hip to be square

American Psycho - I watch it when I'm horribly stressed out. There's a kind of vicarious relief I get through watching Christian Bale act like an entitled sociopath. Even sociopaths can be incredibly witty. There's some really clever dialogue and a constant self aware mocking of the culture of the 80's. What did people in "Mergers and Acquisitions" do anyway? Or as Patrick (Bateman, and if you don't know that by now why are you here?) liked to call it "Murders and Executions". At the same time, even if Patrick is a sociopath he has this gross appreciation of the more meaningful (supposedly) subtexts of horribly superficial 80's music. He explains part of this to Paul Allen as he gets ready to bash his face in with a very brand new axe. Part of me wonders if there's an off screen visit to a hardware store, the ritual of it -- the premeditation of the death of Paul Allen. Would he be happy? Would he walk down the aisle and fantasize? Would he buy a really expensive axe? (Seems so from the look of the film). Patrick must have OCD. One can tell by his diet, his morning beauty and exercise regimen, but mostly from the way he protects his floors from Allen's blood by taping down the New York Times Style section. I can just see him on his hands and knees making sure that everything is just so. And then I laugh at the idea of him actually doing that, because it seems so antithetical to who he is (the manual labor I mean). But it must just be part of that initial pre-murder frenzy of excitement.

So here is where I stumble -- that axe can do a lot of damage to a human being, as evidenced by the massive quantities of blood leaking from Paul Allen. So how has Patrick not completely chopped up his floor? How is his pretty blonde hardwood still intact? Or has he had parts replaced offscreen?

I do have to say that Paul Allen was kind of a pain in the neck (ho ho) and I'm not sad to see him go.

I know the whole thing is a commentary on how superficial the 80's were, especially on Wall Street in NYC -- but I find it perhaps...unintentionally funny. I mean..."Phil Collin's solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying in a …narrower way."

Anyway, I have to return some videotapes.