America's Biggest Cautionary Tale Is As Relevant Now As It Was 26 Years Ago

American Psycho came out 26 years ago, but it's as relevant now as it ever was then. Based on Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 black satire novel of the same name, American Psycho is a lot of different things to a lot of people. Initially polarizing, American Psycho has since grown into a disturbingly accurate reflection of parts of America.

Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street investment banker who is a polished yuppie in the daytime, and at night, is a murderous monster who kills for pleasure. The film is a cutting look at greed, American exceptionalism, and 1980s consumerism, but it's just as relevant in the 2020s.

American Psycho Is A Cautionary Tale About American-Style Greed

American Psycho is a film that holds a mirror up to America and shows something ghastly and disturbing. Patrick Bateman is not really a person; he's barely an idea. He says in the opening of the film, in a darkly funny monologue, about how, while you may think you're interacting with a person, there is nothing behind his facade.

A banker on Wall Street, Bateman has it all. He's good-looking, engaged to a beautiful woman, and fabulously wealthy, but none of this fulfills him. In fact, he's incapable of being fulfilled. As American Psycho goes on, it becomes clear that what he really enjoys is crushing people.

He must always be ahead. His dinner reservation must be better. His business card must be better. Everything must be better, or he loses it. Bateman doesn't even know why he wants these things. The only time he really feels is when he's murdering, and it's possible he's not even capable of that. He's a shell.

American Psycho Is As Relevant Now In The Hustle-Culture Era As It Ever Was

American Psycho was written in the early '90s, and the movie came out in the 2000s. Both are satirizing the culture of the era, with its excess and greed, and the way it elevates a way of being that many would consider soulless. The constant drive to fill a hole suggests there is a very big hole.

That culture has never really gone away. It may not always look like stuffy boardrooms and eggshell business cards, but the idea of pursuing wealth at the cost of everything, and for no real reason beyond acquiring "more", lives on. One word for it is "hustle culture", a catch-all that basically means, "don't stop trying to make money".

Social media, in particular, reflects this soullessness mocked in American Psycho. There are thousands of accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter that espouse the virtues of constantly demanding more. More of your job, more of yourself, more of your family, more, more, more. It makes you wonder what someone selling a course is doing when the camera isn't on.