Seminar: American Psycho

Join Coolidge Director of Education Sophie Blum to discuss this subversive slasher movie’s enduring appeal to Zoomer audiences and its legacy of satire and spectacle. 

Just what makes Patrick Bateman so meme-able? Where do you stand in the debate between artistic intent and audience impact? We’ll compare the film to the novel, then peek at historical context and Mary Harron’s body of work, before wrestling with the fundamental tensions between pleasure and condemnation. Then we’ll head home to return some videotapes. 

About the Instructor 

In 2023, Sophie Blum (they/she) joined the Coolidge as the organization’s first-ever Director of Education. With degrees in cinema studies from Vassar and NYU, Sophie’s research interests once concerned horror-musicals and scary mommies. Since becoming a high school English teacher and now launching the Coolidge’s free field trip program for kids, Sophie’s passion for terror is largely relegated to telling “bleeding owie” stories to their two-year-old every night.