American Psycho- Review for Quench Magazine

American Psycho, well loved and acclaimed is a gut wrenching movie and a book about a banker turned into a killer. But even more disturbing than the murder is the comments the storyline makes about our society. Right off the start, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) is developed to be a materialistic consumer defined by fine dining and luxury branding. The movie’s backbone theme is identity and the lack thereof as everyone is surrounded by a sea of people with the same ambitions and characteristics. While watching the movie, you can't help but relate it to the central idea of the American Dream and the vision of what success looks like. Following the Bateman’s spiral you realise pretty quickly that he has a delusional sense of reality where he holds a contradictory idea of fitting in but also standing out. No one wants to be a carbon copy of anyone but we also fear being outlandish and unaccepted. The movie isn't about the elaborate killing but to point out the masked truth within the society. In showing the darkness of one person, the movie does a really good job of highlighting some societal issues that are still relevant and will likely always be relevant.