The continued resonance of corruption: The movie Jim Jarmusch called his “number one”
Wherever he is in the world, Jim Jarmusch has a habit of laying down for half an hour and listening to the chorus of civility in motion. He tunes into all its little notes as though it is music. Nowhere is the cacophony of society more captivating than in New York. It’s the only town where billionaires and the homeless share the exact same street.
So, it is perhaps no surprise that one of the films that truly captures the capitalist oddity of the city more fatefully than just about any other resides as Jarmusch’s favourite. Speaking about the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel of the same name, the Broken Flowers director commented: “My number one is American Psycho, 2000. A masterful adaptation of words to cinema by Mary Harron, an important American director and writer.”
Jarmusch once said: “Life has no plot, why must film or fiction?” While American Psycho may well have a plot, it certainly fits the footloose sentiment that Jarmusch is hinting at when it comes to genre and tone. It is by turns hilarious, terrifying, thought-provoking and gratuitously gory. It’s a thriller, the darkest of dark comedies, a social commentary piece, and even a bit of a twisted love story.
“I think that the film resonates even more now than when it was made almost 20 years ago. Though at the time it was called sexist filth by some [laughs],” he continued in his Rotten Tomatoes appraisal. “Christian Bale’s performance is brutally riveting, and the entire cast– Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, and Jared Leto – are all just really good.”
The cast is, indeed, spookily good. Spearheaded by a stunning performance by Bale, for which he claimed to have channelled the insane empty friendliness of Tom Cruise, each contributor to the ensemble not only acts their role but adds to the blurred obfuscation of the story. The mad melee of individuals helps to capture the worst elements of Manhattan and how the faceless coterie of the capitalist elite gets away with so much.
As Jarmusch explained, not only is American Psycho simply a great piece of entertainment, but it is the way it has absorbed and reflected society with terrifying truth that has helped it sustain almost a quarter of a century from its release. Bateman remains the polished manifestation of chaos in an uncaring world, laughing his cap off ten stories above you on the social ladder. The damning consolation being that the baseless evil inevitably perpetuates a psychosis in Bateman himself, worsening society’s woes.
Bateman barely sees the strife and struggle of those on the lower rungs of society. In fact, throughout the film, you barely even see an extra or bit part character who isn’t part of the elite. Alas, it is the chorus of those blurred out of the movie that Jarmusch always tries to pay some mind to as he listens to their chatter during his meditations.
For already avid fans of the picture, Jarmusch concludes: “There’s also an uncut ‘Killer Collections’ edition, which I would strongly recommend. It’s a great film.”
