THE RETRIEVER WEEKLY FEATURES Aprilll, 2000 PAGE 21 Psycho Makes a Bloody Strange Transition to Cinema American Psycho <**1h out of four) This means that the maroon stuff featured can chase a victim through a hotel with a arrives in theaters under fire from special post-credits isn't raspberry coulis. chainsaw and not attract the attention of its interest groups and legal eagles over its But enough soapboxing. The only peo­ residents: Movie Review serial-murderer protag- ple who deserve to be at odds with This pseudo-twist. ends American onist and alleged American Psycho are those who've viewed Psycho on a serious and vaguely disturbing by Jamie Peck explicit violence, and it - and not for the reasons that it cele­ note, which doesn't really gel with the don't think that the movie doesn't exploit brates a sicko (it doesn't) or that it's overt­ funny Reagan-era hairstyles and pop-cul­ the controversy. Director Mary Harron (I ly graphic (it's not). Buzz labeled Brett tural references, Bale's intentionally exag­ Shot Andy Warhol) cleverly opens Psycho Easton Ellis' 1991 cult novel on which the gerated performance or Bateman's hilari­ with a shot of red droplets trickling past a movie is based "unfilmable." While that ous monologues that espouse the bountiful white background - but said substance might be too strong a word, it certainly virtures of banal Greed-Decade pop like isn't blood. It's actually raspberry coulis indicates that audiences are in for a bumpy Phil Collins' "Sussudio." Mm-hm. being sprinkled on a pricey dish at a posh ride whether or not they're in on Psycho's Still, Harron and Turner deserve kudos Manhattan restaurant. darkly_ satirical joke - that Bale's for finding artsy visual metaphors for some These bad-mouthers of American ladykiller is a product of his tin).e. of the book's seemingly untranslatable prose, Psycho are, of course, criticizing without Harron, also a co-writer with Guinevere and for landing an impressive supporting even seeing the film, and so they have no · Turner, delivers a fairly solid first hour that cast to illuminate a few secondary roles. way to know that that the gore - used successfully marries the macabre and the Willem Dafoe plays a suspicious detective sparingly - more or less exists as a win­ comedic, with a prime example of the lat­ (his work with Bale recalls the Anthony dow dressing for this tale of the lacking life ter a terrific sequence in which Bateman Perkins-Martin Balsam dynamic in another of a Wall Street wheeler-dealer named and his associates one-up each other by Psycho - Hitchcock's), Chloe Sevigny Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) caught up noting whose business cards have the Bateman's secretary, Reese Witherspoon his in the empty excesses of the 1980s. flashier embossment and font. The 40 min­ girlfriend and Samantha Mathis one of many Between his rigorous workout schedule, utes that follow, though; unravel strangely, lovers. Fans of 1995's Little Women elated bizarre exfoliating rituals and voracious leading to a key line of dialogue in the final over the screen reunion of Bale (Laurie) and Lions Gate Films sexual appetite, he transcends the empti­ scene that might help explain this increas-: Mathis (Amy) be warned: This is probably When a Stranger Calls: Christian Bale ness by dabbling in the frequent homicide. ingly surreal agenda - and how Bateman not your kind of movie. / goes crazy in American Psycho. Numb Skulls Lacks Thrills Exactly how boneheaded is The Skulls (*lf2), an overcooked expose on the sinister machinations of secret societies? Let's put Movie Review it this way: The college kids granted acceptance by Jamie Peck into the titular organiza- tion aren't allowed to discuss their mem­ bership or even let on that they're in ... yet they meei in a creepy, mansion-esque building among the dorms with a giant skull logo on the roof. That'd put a rather big kink in the confidentiality, don't you think? Inspired by Yale's Skull and Bones society, The Skulls may or may not take place at said prestigious Connecticut acad­ emy, though the large university emblems that prominently loom in the background and feature the letter Y probably indicate the former. That Yale apparently didn't Universal Pictures Temptation: Joshua Jackson contem­ want their good moniker associated with plates joining The Skulls. the movie was a smart move, whether motivated· by the mere threat of negative ed judge, Supreme Court hopeful and men­ press or actually reading the script by tor to the Skulls. These 'lie great character alumnus John Pogue (U.S. Marshals) and names, though the movie is curiously miss­ rejecting it on the ground of its story holes ing a Chauncey Featherstone. and plot conveniences. At first, the Skulls seem like a special­ They're a nonstop distraction in this tale ized fraternity. Instead of keggers and ine­ of conspiracy and paranoia, which spirals briated orgies, they throw tuxedoed balls into a silly abyss upon establishing the with high-priced call girls. Rather than social distinctions between protagonist charge you dues, they drop $20,000 into Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson, of the your bank account. And brothers don't WB's Dawson's Creek), a working-class wear sweatshirts with Greek figures, but undergrad at the undesignated Ivy League fire-branded wrist insignias and the occa­ school, and his elitist fellow students. To sional hooded robe. Weird but harmless, really make the point sink in, Luke slaves right? Wrong. Amidst all the decadence away in the campus cafeteria while endur­ and debauchery, there's a little murder and ing taunts from blueblood classmates with a whole latta cover-up. sweater sleeves draped snootily around So far-out that the climax is a gentle­ their shoulders. Earth to Skulls director men's duel with vintage pistols on Skull Rob Cohen: Do you know anybody rich or Island (no, really) and a grave sequence poor who does that? actually includes the line "Dad, I just killed WRITE FOR FEATURES! Understandably, Luke is shocked when a guy in the ritual room," The Skulls the Skulls notice his crew-team prowess momentarily atones for its brain-dead nar­ WRITE FOR FEATURES! and ask him to join their ranks. Despite the rative with deliriously nutty details. Camp warnings of his gal pal Chloe (Leslie Bibb, would be the best approach to the material, WRITE FEATURES! of the WB's Popular) and best friend Will but Cohen and Co. play it straighter than FOR (Hill Harper, not of the WB, but it's never Dr. Laura at a lesbian disco, continuing the too late), he complies, undergoes a series of critical wobbliness that hit with WRITE FOR FEATURES! funky initiation rites and becomes Skull­ Dragonheart and Daylight after his memo­ buddies with Caleb Mandrake (mannequin­ rable 1993 Bruce Lee bio Dragon. The stiff Paul Walker), an also-pledge whose Skulls doesn't start with a D, but it ~l¥~'!t1~1:'tt,;~~w~ father Litten (Craig T. Nelson) is a respect- deserves one.