You’ll never hear Huey Lewis and The News the same way again after watching “American Psycho.” The blood-splattering choreography to Huey’s cheesy “Hip to be Square” is one of the few priceless moments the captures the grotesqueness of ’80s yuppie culture

With the help of lesbian screenwriter Guinevere Turner, director Mary Harron takes bisexual author Bret Easton Ellis’ bleak, lurid novel and transforms it into a satire on the futility of Reagan-ear materialism. Released in 2000, “American Psycho” is already the cult film it was destined to be.

Christian Bale chews up the scenery as Patrick Bateman, the arrogant Wall Street professional with the perfect killer bod. Though deep inside, his demons are stirring waiting to bust out of his depraved psychological prison. The film manages to be a subtle comedy — like when Patrick is having a three-way but can’t stop looking at himself in the mirror. Even as a psycho killer, Bale looks amazingly perfect. And we can’t stop staring at him either.


Landmark’s Inwood Theatre, 5458 West Lovers Lane. May 16-17 at midnight. 214-764-9106.



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 16, 2008.