Mind of its own

American Psycho (2000) by Mary Harron

Other films directed by Marry Harron: I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), The Notorious Bettie Page (2006)

I’m a huge and loyal Dexter series fan and I guess its not surprising for me to mention this here. The cinematography and narration in this film is similar to Dexter’s or vice versa. The way he reflects within himself is pure psychotic and introspective. It is very interesting to listen to. Also the procedure of killing his victims was really up to par. The killing scenes in the film are classic scenes.

COMMENTS

Directing: Other movies that Mary Harron directed are: I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), and The Notorious Betty Page (2005). The movie was really powerful during the killing scenes in which she really managed to create an ambience where you can really feel that it is only the killer and the victim/s in the scene. During the introspective scenes by Patrick Bateman, the way the camera pans moves floats well with the score and narration. Really liked it, though there are obviously more scenes that are just normal.

Plot: Like I said, the special thing about this psycho movie is that we are forced to see the world inside the psychopath’s eyes. We observe what goes inside their mind and how it is actually a very secluded and involuntary trait or instinct that even the psycho has no control over. In this stage, we are made either to empathize or other views against it. That is very unique in this film and I believe the director and the musical score took advantage of this fact. Other than that, I also think the plot could’ve been done better at part III. Maybe another look on how a serial killer tries to get away from the curious and observant eyes of the law other than just plainly running away as if he hasn’t tried running away before.

Characters/Acting: One of the more interesting characters in cinematic history may belong to Patrick Bateman and I really do think Christian Bale played a far more awesome part in portraying him. The dialogue he has with himself and with his victims are classical. It showed charm, rudeness, and a sense of liberation as if he is just letting himself be. Reese Witherspoon was awful, especially in the breaking up scene. Glad she was only in the shots a few times. Jared Leto, I think did awesomely well too.

Score: I think it did just as well as the directing, especially during the introspective parts of reflection (voice over) and the killing scenes.