Scratch-Off Sunday: Who Becomes The Collateral Damage in Y2K-Era Satire?

I am anxious to share my opinion on this one. Guys, I know it’s a classic. I know it’s this brilliant satire, what with its unreliable narrator and its allegory to the excess and materialism of the Reaganistic 80s, but… I don’t like American Psycho. I’m sorry! Look, there’s a lot of appreciating one can do while also honoring their own tastes. I can appreciate all the little devices of rhetoric and cinema that contribute to its message, but I don’t know. It’s of an era in which Hollywood tended to equate shocking cinema with liberal use of slurs, graphic violence towards women, and such brazen exploitation of sex workers and homeless people as to turn them into disposable plot-advancers.

I’ve been called a curmudgeon before and told not to take these things too seriously. On the one hand, as I said, I am able to look past these critiques and appreciate the story being told. However, when I consider the number of men I’ve encountered in my life who idolize and glorify protagonist Patrick Bateman, I wonder how many cerebral movie-loving types it takes nodding their heads and mumbling, “brilliant,” to counteract such a widespread misread among fuckboys everywhere.

Maybe it’s the fact that I woke up this morning and realized I’d backed myself into the corner of having to watch American Psycho on the weekend of Trump’s second inauguration. Maybe it’s because I could see this same story told today about MAGA-pilled techbros. Maybe if I weren’t currently so sensitive to the narratives we create around women, the LGBTQIA+ community, sex work, and the economically disempowered, I’d be able to read this film in a more positive light. But for now, all I see is a stark reminder of who becomes collateral damage in the pursuit of telling a meaningful and creative story.

What are your thoughts on American Psycho? What am I missing out on? And while you’re at it, what’s a movie that everyone else seems to love that you just can’t stand? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments, on Bluesky, or on Tumblr!

Until next time, Dear Reader, the horrors may persist, but I have to return some video tapes.