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
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).