Don't read too much into the title, I know its been a while and people would probably jump to conclusions since the move to New York. And after this entry you will probably think 'he has really lost it.' But I assure you, it is still just me and this is all a coincidence.
I finally watched 'American Psycho' after many requests from friends and it captivated me. I really was sucked into the premise and the Patrick (Christian Bale) character for a number of reasons. One - he has everything he will ever need in life, so naturally his mind will crave more than he can get. Two - he plots the murders out with extreme detail, yet doesn't care about the bodies being found/discovered because in a way he actually wants to get caught. Three - Playing off the last, getting caught is the added adventure for him because not only is he craving more but he is now planning his schedule to evade people like the police or his finace to avoid getting caught, yet he continually finds himself with them and keeps finding a way out of things at the last second.
I really enjoyed it for the effectiveness of its motifs, the obsessions with a musician's background or the lyrics to a song, and how they played on each of the victims. In a way, I haven't felt this way about a movie since I saw 'Mr. Brooks', which is essentially a more modern version of this film, which I saw again by chance a few days back so it was fresh in my mind. This one is more of a William Hurt show than a movie, but I think it was the most underestimated movie of the year.
There is just something about them that sets them apart from the rest, it is poetry with weapons. Nobody claims they loved 'Silence of the Lambs', but they enjoy watching it because of the drama behind it all. How sadistic can someone be, what is going through their head that makes them act this way, why do they have to kill to function? These are the questions we ask when we see movies like this, and we watch them to distract ourselves from the world around us and the people we share it with.
Think of the new found obsession with the books or the media about fighting and death, its not that we are a part of it or want to be a part of it, but we want to know about it because we know it exists. Only now, people are getting into it deeper and deeper and the bar has been rasied because of this obsession, how much will be too much? I guess what I am getting at is that the world is a confused place, people are loving and fighting with each other every other second for the sake of closure. We want to know what is happening and see the light at the end of the tunnel, we want to get what we want in the quickest way possible, and we want to tell other people about and voice our minds when we don't get what we want or see the light. So that void grows, shifts, changes, morphs into the novels, articles, shows, movies we read and watch and it gets filled, only the more we read/watch the bigger the void gets so the bar is raised.
That is why I liked 'American Pyscho' and why I continue to like 'Mr. Brooks'
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2 comments:
yeah. or how about that he's the SANEST one in that whole ridiculous, materialistic world that he lives in and he's either really killing all those people to set himself apart from it all, or he's imagining that he's doing it in order to set himself apart. . . .
did you ever read the book? it's so ridiculous; the descriptions of people's outfits and his grooming rituals go on for pages, seriously. good social commentary though.
No, in fact I had to see the credits to know it was based on one, but now I am craving it so I will have to go out for it soon. Currently trying to finish Choke before I see it in the theaters.
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