Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
American Psycho (2000) & Banquet
25 Plays5 months ago
Welcome back to LHOHP! Today we check out one of my all time favorite movies, American Psycho from 2000. Such a ridiculously fun film. Also, we have a fan favorite to sip on as we review it. Hope you enjoy, cheers!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Film Background
00:00:40
littlehopsofhorrors
Thanks, Jack. Welcome back to Little Hop's Horse Podcast. I'm John, your host as always. Thank you again for the continued support. Always do appreciate it. ah Today, guys, we are doing American Psycho from 2000, directed by Mary Herron. Pretty sure I fucked that up, but oh well, we're going to keep rolling with it. Sitting at 68 on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.6 out of 10 on IMDB. um Our rating, 10 out of 10. Fucking love this movie. This is one of my all-time favorite films.
00:01:08
littlehopsofhorrors
period it's just fun it's funny it's ridiculous it's absurd ah we're gonna talk about why we like that here and a little bit beer we're having tonight just rolling with Coors Banquet it's nice and easy to drink so that's what we're doing you guys don't need the untapped rating or anything like that now what do we like about this movie Well, basically the entire film. The absurdity of this movie is just, it's very fun. It's it's it's a caricature of of what it was like to be on Wall Street in the 80s. It's just a fun movie. This, I think, is is Christian Bale's best performance.
00:01:42
littlehopsofhorrors
um The menus at one of the restaurants, I fucking love it. It's called eSpace. That's the name of one of the restaurants earlier in the movie. um I love that like it's like etched into metal. And I always just wanted to like hold it and touch it for whatever fucking reason. It's like a sensory thing for me. I don't know. Maybe there's something wrong with me. um But they just look so satisfying. um But also we we come up with the ah the best way to get out of any situation. And that is to but just say you have to return some video tapes.
00:02:12
littlehopsofhorrors
um But yeah, this movie's just so much fun. The kills are cool, ah even though you don't see a lot of them, but there's one that really sticks out, we'll talk about, obviously, when we get into spoilers. um Also, this ah was a great inspiration for one of my favorite Ice Nine Kill songs, Hip To Be Scared. and Those guys are a lot of fun. I know they get some kind of shit on for being and kind of niche-y and weird, and you know their music isn't for everybody, but if you like horror, you know just just
Social Commentary and Modern Connections
00:02:37
littlehopsofhorrors
give them a chance. they're they're They're pretty awesome, and they put on a great show ah live. now but we didn't like about this movie. ah There's one over the top ah line towards the end and this this is a little bit of a spoiler that just kind of derails this movie just for a minute. um He didn't have to say anything about it but he he talks about like he he ate some brains when he confesses everything at the end of the movie.
00:03:04
littlehopsofhorrors
but like you you didn't have to put that in there that's kind of like the only thing that that i didn't like that and they killed a fucking dog you guys know how we feel about that don't really want to have to deal with uh hearing that or seeing that or anything like that and in you know any of these movies um yeah so we're kind of rolling right through here we're only fucking not even four minutes in and we're already jumping into spoilers but you know what fuck it man it's getting late i gotta get through this uh yeah we'll catch you on the other side uh around i don't know four minutes if you haven't seen this movie go check it out uh love it it's one of my favorites we'll see you on the other side
00:03:43
littlehopsofhorrors
that's right it's spoiler time yeah so we uh we actually double dipped tonight we recorded the episode for Terrifier 3 with Austin from Frightmare so we're just kind of trying to sneak in another episode while i got a couple minutes to record another episode uh yeah but this movie's just fun uh taking one big old jab at white collar uh the white collar elite of the world the more powerful they get the less they actually do and yet they get all the money and all the credit um this movie is almost 25 years old and that shit feels like it just has not changed but Patrick Bateman's dialogue is just spectacular the oversimplification
00:04:16
littlehopsofhorrors
of of having to solve the world's problems before dealing with the massacres in Sri Lanka, you know, just like yeah cure homelessness and stop the nuclear arms race
Character Dynamics and Plot Highlights
00:04:26
littlehopsofhorrors
and apartheid. Like, he just gets into depth. and There's no actual substance to anything he's saying. It just sounds great, you know, on paper. ah But the man just wants to fit in. And this movie is ahead of its time um in that aspect, of being seen with certain people, doing whatever they want to do.
