A sharp, glossy satire of 1980s Wall Street vanity that doubles as a grisly psychological horror comedy. Its style, performance, and deadpan social critique make it far more than a shock movie.
American Psycho
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Thriller · Drama
Thu · 1h 42m
Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas
Overview
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.
Director
Mary Harron
Cast
Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, glossy satire of 1980s Wall Street vanity that doubles as a grisly psychological horror comedy. Its style, performance, and deadpan social critique make it far more than a shock movie.
Best for
Viewers who like dark satire and unreliable-narrator mind games
Fans of stylish crime films with a strong visual design
People interested in media-savvy cult movies that reward rewatching
Audiences comfortable with graphic violence and abrasive humor
Skip if
You want straightforward realism or a conventional thriller
Graphic violence, misogyny, and sexual content are dealbreakers
You prefer characters to be sympathetic or morally grounded
You dislike satire that stays intentionally cold and detached
Overview
Mary Harron turns Bret Easton Ellis’s notorious novel into something sleek, funny, and viciously observant. The film is less interested in solving whether Patrick Bateman is “real” than in exposing a culture of status worship, empty masculinity, and consumer fetishism that makes his monstrosity feel like a logical extreme.
Worth noting
Christian Bale gives the role a chilling comic precision, balancing vanity, panic, and predatory charm in a performance that became instantly iconic. The movie’s controlled production design, crisp cinematography, and absurdly specific dialogue create a world that feels both hyperreal and spiritually vacant.
Bottom line
What keeps it enduring is the tonal balance: it is genuinely disturbing, but it is also a savage workplace satire and a black comedy about image management. If you’re tuned to its frequency, it’s one of the defining cult films of the 2000s.
Top Letterboxd reviews
lauren (4★) · 43512 likes
yes patrick bateman is an awful, terrible person who kills people but do you know what he doesn't do? let his friends get away with making anti-semitic statements
sree (5★) · 41371 likes
5 stars for the brutal murder of jared leto
Riley 🩸 · 30219 likes
patrick bateman’s horrified reaction when he saw his collague’s business card and said “it even has a watermark” was the most dramatic moment in cinematic history
p e r s i a 🍒 (4★) · 26908 likes
dorsia was the real villain all along
•lily• (4★) · 24417 likes
[ASMR] Patrick bateman rates your spotify wrapped before killing you
Themes
consumerism, toxic masculinity, identity performance, class anxiety, yuppie culture, psychological fragmentation, satire, violence as spectacle
Topics
dark satire, psychological thriller, black comedy, neo-noir, corporate culture, 1980s setting, graphic violence, cult classic, unreliable narrator, social commentary