American Psycho is surprisingly watchable (and even rewatchable) and very entertaining given its violence and dark, disturbing subject matter. Like the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, the film drew controversy and protests. Even now it still retains an aura of controversy and danger. The main protests against the novel and film were accusations of misogyny, the scenes of graphic violence against women, and seeming glorification of the lifestyle of the killer. I admit that at first I was surprised when I learned that two women were the principal filmmakers: director Mary Harron and screenwriter-actress Guinevere Turner. However, this makes total sense; only female filmmakers could see completely through the façade of 1980’s Wall Street executive Patrick Bateman and even the writing and opinions of Brett Easton Ellis. They are also not intimidated by Patrick Bateman or the violence and deliver a dark satire of 1980’s consumerism, masculinity, male aggression, and performative conformity.
This movie is also very funny. There are scenes of humor in the book but the movie’s humor works so well and really comes through because of Mary Harron and Guinivere Turner’s screenplay and the excellent performance of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. At different points throughout the 1990’s Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio were interested in playing Patrick Bateman. Bale was Harron’s choice because he seemed to be the only actor who not only saw Patrick Bateman as a pathetic, shallow, and actually dorky character but was willing to play him that way and without an artificial redemption. My favorite comedic touch is the weird hyper dance Bale does while preparing a murder scene and explaining the nuances of Huey Lewis and the News’s “Hip to Be Square.” In a subtle but brilliant choice, the sound of the sword being unsheathed can be heard whenever the Wall Street guys take out their business cards. Bateman proudly explains the minutiae of the front and texture and paper of his card only to be upstaged by his colleagues’ cards. Justin Theroux, playing one of Bateman’s interchangeable colleagues, hesitates to show Bateman the business card of a rival because it is just too great a business card. Of course, all of the cards look the same.
When I say this movie is darkly funny, I don’t mean to suggest that the scenes of violence are funny. These scenes are sometimes elaborate, sometimes cruel, and though very bloody there is never much gore on screen. Whether it is the humorously embarrassing scene of Bateman having a threesome with two sex workers and being more interested in checking himself out in the mirrors or the scene of him killing a homeless man and his dog, there are scenes that will be uncomfortable to watch no matter how many times you watch the movie. Is this a misogynist movie? No. Does it have misogynist characters disgustingly comfortable in their lifestyles? Yes. Maybe the only likable or relatable characters are Matt Ross as Bale’s closested coworker, trying extra hard to fit in with his "macho" co-workers, and Chloe Sevigny as his put upon secretary.
There is a question of whether or not all of the murders are purely in Patrick’s mind. This would explain the logistics of the chainsaw scene. The scene where Patrick is confronted with this possibility is quite cryptic and unsettling. However, the chance that the murders are not real does not make the film any less disturbing or Bateman any less dangerous. Harron and Turner show that the real horror is that Bateman lives in a world where he could kill and get away with it if he wanted; the entire system has been designed to benefit men like him, killers or not.
American Psycho is a great movie but it is also an uncomfortably misunderstood movie, not unlike another movie critiquing and satirizing masculinity, Fight Club. In the making-of special features on the DVD, screenwriter Guinevere Turner says that she's met men (and only men) who tell her, "You wrote American Psycho? I think that movie's so cool. I am Patrick Bateman." Her response: "Really? So, are you saying you're a dork or a serial killer? or both?"
American Psycho is available to stream on Netflix and Paramount+.
“There's a point at 7,000 RPM... where everything fades.”
If Ford v Ferrari feels formulaic that’s because it
is, but it works. It has all the elements of a traditional major studio sports movie:
based on a true story, A-list movie stars, acclaimed journeyman director,
fabulous cinematography, a motley crew of characters challenging conventions,
an underdog angle. A more generous analogy would be Ford v
Ferrari takes a reliable recipe and uses the best ingredients and best
kitchen brigade to deliver an entrée so well done it is almost easy to dismiss. That is almost what happened with this movie. After coming and going at the box office
just before Thanksgiving, it seems the Academy couldn’t dismiss this film entirely and
gave it four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. They were right to not
let Ford v Ferrari pass without notice because, though it is working
with a familiar recipe, this is an excellently done, engaging entertainment.