00:04:43
littlehopsofhorrors
uh or doing whatever yeah they want to do um you know just to maintain like a status or whatever and it it's what most folks do with social media today they follow trends for fear of being left behind or not being cold or not being included you know something like that but man fuck it be different it's cool ah But if this movie taught us anything, deep down, we're just weird monsters hiding who we really are. um And there are so many things about this movie I love, but mainly ah just the absolutely menial things that set him off, like his jealousy of Paul Allen, played by Jared Leto. um And that's like the catalyst for the whole fucking film, just like he constantly just just mad that that Paul's always like one step ahead. He has the better apartment, the better accounts at work, the better business card. like
00:05:27
littlehopsofhorrors
you know just all this little dumb shit that he just gets so fucking mad over ah and most importantly that he can get a reservation a reservation uh at dorcia like whenever he wants like 8 30 on a friday how do you swing that uh you know like that line there fucking love it um And it's just too much for Patrick to handle at the end of the day ultimately so he gets him drunk takes him to some random fucking restaurant and kills him and It's hilarious that like the entire film there's there's like science because this isn't his first his first murder He's already killed the homeless guys kill the dog. He's killed like some random lady um you know, and he's just clearly murdering people and people see him doing this there's like a like signs and and nobody's doing anything right they just kind of like overlook it or he just like explains it away really quickly and he's like super dismissive uh and that's kind of why i like patrick payments one of my favorite characters of all time like he's just playfully unhinged the entire movie and and it only gets worse as the movie goes on his demeanor can change you know like in an instant which is what i like uh about his character the most that in his lectures on music which is like
00:06:33
littlehopsofhorrors
change the way I listen to to songs like these songs that are in this movie like there's Huey Lewis in the news and Phil Collins and all that shit and like now when I hear them like I just think of this movie ah in particular. um I love Willem Dafoe, and I love that he does these little, like, indie niche projects or whatever. He's such a fun actor. um And, you know, I loved him in Boondock Saints. And this role that him play in that Detective Kimble or whatever isn't quite as memorable as the one that he plays in Boondock Saints, ah but it's still good. And his interrogation of of Patrick is fun.
00:07:10
littlehopsofhorrors
and you know like as you're watching it you're pretty much thinking like I don't know how this dude is in suspect number one just with like his demeanor his answers and all that stuff but again this feels like a commentary on like how these motherfuckers just like always get away with shit ah but it's funny that like and in in all these dudes they all look alike like they really yeah kind of go out of their way to show that they all have like this like back here the same fucking ah you know glasses or just they all have the same look right so like when Patrick's alibi comes through the Paul Allen was spotted in London like it's harder for them to actually find him and pin
00:07:46
littlehopsofhorrors
Patrick is like responsible because like he even left the fucking you know like message on his answering machine pretending to be Paul Allen and everything so it's just I don't know there's just it's it's just kind of funny that they just kind of they' they're super dismissive of all this stuff all these red flags and all this shit they're like oh yeah I definitely saw him because he had this look back here and he dressed in a nice suit right yeah that was definitely Paul um So Patrick takes it, you know, upon himself to make him another alibi, you know, that the cops are getting kind of close and and all that stuff. So he makes a sex tape, right? And this is the first, in his first introduction with ah Christie, who's a prostitute and everything. So he scoops two escorts under the identity of Paul Allen, goes out of his way to tell them, I work for Pearson Pierce, you know, this is what I do.
00:08:31
littlehopsofhorrors
um And then he starts banging them while educating them on Phil Collins. um And after he bangs them, of course, he beats the living shit out of them. Doesn't kill them, which is kind of surprising, ah but then sends them on their way.
