Gonna have to let that one percolate more, but I can see why it's such an iconic movie that keeps popping up constantly. The way it shows the utter bloodsoaked cruelty of elites, yet also shows them as empty and utterly replaceable. And even one who keeps pushing boundaries of that cruelty in ways that seem ultimately become attempts at recognition or maybe to assert some sort of agency... all of that gets painted over. Regardless of how much of what we see in the movie was pure delusion, the point that I've taken away right after watching is that Patrick Bateman has no more agency or identity than any of the other finance douchebags in his social circle.
To me that scans with the idea that even the richest and most powerful capitalists are totally subject to the laws of motion of capitalism, that no matter how they might try to assert themselves as individuals whether through public magnanimity or depraved acts of cruelty, it's as futile as Patrick Bateman's attempts. Their actions and role in society are not their own, and attempts to defy that will simply be compensated elsewhere or, at most, they will simply be replaced by the next capitalist in line. I think we often think of capitalists as having more agency and capability to put resources toward societal problems, but simply choosing not to do so, yet I'm not sure that's really true. Seems to me that all roads lead back to collective working class action being the only means by which systematic ills can be rectified. Idk it's late and I'm rambling. Point is, pretty great movie
Very nice reading of the film! I agree with everything you've said and enjoy the film saying it but unfortunately i'm still slightly at a distance from the film. I think maybe a broader look at this world might've been better- it's all too easily explained away with 'it's all in his head'. I enjoy the idea you've mentioned that he's replaceable, if the detective even captures Bateman the role he's occupied and his cruelty will always exist. Probably why the business card scene is fucking amazing, it's super funny, and the identical drips in suits all slobber and bicker while trying to maintain civility. Maybe portraying that world rather than the insular lifestyle of sex and violence which simultaneously takes the majority of the film and has been replicated ad nauseam.
But the ending showing the lack of consequences- or even recognition-of crimes by the elite is pretty chilling now.
I think even the "its all in his head" reading of the film still works because it shows a few things:
how little anyone cares about Bateman's well being as he is losing his mind
that he's still able to fit in while he is losing his mind
that it doesn't even matter to anyone around him whether he is losing his mind or not as he is replaceable
I don't think its all in his head though. I interpret the things like shooting a gun causing an explosion to be his mind losing sense of reality, but that all the killings he did were still real. It makes the real estate agent scene even more chilling, where instead of it being a scene of just some random apartment that Bateman has been dreaming about, its actually Paul Allen's apartment. This implies the real estate agent's company have taken ownership of the apartment since Allen's death, and while inspecting it they found the bodies and dumped them without reporting it to anyone and plan to sell the apartment like nothing happened because there's profit to be made. The agent probably realises that Bateman has done the killings by the way he's acting and takes a "don't ask don't tell" approach.
Its a shame Bret Easton Ellis is one of those "millennials are all snowflakes" people.
Yeah, I actually came across quotes from an interview with Mary Harron where she admitted she wasn't quite happy with how the ending turned out because of this, and wanted to reassert that, no, Bateman is absolutely a murderer even if the audience sees that through a very distorted lens. Maybe it would have helped to convey in some way that even Bateman's serial killing was, in fact, something that every single one of his peers also does. As uniform and mundane as the business cards.
I woke up thinking about that scene lol. Definitely underscores the utter inability of any of those people to assert an identity, or maybe more precisely, it underscores how the world they inhabit collapses all possibility and strangles the human imagination. The rest of them maybe have some awareness which is why they mostly just react "Nice." to each other's cards but Bateman, because he's so desperate to assert an identity within these cramped social confines, has a whole absurd psychodrama play out in his head about whether "bone" or "pearl nimbus" is a better business card color.
The best part is that I realized I have experienced that exact psychodrama specifically while writing and tweaking resumes and cover letters for job searches. I actually fucking worried about whether Lucida Sans or Arial is a better font (Lucida btw), or whether I should bold position title and italicize past employer, or if I should italicize position and bold the employer (bold the employer).