By the time Mary Harron's film version came around, it was beside the point whether the subject matter was in any way "controversial." If anything, time was kind to Ellis's satire, and the fact that the film was handled by Harron (director of I Shot Andy Warhol) as opposed to, like, Ron Howard (though, come to think of it, I would LOVE to see Ron Howard's American Psycho, just for the laughs), allowed the film to stand on its own, apart from the usual moral-critic BS. The film holds up really well. I enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater, but returning to American Psycho five years later, I was surprised to find that it not only still feels fresh, but even comes across as a minor classic. Either time has been kind to this film, or repeat viewings bring out its subtleties, or both. Whatever the case, what seemed like a decent enough, but quickly irrelevant, little indie seems more and more like the brutally funny and enduring film it is. Perhaps it was that preposterous pseudo-sequel with Mila Kunis that caused AP to slink down into the realm of the mostly forgotten. Harron's direction is great, perfectly reflecting the meticulously-constructed surface yet emotional flatness of the film's characters, especially Patrick Bateman, played to the hilt by Christian Bale. AP has a number of outstanding moments (the business-card showdown; Bateman's laughed-off confession; the "Phil Collins" soliloquy) that easily stand out as Classic Scenes in the Scorcese or Tarantino sense. Why people don't recall these scenes when they talk about the Great Movie Moments probably has as much to do with the fact that the director ain't got a weenis as with the enduring stigma of Ellis's book. The support cast is terrific, with nice turns by Jared Leto, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, and Willem Defoe (with Creepiness Quotient pumped to about 85). The 80s elements are deployed tastefully, with none of that Wedding Singer-type bullshit that usually goes on when people try to evoke the 80s. Instead, AP just feels like the 80s. Even the coke use isn't rose-tinted; rather, it's used to reinforce the scathing "Yuppie" commentary, which, at any rate, is just as relevant now … though some may find it funnier to consider rich bastards doing coke in expensive Manhattan restaurant bathrooms to be an 80s phenomenon, like Huey Lewis & the News or "parachute pants." It's a bloody movie, sure, but it's one in which the gore is more metaphorical than visceral. That probably isn't much consolation to the weak-stomached viewer … my suggestion would be to use a metaphorical barf bag if you can't handle the sight of metaphorical blood. (?)
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