Like the title directly states, this movie is about rival
car companies. Specifically, it is about the nascent Ford racing program in the
mid 1960’s taking on the dominant force in international racing, Ferrari. Like
a lot of sports movies, you could argue that this movie isn’t so much about the
sport but about the characters and their journey. Ford v Ferrari is
certainly about car racing but what is most engaging about it is the friendship
between its main characters, racer turned car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and racer Ken Miles (Christian Bale). After a slump in
sales, ambitious Ford executive Lee Iacocca hatches a plan to revitalize the car company's image by entering the world of international auto racing and winning the prestigious
marathon race 24 Hours at Le Mans. Ford turns to Shelby to head their racing
program. Shelby, turns to the best driver he knows, Miles, who is the right
driver for the job but does not fit the Ford company image.
At first the accents from the leads are a bit jarring. Damon
is using a full Texas drawl and Bale uses a British accent not his own. Accents
aside, Damon and Bale settle into the their characters quickly and comfortably. They are
A-list stars that give A-list performances with great on-screen chemistry.
Damon as the determined no-nonsense Shelby and Bale as the skilled but at times
abrasive Miles (he’s described as “not a people person”) are not exactly a
mismatched pair; they’re more like yin and yang. Their best scene together is
also the funniest in the movie: they fight each other with groceries. Shelby
has a canned good in his hand, realizes that it would hurt Miles, so he hits
him with a loaf of bread instead. Even when they are trying to hurt each other,
they are trying not to hurt each other.
The real rivalry isn’t between Ford and Ferrari but with
race crew and the Ford executives who don’t understand racing and are only
concerned with corporate image, namely Josh Lucas as Leo Beebee. Lucas is great
performer but there’s nothing to his character aside from being petty and obstructing
Shelby and Miles. I did not care about the Ford motor company winning a race to
gain prestige and sell more cars so rich men could be slightly richer. But I
did care about Shelby and Miles succeeding. Watching them and their crew work
together to solve the problems of building a state-of-the-art race car, with each
member using their individual skills and knowledge, is a total delight. Those
scenes reminded me of other film about people working together to solve a
problem, The Martian, also starring Matt Damon, and also a Best Picture
nominee. So, yes, in a film where the title flat out states conflict and rivalry,
the best scenes are of people working together.
Director James Mangold is not a household name, even among
cinephiles, but he turns out solid work more often than not. When directing Walk
the Line he gave the concert scenes a distinct look by putting the camera
backstage and even onstage with the performers instead of just placing it with
the audience. He uses the same approach with Ford v Ferrari’s racing
scenes. There some shots of the cars zooming by the stands but there are also
shots behind and in front of the cars on the track, inside the car with the
Miles, POV shots of the racers, or shots where the camera has been attached the door of one of the speeding cars. It is all cut together to thrilling results (editor Andrew Buckland received
an Oscar nomination for his work). Ford v Ferrari also picked up Oscar
nominations in both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Those aren’t just throw
away nominations. The sound of the roaring engines, zooming cars, and, yes,
explosions, are a major part of the immersive experience of the racing scenes.
I have never had any interest in car racing of any kind, but the grueling climatic
race at 24 Hours at Le Mans, where drivers race in four-hour shifts day and night
no matter the weather conditions, had me completely enthralled. That’s good
filmmaking. I can see Ford v Ferrari being dismissed as a “Dad
Movie”—the kind of movie an adult child would watch with their dad over the
holidays. If that is how you happen to see this picture, you and your dad are
in luck.
Nominees: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, James Mangold, producers
Director: James Mangold
Screenplay: Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth and
Jason Keller
Cast: Matt Damon, Christian Bale
Production Companies:
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: Chernin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment,
Turnpike Films
Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Editing- Andrew Buckland, Michael
McCusker; Sound Mixing-Paul Massey, David Giammarco, Steven Morrow; Sound
Editing-Donald Sylvester
Comedic writer-director Adam McKay tries, and fails, to
bring the same energy and insight from his Oscar nominated examination of the
2008 financial crisis, The Big Short,
to the most notorious vice president since Aaron Burr. Vice is the story of the rise to power of Dick Cheney and how he
changed the executive branch’s use of power forever and for the worse. The film
opens with a title card informing the audience that this is an attempt to tell
the story of the most secretive figure in recent American political history
which is a difficult thing to try. It’s not a good sign when before the movie
even begins it apologizes for itself.
Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney and we see him first as an
aimless drunk in Wyoming in the 1960’s that, spurred on by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), cleans up his act and becomes the right-hand man of Donald Rumsfeld
(Steve Carell) during the Nixon and Ford presidencies. Watching him enjoy his
quiet accumulation of power and the satisfaction and status it brings during
the 70’s and 80’s is the most interesting segment of the movie. Once the film
hits the W. Bush years when Cheney acted behind the scenes to increase his own
personal power and wealth Vice should
hit its stride, but instead it goes on autopilot and plays like a tired collection
of Cheney’s greatest hits. Vice is
very angry at Dick Cheney and condemns him plenty for his actions but that is
like picking low hanging, blatantly obvious fruit.
Christian Bale is great as Dick Cheney. The strength of his
performance is, naturally, from his skills and talent as an actor, not just
from the makeup he is under and the weight he gained for the role. He speaks
with that low growl I remember so well from the W. Bush years and imitates
perfectly the small laugh and smile Cheney would sometimes let slip. Cheney was
not much of a public speaker or campaigner so his wife Lynne steps up and
rallies people to her husband’s cause. This is where Amy Adams gets to step out
from the bland role of “wife of a biopic subject” to be an active player and
interesting character. Bale is nominated for Best Actor and that is no
surprise. Amy Adams has earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she
played essentially the same character, and played her better, in The Master. Sam Rockwell, in full goofball mode, plays George W. Bush and though he's barely in the movie, Rockwell has picked up a Supporting Actor nomination.
The life of Cheney is narrated by Jesse Plemons playing an
average American and Iraq War veteran who says he’s related to Dick Cheney... in
a way. When we find out how he’s related to Cheney it causes cringes and
eye rolls. In The Big Short McKay
used a hyperactive and self-aware filmmaking style to excite and engage the
audience about a pretty boring and convoluted subject: the stock market and
investment banking. He used cameos from stars like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain complex financial ideas and practices using clever and easy
to understand metaphors. There is nothing complicated about how Cheney grows
and abuses power. He asks a lawyer if what he wants to do is okay. The lawyer
says yes. There’s nothing hard to follow there but McKay has the narrator hold
our hands through it anyway.
Cheney’s final actions in the movie are meant to play like a
final heartless betrayal signifying that he is beyond all hope of redemption,
but Vice never presented him as
someone with anywhere to fall from. That would only happen with a movie that
attempted insight into its subject’s emotions and motivations and even dared us
to sympathize with the unlikeable main character. In Nixon, Oliver Stone built up audience sympathies for Nixon and then
let him squander and betray those sympathies making his fall all the more
tragic even though you rooted for him to fail. With Nixon, Stone posed the question: What does it profit a man to gain
the world if he loses his soul? (this Bible quote actually appears at the beginning
of that film). In Vice, McKay forgot
to ask any questions, attempt any insight, or speculate on motivations. This
movie has only one message: this Dick Cheney is one bad dude. If you were born
before the year 2000, you don’t need a movie to tell you that.
Nominees: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay and Kevin
Messick, producers
Director: Adam McKay
Screenplay: Adam McKay
Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell
Production Companies: Plan B Entertainment, Gary Sanchez
Productions
Distributor: Annapurna Pictures
Release Date: December 25th, 2018
Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Adam McKay, Original Screenplay-Adam
McKay; Actor-Christian Bale; Supporting Actress-Amy Adams; Supporting Actor-Sam
Rockwell; Editing-Hank Corwin; Makeup and Hairstyling-Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe,
Patricia Dehaney
The Big Short is a
sharp comedy that assembles a strong cast to tackle an important, but
complicated true story. It stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling,
and Brad Pitt, but the actors share little screen time with each other. In
fact, Bale’s storyline does not cross paths with any of the others. Bale plays
Dr. Mark Burry, an eccentric fund manager whose bosses don’t take seriously
because he wears shorts, goes barefoot in his office, and gets his hair trimmed
at Supercuts. In spite of his appearance, Burry is smart enough to figure out,
in 2005, that the housing market is headed for disaster…and that there is a way
to profit from the impending collapse. Ryan Gosling, as Deutsche Bank bond
salesman Jared Vennett, most closely resembles the stereotype of a slick Wall
Street executive, but is still seen as an outsider by his co-workers; he is
also our narrator. He partners up with Mark Baum, played by Steve Carell,
another hedge fund manager and Wall Street outsider who is trying to maintain
independence while working within the system and dealing with his loathing for
the Wall Street way. He and his team (Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, and Jeremy Strong) also notice the housing bubble about to burst and see a way to make a
profit. John Magaro and Finn Wittrock play two young investors from Colorado who
are eager to make it big—and move their hedge fund out of their garage—so they
seek out the help of a retired banker, contentedly approaching hermit-hood,
played by Brad Pitt. There are good performances from the ensemble all around,
but only Bale snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I didn’t
think that there was a clear stand out of cast, but I was impressed at how
close all the actors came to going over the top without actually go over.
