Christian Bale perfectly captured the contrast between the surface and the inner life of bland-faced Wall Street scumbag Patrick Bateman, and whether you read the film as literal or the imagined fantasy life of a damaged mind, Bateman reveals himself as monster with the way he mingles sex and death and uber-violence. There is an awful, painful jet blackness to the film's sense of humor, and Bale plays it perfectly. He is chiseled and perfect on the outside, which only underlines just how rotten and horrible he is on the inside. I'm sure other actors could have put themselves through the same physical transformation Bale did if they wanted to, but I'm not sure many of them could also show us so clearly what sort of horror lies just behind that perfect mask.

-Drew McWeeny