American Psycho

Friday, April 17 - Saturday, April 25, 2026

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Christian Bale gives his first movie star performance as Patrick Bateman, a Manhattan investment banker whose identity is defined by money and material goods: the salary he pulls down, the expensive suits he wears, the beauty products he applies to his immaculate skin, the restaurants where he dines, the women he has sex with with, the pop music he monologues about. Patrick is a brawny metrosexual narcissist who admires himself in every reflective surface, and his world offers him so many available mirrors that he never lacks chances for self-regard. He is also, of course, a prolific serial killer, mainly of women, and his misogyny is bound up with his icy emptiness. Is there a there there? Not in any meaningful sense. When Patrick takes off his clothes or removes a mud mask, you half-expect to see through him like Claude Rains’ Invisible Man removing his bandages. The result is a gloriously detailed portrayed of disordered mind, comparable in force to A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, and Fight Club.

Screening as part of our midnight series Waverly Midnights: Literary Highs
  • Country USA
  • Year 2000
  • Running Time 101 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Distributor Lionsgate
  • Director Mary Harron
  • Writer Mary Harron (screenplay), Guinevere Turner (screenplay), Bret Easton Ellis (novel)
  • Editor Andrew Marcus
  • Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula
  • Cast Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Jared Leto, Matt Ross, Willem Dafoe
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.