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American Psycho (2000): Christian Bale puts on a mesmerising performance as Patrick Bateman, a wealthy young investment banker who moonlights as a serial killer. Bateman is an empty shell of vapid, consumerist narcissism: he obsesses over his personal grooming routine, competes with other men his age on metrics too petty for the healthy human mind to grasp (there's a running bit about business cards, where the mere sight of a shade of off-white deemed more tasteful than his own is enough to send Bateman spiralling in panicked rage), admires himself in the mirror during sex, and romanticises his own dysfunction by inwardly preening over what an emotionless monster he is. He murders with abandon for no reason whatsoever. He is not a reliable narrator. It's a mindfuck, and a biting satire of American business culture, and an all-around rollicking good time.
I really cannot overexaggerate how good Bale's acting is in this. It's his speech pattern that gets me the most: he absolutely nails that weird cadence typical of a certain kind of insecure young man for whom everything is a performance, who is deeply invested in projecting power and status but has no deep-rooted sense of self to draw from and so has to rely on rote imitation of more charismatic speakers. Every word is too polished, too carefully modulated. It's an aural uncanny valley; before you even see him throw a single tantrum about the superior quality of another guy's card stock, just from hearing him speak, you know he's a fucking joke. That said, I understand this film belongs to the same canon as movies like Fight Club and Joker, where a certain (ahem) demographic of the audience has somehow managed to Matrix-dodge their way around the point and adopted the protagonist as an icon of masculinity. I wish that surprised me more, but the world is also full of fascists who unironically identify with Luke Skywalker, so. Some men have simply got their minds made up to be stupid, and no satirical arrow in the world is sharp enough to pierce their armour. Doesn't change the fact that this is a really good movie.
Rogue (2007): When I DNF'd Black Water a while ago, it was because THIS was the crocodile movie I actually wanted to watch and I didn't even know it! A bunch of tourists to the Northern Territory go on a wetland cruise, and their boat gets attacked by a freakishly large, even more freakishly aggressive saltie. They end up stranded on a mud island that's soon due to disappear under the rising tide, desperately trying to figure out a way back to dry land, getting picked off by the croc the whole time. It was epic. If you like straightforward, unpretentious creature horror, this film was it!
I really cannot overexaggerate how good Bale's acting is in this. It's his speech pattern that gets me the most: he absolutely nails that weird cadence typical of a certain kind of insecure young man for whom everything is a performance, who is deeply invested in projecting power and status but has no deep-rooted sense of self to draw from and so has to rely on rote imitation of more charismatic speakers. Every word is too polished, too carefully modulated. It's an aural uncanny valley; before you even see him throw a single tantrum about the superior quality of another guy's card stock, just from hearing him speak, you know he's a fucking joke. That said, I understand this film belongs to the same canon as movies like Fight Club and Joker, where a certain (ahem) demographic of the audience has somehow managed to Matrix-dodge their way around the point and adopted the protagonist as an icon of masculinity. I wish that surprised me more, but the world is also full of fascists who unironically identify with Luke Skywalker, so. Some men have simply got their minds made up to be stupid, and no satirical arrow in the world is sharp enough to pierce their armour. Doesn't change the fact that this is a really good movie.
Rogue (2007): When I DNF'd Black Water a while ago, it was because THIS was the crocodile movie I actually wanted to watch and I didn't even know it! A bunch of tourists to the Northern Territory go on a wetland cruise, and their boat gets attacked by a freakishly large, even more freakishly aggressive saltie. They end up stranded on a mud island that's soon due to disappear under the rising tide, desperately trying to figure out a way back to dry land, getting picked off by the croc the whole time. It was epic. If you like straightforward, unpretentious creature horror, this film was it!
