American Psycho

I got hold of this because there's quite a buzz around Mary Harron in the papers since she's appearing at a festival in London at the moment. I've always quite fancied seeing it but was put off since my mum bought it, then promptly took it back after a male colleague told her it was very misogynistic and she'd hate it. Hence whilst part of me was attracted by the lure of something so controversial, I felt like I'd be some kind of sadist pervert by watching it. That was some years ago though and having braved Irreversible and worse in the meantime - and realised that you are allowed to watch edgy stuff and not automatically fear you're a sadist - I was ready to watch it now. I was also interested in how a woman who is seemingly interested in fiesty women (Bettie Page, Valerie Solanas...) could present something so apparently misogynistic.

So predictably, there having been such a furore over it in my head, it left me wondering what all the fuss was about. The two scenes with the prostitutes weren't that extreme, and sure his relationship with his girlfriend is warped, but he's complicit in its absurdity. And that's the whole point. You have to have watched it with your eyes closed and earmuffs on not to realise that it's a biting satire. The first clue comes perhaps 15 minutes in when our 'hero' Patrick tells his girlfriend that he is wearing his tie (or something similar) like that 'because I want to fit in'. And that's just it. Everything about his life is a clone of the same people with the same income in the same field - such as his 3 close work pals (a who's who of former Sex and the City one night stands).

The scene where he and these guys compare business cards is one of the best in the film. They are all trying to outdo each other - I'd never considered that you could do that with a business card before - and frankly they all looked rather similar to my untrained eye. When Patrick is upstaged by someone else he practically implodes - and I think this is a good microcosm of the wider effect on him this lifestyle is having. His homogenity is what drives him towards his murder spree. The catalyst is an incident which should almost confirm that he's achieved his goal - the fact that his colleague, Paul Allen (Jared Leto), believes Patrick is someone else - a colleague who closely resembles him. After a meal one evening, Paul becomes Patrick's unsuspecting victim at the hands of an axe.

Paul's final meal takes place at a fairly undesirable restaurant, despite the fact that he is able to get into the restaurant de jour 'Dorsia', which Patrick has repeatedly failed to do, further inflaming him. But he wants to take girls there - especially Courtney with whom he's having an affair - and it shows his desire to impress them. He is consistently trying to impress others - often an ignorant audience, such as the prostitutes who he reminds are drinking a 'very fine Chardonnay'. This desire to please doesn't seem consistent with my construct of a typical (or at least Hollywood) serial killer, and helps to build Patrick into something more 3-dimensional.

Christian Bale is great. I really hate myself for saying this, but I was plagued by the resemblance, as least of his mouth, to Kermit the Frog. This is no doubt a product of seeing this last year but I was convincing myself that I would have seen the resemblance with having read it. Bale has just the right amount of scary in his eyes to play a murderer, and especially in this ironic way.

I'm not a massive fan of Reece Witherspoon. I still can't believe that she won an Oscar after all the romcoms she's subjected the world to. However she is ideally cast in the role of dumb whiney girlfriend - I feel like I've seen her act that part before (I use the term act loosely).

I haven't read the book, but I might do now. I did start Glamorama a while back, but never got more than halfway. I would definitely like to read more. It's funny that from what I'd heard about American Psycho, I'd always thought of Bret Easton Ellis as one of these alpha male literary types who objectifies women because it's sexy, edgy and appealing to the male audience. And yet he's actually gay. We have a book and a film which have been lambasted for their misogyny, and they are the products of a gay man and a woman respectively. Eaton Ellis has previously said that the figure of Patrick Bateman was based on his late father.

It's 9 years since the film came out and an unbelievable 18 since the book (1991). But what's so funny is that these self-styled yuppies are more abundant then ever, at least in London. I've been preparing a post on what i've seen of 'recreational' drug use in London which I'll put up at some point, but it's key points are that drugs - especially Coke and Ketamine right now - are almost everywhere in London. People especially in the 25-35 age bracket are earning more money than they know what to do with, and have no other interests to pursue in their spare time other than spending the entire weekend on drugs. And if it's not that, it's designer clothes, the latest console, designer handbags or some other meaningless tripe to try and make them happy. I guess I wonder how much longer it will last, especially if the recession has caught up with a lot of them.