An Absurdist View of Society
Rating: 10 of 10 
'American Psycho' has to count amongst this year's most controversial films, rightly so, but for what reasons? Is it the shameless portrayal of the killer as the protagonist of the movie, is it his voice-overs, his ironic and cynic view of the world, uttered so suavely and shamelessly? Is it the gripping performance of Christian Bale, a performance which overshadows all the others in the film, although they're pretty good? The rather unfiltered perspective which lets us see how much fun he has doing the things he does? The more or less explicitly shown murders or victims, the violence which is so devastating on both a visual and psychological level, a violence partly seen, partly obscured - and through this hiding, made even more real?
Is it the textbook-like portrayal of his daily routine, a classic obsession with insignificant detail? Is it the lack of psychobabble which could tell us something about a possibly bad childhood or something else? Is it the way in which he is able to conceal his crimes? Or isn't it rather the way he fits in so perfectly into society? Isn't it rather his obnoxious normality, his being more normal than others, again a prototypical description of the serial killer? Isn't it the very notion that even the thought that he could be doing the things he does seems so absurd - as absurd as this view of society has to seem, has to be declared, for how could it be that such a man could be living amongst us, undetected, perfectly embedded into society, a predator amongst sheep, wouldn't that be absurd?
January 25th, 2001
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