Somewhere between the 2000s and now, Christian Bale’s depiction of Patrick Bateman stopped being a punchline and started being an aspiration for a certain kind of guy online. Sigma edits and looksmaxxing forums all treating his skincare routine and empathy deficiency as the goal instead of the warning. Mary Harron built the film as a pointed satire of Wall Street excess and hollow masculinity, something she’s said outright, calling it a gay man’s satire on masculinity and admitting she’s baffled watching men mistake the target for the hero. Ellis, who wrote Bateman in the first place, has mostly just shrugged. You cannot control the popularity of your work.