James Watches 'American Psycho'

A while ago I asked James to write a post.

James:

So a few weeks ago after 1941 practice, DQ—aka Drennen Quinn—invited everyone over to hang out. DQ, he’s well known as one of the cool kids around town, and I had never been to his place before. I just wanted to snoop around a bit, check for any stray record collections or cool-type things that Drennen might have. I’m just kidding, I like to rib Drennen about being a cool kid; I mean he is cool, but it’s busting his chops to call him a cool kid. He also gets mad when you say “Hotlanta.” Anyway. So I said I was in, and so did Steve and C. Jared Fernley.

We met Drennen in the courtyard of his place; it was a really long, almost college-y type courtyard setting. He was playing the ball with his main man, Patton, who is a dog. You’ve never seen a dog that likes to play ball so much. A really good dog. Anyway. We get inside DQ’s place, and it’s a really nice place. I’m talking spacious, good seating options, nice milieu. He’s got a big movie collection, too, which I was poring over when I spotted No Country for Old Men

Me: You know there’s that big debate over which is the greater movie, No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood, since they both came out around the same time.
Steve: What are your thoughts?
Me: I think There Will Be Blood has more going on thematically, more substance, whereas No Country I felt like was dependent on the suspense of “what happens when,” the action, and so it has less replay value.
Steve: I disagree 100% but for the opposite reasons.

Steve, with the assist from Drennen, went on to explain how he felt like everything in No Country operates on a metaphorical level, of life and death, and how he didn’t feel sympathetic toward anything in There Will Be Blood: no hero, no strong women, just a guy being cold and heartless to everyone for two hours. And that the soundtrack to TWBB makes it seem like there is more going on than there actually is. That’s the thing about movies, you get someone else’s take and it makes you think, you know? I’ll have to go back and give No Country another watch. We were all able to agree, anyway, that Javier Bardem’s performance in No Country, as the embodiment of death, was awesome (although I would still put Daniel Day Lewis’s performance in TWBB over it, as a matter of screen time if nothing else; and Plainview is just one of the most compelling characters ever put to film, in my opinion).

So after all that commotion, I threw down the gauntlet:

Me: I’ll pick three movies and we’ll watch one of them.
Everyone else: (healthy laughter) All right.

The reason I said I would make the picks is because I haven’t seen as many movies as everyone else. But so it came down to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, American Psycho, and No Country for Old Men. Somehow American Psycho won the day, probably because 1941 has such a dark, weird aesthetic. Naturally we’d get together and watch everyone’s favorite hangout movie, American Psycho!

What did I know about the movie going into it? In the first place, I thought the part was played by Cillian Murphy, who is the Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Oftentimes I am way, way off about things. Anyway.

Me: Is this going to be a gory mindfuck?
Steve: Define gory mindfuck.
Drennen: Nah, it’s weird and dark and funny.
Me: Well, I put all my trust in Christian Bale.
Jared: I think that trust might be misplaced.

Later that same night…

Christian Bale: I want to stab you to death, and then play around with your blood.
Me: Well that was peculiar.
Jared: It gets better.

So the movie wastes zero time getting weird and letting you know you’re in for a trip. I mean, if you’re an old school old man or something, or uptight, forget about it, it’ll be pure torture for you. But us bohemians on 1941, we can handle these types of movies, and what’s more than that we consider it part of the work to experience reality in all its flavors. Don’t worry, ma’am, we’re the professionals!

So Steve likes to be mischievous and prompt you sometimes, and he kept prompting me throughout the movie to know what I thought about it; as if American Psycho is comprehensible right off the bat! Similarly, Patton kept prompting me the whole night to keep playing ball with him. That dog loves playing ball, I swear! The partnership between that dog and DQ is something for the ages. Anyway.

The thing is, American Psycho is a crazy movie. But that doesn’t mean that it’s without value; there’s a lot going on in the movie. Aesthetically, the alternately pristine and grimy settings and cinematography mesh perfectly with the type of emptiness and stark vacuousness that make a void of Bateman’s soul. I mean, the director, Mary Harron, she has touch, a sense of humor in the face of what is a horrifying script; this movie could have been a complete disaster in the wrong hands. It also works on the level of black comedy satire, of Wall Street’s material excesses, America’s murderousness, of misogyny, and the 1980s. It uses the rules of comedy to trick you into laughing at things that are completely evil, wrong. And Bateman waxing poetic about Genesis and Whitney Houston, is sublime. On top of all that, the movie is not without its parallels to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, something of that stature: What does all this killing mean? Macbeth did it for Lady Macbeth, Bateman does it for fun. What is life? Does it signify anything? That’s some heady stuff, everybody!

So what did I think, Steve? I think American Psycho is the damnedest thing. There’s just not anything like it out there. After watching it for a while, your brain entrains to its homicidal logic, and walking to my car afterward with Steve, it was like, man, I hope there’s not a murder out of nowhere or something! DQ has since told me that he’s gotten the book version, so the fateful choice of American Psycho that night has led to a very strange period of consciousness for ol’ DQ. If you see him and he makes an offhand comment about killing you, you’ll know why!

No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This guest blog post

has

meant

nothing.

See It If You Dare.