American Psycho
2000 · Directed by Mary Harron
Original language: English
- thriller
- drama
- crime
The story
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
What it’s like
Glossy 1980s surfaces rendered in cool, hard digital clarity: chrome, marble, black lacquer, and white minimalist interiors lit by flat, unforgiving office fluorescents and the sharp blue-white glare of Manhattan nights. Camera work is controlled and deliberately clinical, with symmetrical framing, precise cuts to ordinary luxury details (business cards, skincare routines, restaurant tables), and a wry, detached eye that lingers on surfaces as though they were evidence. The score leans on eighties synth-pop and pop standards, which jar pleasingly against the brutality on screen. Vibe: icy, sardonic, cool-blank satire with a queasy undertow. It suits a late-night watch alone or a sharp-edged dark comedy craving. Pacing is brisk and deliberately repetitive, mirroring a mind obsessed with status and surface, and the tone swings between deadpan humour and sudden, graphic violence, including murders with a chainsaw and an axe, plus strong sexual content and nudity. The violence is explicit and intense rather than gentle, though much of it is played for dark satire. Its central figure is a glib, self-absorbed Wall Street executive whose emptiness is the joke. For viewers who enjoy biting social satire, unreliable central figures, and style-driven horror-comedy, not for anyone seeking gentleness.
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