00:08:46
littlehopsofhorrors
Now, as the movie progresses, um he becomes, like, you know, triggered more easily. Things just kind of set him off, um you know, a little more quickly than than they did before. There's the interaction in the bathroom with Luis. He gets mad over his business card. He goes into fucking strangle him. But Luis kind of makes a move on him. He's he's uncomfortable with that. He starts leaving. He's like, Patrick, and he's like, what is it?
00:09:11
littlehopsofhorrors
It's where are you going is that I have to return some videotapes and I just fucking love that line It's so funny that he has to do it right now And if you're a you know a product of the 90s You know that you had to like have them back by a certain time and they better be fucking you know rewound Otherwise you're gonna pay like an extra fee or something like that and Um, but it was just funny. So now we're into the second round of interrogation from Willem Dafoe's character, Detective Kimball. Uh, and he gets his, his facts mixed up, right? And and it kind of leaves him a little flustered, but it shows like how empty his life really is. It's just like lunch after lunch, dinner after dinner, bar after bar, all high profile meetings and so much cocaine,
Themes of Privilege and Reality vs. Delusion
00:09:52
littlehopsofhorrors
right? But, uh, that was the eighties, right? That's, that's just what people did.
00:09:56
littlehopsofhorrors
um But Patrick is now getting closer to becoming like fully unraveled. This is gonna be like a quick fucking episode I am flying through this. Oh, well, I don't give a shit, you know, sometimes you guys can get a smaller one. I'm still covering everything I want to cover it the way I want to cover it It's just it's just happening that everything's flowing very nicely right now. So why fuck it up? um Yeah, he's getting very close to becoming fully unraveled here ah towards the end. He actually says he's into murders and executions not mergers and acquisitions and Um, which is misheard by the cliche dumb blonde model, uh, who conveniently becomes his next victim. Um, and, and he just doesn't give a shit at this point. Like he's just, he just feels like untouchable. Uh, he even takes in like a lock of her hair. It's like a little trophy into work the next day, just rolling it in his office. Like this movie is fucking wild, right? Like it's out there for sure. Um, it's definitely word like worthy of it's, it's dark label comedy, I think. um
00:10:49
littlehopsofhorrors
it's very I don't know it's just a fun movie this is like a guilty pleasure one I'll throw it on whenever and I can quote it and I just laugh um just every time it's just how ridiculous you know Christian Bale is um how quickly he can go from being like funny and charismatic and and you know like really appealing to just like stone cold fucking psychopath in like a frame right like just his his demeanor can change so quickly it's it's really something to like admire here he does a great job at this um Yeah, he's way better in this than he is in any of the fucking Batman movies or whatever I think. Anyway, um so I love the scene where like Gene comes over, ah his his secretary, ah to spend the evening with Patrick, and he just casually goes over like which weapons, like which knife he wants to do before he's like, nah, I'll opt for the the the nail gun um with no air compressor, mind you. So that was kind of a plot hole, unless I think they have some that
00:11:43
littlehopsofhorrors
don't have um you don't need one for but anyway we're not gonna poke holes in the plot here um but i like the clever dual meeting that he has with um with her after like evelyn leaves her her message on the answering machine um and she says you know should i leave and he says i i think if you don't that might hurt you and and she's totally unaware that she's like seconds from being brutally murdered by by her boss and everything and then she reminds him uh on her way out that she has lunch with uh with detective Kimball and we go to the next day and Patrick is like sweating fucking bullets and acting guilty and trying to like pry whatever information he can out of the detective who's totally unbothered by this right he's just casually eating his lunch and everything and he just tells him uh
00:12:31
littlehopsofhorrors
everything he knows he's like yeah he said he was at lunch with you you're totally fine and I guess you got your days mixed up and Patrick's like oh right you know I must have slipped my mind you know um but you know when you listen to the guy um just saying he's at this restaurant at this time and and this time and this time like they're always doing something so like I guess if I were the cop I could see how he got his stuff mixed up but we're not here to like talk speculation um But I love that Willem Dafoe just like laughs off the idea that that one of Paul Allen's friends could have killed him. It's insane. ah When in fact he's sitting right across from a fucking murderer. um But I really feel like this is part fact and part fiction here. like So many times we've seen
00:13:14
littlehopsofhorrors
you know the elite kind of get away with things that we like regular folks would be jailed for without question ah because of their status and who they are they get like a much longer leash um than than most of us do and this this movie points that out in like a clever yet like satirical kind of way Um, but Patrick now feels like he's bulletproof. Um, he's on to the next one again and another two close to home scene here. Um, you know, he just throws money at the problem. He, he meets Christy again. She doesn't want anything to do with him and he just holds like a big fucking wad of cash out in front of her trying to entice the poor girl, you know, says, I'll give you a ah check for whatever number you want. Just come back with me. Let's do it one more time.
