There will be blood. (Lots and lots and lots of blood.)

I saw American Psycho when it came out in 2000. I totally got Fight Club, released a year prior. Damn skippy, I was not my fucking khakis.

At the time, I did not get American Psycho. At. ALL. (Other than, hmm, Christian Bale is hot.) But I ran across the book at Powell's earlier this week, and it was on sale, so I figured I'd give it a go. After all, the author wrote Less Than Zero, and I got that movie. And it had "international best seller" on the cover, which meant it was surely worth my $8.

(My marketing teacher would be so unimpressed with me falling for such an elementary ploy.)

The rawness of it drew me in completely - I could not put it down. I think I get it now. The excess of the late '80s, obsession with everything money can buy, boredom from a boring job, frustration with being utterly indistinguishable from your peers, thinking that Genesis (sans Peter Gabriel) and Huey Lewis and the News were the greatest bands ever. Just the latter would turn me into a serial killer, for sure. But there's a lot more to it, and I would really like my future book club to dissect it. But first I want to watch the movie again.

(All of which is not to say, oh boo hoo you rich yuppie, so bored with life and your rich girlfriend and your $500 nightly dinners and your 2-hour daily workouts that you have to resort to torture to entertain yourself.)

And I did finally see the actual movie noted in the subject. I enjoyed it very much. My friend (who did not enjoy the film) was somewhat appalled when I laughed out loud at inappropriate times, like when DD-L's character was talking to the oil tycoon in the restaurant and he says "One night, I'm gonna come inside your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm gonna cut your throat." Or the very last line of the film. His behavior was so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Now, if only I could bear the thought of sitting through The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, In the Valley of Elah, Eastern Promises, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Charlie Wilson's War, Away from Her, Atonement, Michael Clayton, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Golden Compass, Transformers (REALLY??), 3:10 to Yuma and the third Pirate movie over the next seven days, I could actually make educated guesses for ye olde annual Oscar poll. Alas.

I do want to see everything up to Atonement (but nothing further than Atonement, including Atonement) in that list. Right after I get "The Heart of Rock 'n Roll" out of my head...