Saturday, February 11, 2006

American Psyco: Patrick Bateman


The other evening, Sarah and I watched the movie American Psycho, starring Christian Bale as the 80's yuppie-turned psycho, Patrick Bateman. The movie was very well done and did a great job getting the point of the movie across. What I got out of it was the general idea seeing what dispair and lifelessness there is within the upper echelons of society. Basically, Patrick Bateman's entire existence was living to look good and talk about things that are fruitless to human existence. The empty, self-centered world he lived it caused him to become increasingly isolated and almost distant from true human ration and existence. So, he turns killer to (in a sense) get back in touch with humans. The problem is that he is (in my opinion) doing the entire thing just to get caught and noticed...BUT because everyone is so self-centered, his blatent calls for help fall on deaf ears. He is more or less a walking shadow in a world of shadows. Half the people in the movie don't even know the correct name for the other characters. In my opinion, it was a very well done movie...not a movie that is designed to be someone's favorite movie...but powerful non-the-less. I liken it to Saving Private Ryan in the sense that you shouldn't want to watch it over and over again...but instead sit and think about the point that the movie is trying to make. Christian Bale (although surrounded with a star-studded cast) steals the movie. He is an amazingly talented actor and conveys the inner turmoil beneath the chiseled, emotionless exterioir. My recommendation is to go and rent it, but make sure that you know what you are in for. The movie is extremely graphic and disturbing at times...but if you are able to not get all hung-up on that, you will see the movie for what it is intended to be. After seeing it, I am up for other interpretations of the movie, so please comment.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Jeremy Piven, Tom Ford, Jim Brickman: Brothers?

So, over the past several weeks I have come to realize that the up and coming star, Jeremy Piven (seen on shows like Entourage), seem to be channeling other famous celebrities. The first person that comes to mind when I look at Jeremy Piven and his style is the former Chief Designer for Gucci, Tom Ford. Tom Ford, has been ranked year after year as one of the most attractive and well dressed men in the world. Not only has he mastered the art of physical sexiness, he has developed quite and empire businessly speaking. When he took over Gucci, it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Almost single-handedly he has turned Gucci (over a 14 year period) into the world-recognized name that it is today. Regardless of his sexual preference, that is quite an accomplishment.

The other person that I find that Jeremy Piven seems to emulate is the famous pianist, Jim Brickman. When you really stop and take a look at these pictures, he could easily be mistaken for either of them. Although he does not have the musical talent, of Jim, or the designer mastermind of Tom, Jeremy seems to be doing just fine for himself. I think that secretly, he is part of some Goverment cloning experiment...very similar to the movie: "Boys from Brazil"...except that they are not cloning Hitler.