00:13:56
littlehopsofhorrors
um And this time they go back to Paul Allen's apartment, but she gets in one little jab here ah that that she doesn't even know she she takes but she says that this apartment is much nicer than his other one and he's like, it's not that much nicer. It's just funny because it's just that one of those things that gets under his skin because he fucking hates Paul Allen. um But it just adds to his complex and everything.
00:14:19
littlehopsofhorrors
Patrick spikes the drink, talked about Whitney Houston for some reason, gets made fun of by the two girls that are making out right next to him. ah He's totally focused on just talking about Whitney Houston's music instead of like two girls that are making out on the couch. And like, I don't know, man, I think my mind will be somewhere else.
00:14:35
littlehopsofhorrors
If I saw two girls making out over there, like I probably wouldn't be talking about Whitney Houston's greatest hits. I don't know. Anyway, so we're under the sex scene ah where he violently kills his friend ah in in the bed and leaves Christina panicked. She starts screaming and beating on every door that she can possibly fucking hit on her way out, you know looking for help. Nobody comes to help her.
00:14:57
littlehopsofhorrors
um But she hears that this motherfucker just fires up a chainsaw, right? Which is the most random thing in this entire movie like where did this come from? How was he just like leaving this in the fucking apartment? Like what what is going on here? um And Patrick pavement comes running out of the apartment But ass naked covered in blood chasing this girl with a chainsaw as she flies down a flight of stairs Does he chase her not entirely?
00:15:21
littlehopsofhorrors
he just kind of watches her run down this like big circular staircase and uh dangles the chainsaw you know kind of over it and then times the drop so that it hits her uh as she gets to the bottom and that's such a fun creative death um and of course it's gonna be our
00:15:40
littlehopsofhorrors
Big side note here that if you can pull this, uh, like Halloween costume off, it does not get better than this. If you're somehow able to run around butt-ass naked with a chainsaw in your neighborhood, I'm not advising this because you'll definitely end up on some kind of list. But, uh, I just think that it's, that's, that's a great costume to to fucking do if you can do it right.
00:16:00
littlehopsofhorrors
um but like how I again I don't know how this dude has not been caught the next day he's at lunch with his fiance drawing his most recent murder in crayon like an adult and she doesn't pick up on it uh in fact she presses the issue of marriage right he's drawing that he killed somebody with a chainsaw on like a placemat with a crayon at like a four-star restaurant or something like that like he's just totally unbothered with uh marriage i can't talk right now
00:16:34
littlehopsofhorrors
He doesn't want anything to do with it. He says, you know, fuck it. I'm fucking leaving I'm getting out here because I have to return these video tapes and that's his excuse for everything and just remember to keep that card in your pocket so you can use it whenever you want, but We're finally at the climax here, right? We're only fucking 17 minutes in. Yeah, this is gonna be a shorter episode and that's fine um He just kind of goes off the wall here. He murders an old lady after the ATM tells him to feed him a stray cat and Uh, gets into a gunfight with the cops, um, and wins in spectacular fashion. There's like explosions and all this stuff. Um, so, you know, the rampage ensues, right? He just like murders everyone in his way with reckless abandon until he arrives back at the office. He hears the fucking like helicopters out looking for him and all this stuff.
