A Golden Age of Independent Film

Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name, the highly controversial film American Psycho, invested in, produced, and distributed by Lionsgate Films, was also released in North America.

Set in New York, United States, in the late 1980s, the film told the story of Patrick Bateman, a promising young stockbroker who strove to maintain his image as an upper-class elite while, driven by rage and jealousy, began killing to vent his frustrations. Yet through his acts of murder, he gradually lost himself and could no longer tell whether he was in the real world.

American Psycho was highly controversial due to its graphic content and sparked considerable discussion at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.

It had originally received an NC–17 rating from the MPAA, but after Lionsgate made extensive cuts, it secured an R-rated classification and began its North American release!

The release of American Psycho sparked fierce debate among North American critics:

The New York Times: "American Psycho is an ambitious, sufficiently confident film. Through a kind of cinematic liposuction, it removes the excess fat from the original novel and salvages a book widely reviled for its presumed misogyny and horrifyingly bloody scenes."

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "American Psycho is a dazzling satire of the times. It may still be too early to know what it might foreshadow, if anything."

The Sun: "The film is a harsh condemnation of a culture that treats greed as a virtue, a culture audiences can ridicule without feeling guilty."

The Washington Post: "Director Mary Harron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Guinevere Turner, adapted Bret Easton Ellis's sick and trashy novel into a flashy black comedy;"

"There is almost nothing else in the entire film besides gore and execution-style humor. It is filled with secondhand allusions to