Artgig -Psycho
Sat, Jul. 25 2009
Lis sent me this video by Miles Fisher last night and it really made my day. Miles nails the "American Psycho" movie and gets Christian Bale, who is fast becoming one of my favorite working actors, smirk perfect.
Fisher is so good and talented (it's his music too)–it's scary.
For the first seven or eight seconds I thought it was Bale and someone had cut scenes from the movie into the video.
Then, I saw a close-up & I thought "that's not Bale", it didn't look like him–more like Tom Cruise.
Fisher also does a drop dead Tom Cruise.
Getting back to "American Psycho"...
Have you read the book by Bret Easton Ellis?
When "Psycho" hit shelves in 1991, critics recoiled in horror.
There was controversy before the book even saw daylight– Simon & Schuster had dropped it due to graphic content before Vintage picked it up.
It was pretty much banned in Germany.
In Australia, it's only sold shrink-wrapped and selling the book to anyone under 18 is a criminal offense.
It's not an easy read for a lot of reasons including extreme violence and mind-numbing detail - but that's the point.
The 80's were mind-numbing and violent.
At least it was for me.
And I think that's why I liked the book so much.
I read it for a college literature term project.
There was an older retired woman in my little book group, who was taking the class for fun.
She dropped out after a few weeks because she was so appalled by my project.
I didn't love the movie when it came out nearly 10 years later but it's probably because I was too loyal to the book.
But watching this video makes me want to see it again - now.
I also happen to know the writer of the sequel - "American Psycho 2: all American Girl."
We met in a Gotham Writers Workshop screenplay writing class - her specialty was horror and mine was crime so there was some natural overlap.
She already had some buzz going in LA.
She sold one of her screenplays and rewrote it–banging it into the American Psycho sequel.
They basically just slapped the name on it.
It didn't seem to matter that it had nothing to do with the original.
She ended up moving to LA and I started Artgig.
Karen, wherever you are, I hope you're doing well.
It was good writing with you.
