“American psychopath”: satire to toxic masculinity was confused with celebration

Mary Harron, the director of “American psychopath”, thriller who is celebrating her 25th anniversary this year and who has won “cult movie”, said in a recent interview that she is “mysterious” as Wall Street boys were obsessed with serial killer played by Christian Bale, claiming that they do not realize that the movie is a “satire of a gay man over masculinity ”.

For the director, many fans have been badly played the movie. “We never expect him to be embraced by the boys of Wall Street at all,” said Harron. According to her, “American Psycho” has always intended to be a satire. The film, released in 2000, brought Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a New York investment banker who was also a series killer.

Since then, he has become a favorite on Tiktok social network. However, the director repeated that those idolize Bateman lost the main point of the movie. Bateman can wear good suits and have money and power, but he is, in essence, a fool, she said in an interview with.

“American psychopath” was based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis. Harron recalled that “(Ellis) being gay, he allowed the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males to be seen, which is also true in sports, and it is true in Wall Street, and all these things where men value their extreme competition and the kind of ‘raising their skills’.”

According to the director, “there is something very, very gay in the way they are fetishizing the appearance and the gym.” (The book that became a movie also became a Broadway musical.)

That’s why and other reasons, Harron says she and other filmmakers have never hoped that the film will be embraced by the financial community, much less for a new generation. However, Tiktok has given the movie a new chance, as Bateman clips have become regularly trend among users.

“I’m always so curious about it,” said Harron. “I don’t think (co -author Guinevere Turner) and I waited for it to be embraced by Wall Street’s boys, by no means. This was not our intention. So we failed? I’m not sure why (it happened), because Christian is clearly mocking them.”

The film received criticism from feminist groups before its release, with some pointing to their toxic and misogyny masculinity. Then some retreated from it, citing the direction of Harron. Critic Roger Ebert at the time wrote: “She turned a novel about blood thirst into a movie about the vanity of men.”