American Psycho: A bad hallucination
by Herb Kane

April 18, 2000

out of four stars

THE CRITIC DOCTOR EXAMINES: Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly), Stephen Hunter (Washington Post), Jon Popick (Planet Sick-Boy), Jonathan Foreman (New York Post), Jonathan Foreman (New York Post), Todd Anthony (Sun-Sentinel), Jay Carr (Boston Globe), Sarah Kendzior (11th Hour), James Berardinelli (Reel Views), Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times), Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)

I went to the movie "American Psycho" and had no idea what to expect. I left with high expectations that most critics would take an ax to this film and it's already chopped up plot. But, of course, that didn't happen. That's why I, the Critic Doctor, am here operate on temporarily insane critics who liked this film.

Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly) said, "Funny, pungent, and weirdly gripping, 'American Psycho' is a satire that feels like a hallucination."

It's a satire alright. I got to the theater - I sat and I got tired.

And if it felt like a hallucination, perhaps that was because the writers may have been on hallucinogens themselves. No matter. You have to be on drugs to enjoy this movie (don't take that literally, critics). Stephen Hunter (Washington Post) said in his review: "It's about as violent as any R-rated movie in America. But it's a lot more boring."

Jon Popick (Planet Sick-Boy) said, "You may be wondering about the story right about now, but there really isn't one."

That's the whole problem with this film, although you cannot help but laugh at a few token scenes where yuppie Wall Street executives compete for the best looking business cards, expensive suits and have the executive power to get a last minute reservation at the finest New York restaurants. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is one of them, who gradually evolves into a serial killer. Strange this supposed 80's satire was crafted around this character.

The satire was like a flat tire, punctured by excessive, mindless writing - creating a meaningless character thrusted in a distorted version of the Reagan era. Satire should elevate the truth in a funny, creative way. Bret Easton Ellis (who wrote the novel) derailed here and Mary Harron (director & writer) thrusted this ego-train beyond the edges of reality.

Jonathan Foreman (New York Post) observes, "Like the notorious 1991 novel on which it's based, 'American Psycho' offers a cheap and hypocritical critique of American consumerism and vanity - diseases that presumably don't afflict celebrity novelists and Hollywood filmmakers - that actually tells you more about its creators' smugness and vanity than about the culture they claim to satirize."

The real humor in this movie is that "American Psycho" could be the ultimate satire of Hollywood - from its inception of vanity to its excessive growth of greed and consumerism - at the expense of the consumer.

Todd Anthony (Sun-Sentinel) said, "'American Psycho' is a work of razor-sharp social commentary."

I think Anthony is "hallucinating." Jay Carr (Boston Globe) got it right: "The book seems a case of the prurient condemning the prurient. It's cynical junk masquerading as social comment. The film is, finally, only a slicker packaging of it."

Sarah Kendzior (11th Hour) contends, "This gutsy adaptation is what good filmmaking is all about." James Berardinelli (Reel Views) says the film "represents one of the most daring, inventive, and invigorating movies to reach the screen during the dreary first half of 2000."

If all this is true, I'm going to have to recruit a whole team of critic doctors just to keep up with this bloody mess in the "emergency review" (E.R.) room.

Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times) hit the nail on the head, "Promotional blather about its satiric thrusts notwithstanding, the bottom line is that this film is 100 minutes spent with an unpleasant, unmotivated, disconnected psychopath named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), who enjoys hacking folks into pieces and storing body parts in a freezer. Which is pretty much 100 minutes too many."

Too many, indeed. The film, in my opinion, should have gotten an "NC-17" rating (for violence and sex, but mostly violence), but somehow managed to escape the grasp of MPAA.

Turan sums the movie up best by calling it a "stillborn, pointless piece of work."

Chicago Sun-Times film critic, Roger Ebert, said in his review of "American Psycho," "As a novel, Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 best seller was passed from one publisher to another like a hot potato. As a film project, it has gone through screenplays, directors and stars for years."

That's no surprise. Someone should have smashed this hot potato long ago.

-- CRITIC DOCTOR

CAST: Christian Bale (Patrick Bateman), Willem Dafoe (Donald Kimball), Jared Leto (Paul Allen), Reese Witherspoon (Evelyn), Samanth Mathis (Courtney) and Chloe Sevigny (Jean). SCREENPLAY: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner (based on novel by Bret Easton Ellis). DIRECTOR: Mary Harron. DISTRIBUTOR: Lions Gate Films. TIME: 100 minutes. RELEASE DATE: April 18th, 2000.