucking stupid bastard!
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- Donald Kimball: Do you remember where you were the night of Paul's disappearance, which was on the 20th of December?
- Patrick Bateman: God... I guess I was probably returning videotapes.
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- Patrick Bateman: I'm leaving. I've assessed the situation, and I'm going.
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- Patrick Bateman: I need to return some videotapes.
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Latest News on American Psycho
May 4, 2012:
Bret Easton Ellis Turns to KickstarterYou can help Ellis raise $100,000 for "The Canyons."
December 8, 2011:
Lionsgate Plans New American Psycho AdaptationThe studio has hired Noble Jones, second unit director on "The Social Network," to write and direct.
November 8, 2010:
Hayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed Move to Downers GroveHayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed will star in "Downers Grove," a high school thriller adapted by...
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