The Big Short has to
explain a lot of dense, complicated exposition about credit default swaps,
synthetic CDO’s, bonds, and other things that people take college classes to
understand and finds some interesting ways to do that, some more effective than
others. Gosling’s character tells the audience that explaining financial stuff
can be boring and complicated, so in order to keep our interest we are shown
scenes of celebrities explaining clearly and simply rather dense concepts. All
of those expository segments are quick and fun and liven up the movie, in
addition to actually explaining bonds and synthetic CDO’s. The first of these
scenes, Margot Robbie in a bubble bath drinking champagne, is the least
effective because unlike the segments with Anthony Bourdain making fish soup
and Selena Gomez playing blackjack, Robbie’s actions and setting don’t help to
illustrate the thing she is explaining. Several characters break the fourth
wall and address the audience directly, sometimes explaining that a scene
didn’t exactly happen the same way in real life; more often they tell us that a
ridiculous, unbelievable thing really did happen.
Carell’s character is one most likely to strike a chord with
audiences because his loathing for Wall Street turns to outrage when he
uncovers the stupidity, corruption, and fraud rampant among the big banks and
the complete lack of concern for how these actions will affect the country and
the world. Carrell is also not afraid to say as much to the people he meets, no
matter their standing, or even interrupt a speech at a conference with an
annoying, but completely reasonable and legitimate point. He really did that,
Gosling assures us. We can like these characters, despite that their goal is to
profit from the collapse of the U.S. economy, because each one has a scene
where they try explaining what they’ve discovered and are ignored by the people
who should be most concerned. We can’t help but root for these guys because
that is what we are used to doing when characters in a movie are smart or
insightful, but are ignored by the stuffy, arrogant old guard. Pitt’s jaded
ex-banker makes a point to damper the excitement of his young protégés by
telling them that they “just bet against the American economy;” if they’re
right, they will profit greatly, but many people will lose their jobs and homes
as well.
Director Adam McKay has received an Oscar nomination for his
direction of The Big Short and
commentators cannot help but point out that this the same director who made the
broad comedies Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. The Big Short is different in tone than his previous films, but it is
ultimately still a comedy despite its serious and true subject matter. There
are some stylistic choices in this film that didn’t quite work for me. There
are montages of images from pop culture—a rap video, people buying iPhones,
etc. that are meant to show what American culture was obsessed with while the
economy was beginning to crack and crumble, but felt more like a failed passage-of-time
montage. I understood the purpose, but I didn’t feel the intended effect. In a
film where actors will look right at the audience and explain what everything
means, these montages are the one thing which are not given a clear definition
or purpose. Another thing that bothered me must be mentioned, minor though it
is: the multitude of bad wigs. It seems like each actor was made to pick out a
wig and apply it themselves. Pitt’s beard, real or not, looks like a wig on his
face.
What The Big Short
does well is deliver facts about an incredibly important and unfortunate
chapter of American history in a high energy, entertaining movie; but it never
gives us more fun than frustration over the absurdities which hold up the
American economy. The Big Short at
times feels like an episode of Seinfeld
or Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which a fairly
average person is confronted by an absurd, bizarre character or situation and
can’t understand how this could be happening. Adding to the absurdity and
frustration is that we already know the results; so when, as the perfect sour
cherry on top, Gosling tells us that nobody learned anything and nothing
changed, it comes as no surprise. The same material in The Big Short is covered in the documentary Inside Job (2010), which is a sharp, rage-inducing look at the
financial collapse which also explains clearly and simply what happened and
why. Inside Job won the Academy Award
for Best Documentary and should be sought out by anyone who hasn’t seen it yet;
however, if I ever want a refresher on the hows and whys of the 2008 financial
collapse, I will revisit The Big Short.
A little levity–and seeing characters share my repulsed reaction to the
behavior of the banks– goes a long way to help digest such a stomach churning
material.
Nominees: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
Director: Adam McKay
Screenplay: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, based on the
book by Michael Lewis
Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling
Production Companies: Plan B Entertainment, Regency
Entertainment
