An LRB Screen event, the London Review Bookshop’s long-running film series exploring of the art of literary adaption in partnership with MUBI.

Sam Kinchin-Smith, the LRB’s head of special projects, is joined by Mary Harron (via video link), who co-wrote the screenplay to American Psycho, and began her career as a writer – as one of the punk and post-punk eras’ most brilliant music critics. Her filmography includes striking portraits of major counter-cultural figures – Valerie Solanas, Bettie Page and the Manson family, among others – as well as the Netflix adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.

American Psycho is the first of this year’s six special screenings: Mary Harron’s elegantly controlled adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis controversial – and bestselling – satirical horror novel, published in 1991. A vividly inventive feminist reading of the voids at the heart of consumerism, corporate capital and late-century metropolitan culture, it stars Christian Bale in his breakthrough role, with a score by John Cale and a supporting cast drawn from the finest US independent actors. The shadow of Donald Trump looms large throughout its prophetic account of American carnage.

Recorded on 26th February 2024 at The Garden Cinema