00:17:18
littlehopsofhorrors
Um, so he calls his lawyer and he confesses everything, right? I killed this person with this. I killed this person this way. I did this. I did this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This goes into such detail. This is where he talks about eating the brain. It's like, I was like, why do you have to just take that line out? And this movie is absolutely perfect and fun.
00:17:35
littlehopsofhorrors
But he goes into such incriminating detail about everything like, you know, it's it's just you're expecting this to be the end of Patrick Pateman and he goes into work the next day totally unscathed,
Interpretations and Conclusion
00:17:47
littlehopsofhorrors
right? So now this is where the movie gets like very interesting or at least your perception of the movie, right? um He meets with his lawyer and you know, it talks about, you know, did you get my phone call and he's like, I didn't think that was very funny.
00:17:59
littlehopsofhorrors
ah he checks Paul Allen's apartment which has been completely like painted and like renovated and everything and ready to go you know to be sold to the next person or whatever all the bodies that were hanging up in the closet they're all gone everything's done so it begs the question did this actually happen? Is this just a product of of mental illness? Is this something that, you know, Patrick Bateman just imagined, um like fantasized about and, you know, none none of it actually really happened? Or, you know, maybe Paul Allen did actually disappear just not by the hands of, you know, Patrick Bateman.
00:18:40
littlehopsofhorrors
um or is you know did the powers that be you know cover this up as they do for the rich and powerful um so as to not disrupt the status quo like do they did did did the lawyer get this send in like a team of cleaners to get everything done and just take care of it so that Patrick Bateman's status wouldn't be affected and they wouldn't have to explain why some CEO at Pearson Pierce, you know Went on a murderous rampage and killed a bunch of people like did they just like sweep it under the rug and and let it go
00:19:16
littlehopsofhorrors
I think he did everything, honestly, and I think that they had it covered up based on the interactions that he has, you know, kind of at the end of the movie, um especially with his lawyer and the way his lawyer reacts. ah i just I just have a feeling that that he definitely did everything. um But yeah, this movie's just fun. It's it's one of my all-time favorites. I know it's a shorter episode, guys, I'm sorry, but I do gotta get ready to go to bed.
00:19:37
littlehopsofhorrors
ah But ultimately I covered everything I wanted to cover and just a little faster than I normally do that's all um Maybe I was on my game tonight. Who knows now. I'm just kidding. I'm never on my game um ah Next week. I'm not sure exactly what's coming up um What is today today is the Let me look at the calendar here real quick. I'll drag out the episode whether you fucking want me to or not um
00:20:05
littlehopsofhorrors
Today is this day, so this will release. Yeah, you know what? So ah next week's sinister. Yeah, that's that's all there is to it. Next week will be sinister. We're going to end the month. It'll be on Halloween, I believe. Is that the day? Let me see.
00:20:20
littlehopsofhorrors
Yeah, holy shit. ah This drops on, yeah, Sinister will drop on Halloween. That's exciting. That'll be a good episode to drop on that day. um Yeah, so heading into November, we're gonna be doing Ready or Not from 2019. And then after that, not quite sure. Definitely doing Thanksgiving this year for Thanksgiving, if you can believe that.
00:20:40
littlehopsofhorrors
We just couldn't do the timing last year, but that'll be a fun one to do this year and to the season. Then we're heading into spooky season. Well, not spooky season. We're headed we're already in spooky season. and um The holiday season, right? So we can do like Christmas stuff. And then we're rounding out the episode or the year with our um best of episode, like our awards episode. So best of 2024, best movie overall, best kill, fear of the year, beer of the year, all that stuff. It'll be fun. And Austin from Frightmares is joining us for that one.
00:21:09
littlehopsofhorrors
That's gonna be the last episode that we do before we join his podcast full-time. So that'll be exciting Anyways, thank you for the support if you haven't um You know go give me some ratings do some stuff ah Subscribe but tell your friends, you know, that's what every podcast wants you to do. So I am no different. I want my free beer, dude um Yeah, we'll catch you guys next week for for sinister until then Cheers so