" my problem was being a young man with money in manhattan , " says bret easton ellis , citing his inspiration for american psycho . when it comes to vivid fantasies of alienated urban narcissism , his prose strikes a chilling , edgy chord . like skimming the surface of an icy lake , we are left imagining the dark depths below . hey , that really sounds poetic ! i'm gonna have another valium before writing the rest of this review -- maybe someday i'll be as glib as ellis ! just kidding . i've actually enjoyed reading ellis' novels of passive emptiness . less than zero is the perfect book for road trips , especially when you look out the window having thoughts that resemble the shallow characters . " ah , yes , adolescence truly is a volatile mystery ! " having said that , ellis prose typically comes off as , well , boring , glib , pseudo-intellectual , snooty , irritating , and shallow when read aloud . try reading passages to your friends . watch them lose interest in you as a human being . don't scoff ! if you were in their shoes , you would , too ! heck , you probably will if you attempt to sit through gerald fox's unintentionally grating documentary , this is not an exit : the fictional world of bret easton ellis . fox tries to pull off the imaginative conceit of crossing interview footage of ellis with dramatizations from his body of work , including less than zero and his recent perils-of-celebrity bestseller , glamorama . it's like a kaleidoscope of short films with additional commentary from the novelist . unfortunately for ellis , he's so smug , creepy , and annoying that he does his novels a disservice by appearing onscreen . potential readers will take one look at this privileged brat and understandably vow never to read him . i haven't even started discussing ellis' whiny friends , hogging for screen time as they take a limo cruise through new york city searching for the perfect restaurant . it's scary that his unimaginative fictional characters bear such a scary resemblance to his actual peers . when one of them compares him to orson welles ( " cuz you're a big genius , bret ! " ) , i wanted to slap that pompous grin off his mug . okay , maybe i'm jealous that i don't have ellis' problems . beautiful friends , a fat wallet , the inability to see through my own vapidity . maybe i'm being too hard on the guy . gotta calm my nerves before i finish this review . pass the cocaine . a bottom-of-the-barrel budget doesn't help illuminate the scenes lifted from ellis' novels . rough , jarring cuts and washed out cinematography are completely inappropriate for the polished world his characters inhabit . the bland white walls and inept lighting could have been easily better-realized by inexperienced first year film students . the poorly staged ellis stories serve as a reminder of how right mary harron's instincts were on american psycho . by dwelling on impeccable art design , tailored suits , embossed business cards and designer glasses , she found the precise visual counterpart to ellis' hyper-detailed take on consumer culture . bored , introverted characters with zero empathy can be compelling on the page , but it doesn't always translate to the screen . christian bale's mannered performance as psycho's killer patrick bateman was appropriately deadpan . would that declan thurman ( uma's brother ) showed such restraint filling the same role in exit . he blows line readings with a distracting assortment of eyebrow and lip twitches . see , i'm really crazy ! there's nothing hammy about ellis' sparse writing style , so why can't thurman resist maniacal laughter when describing a girl's head on a stick ? by discussing the " meaning " of his books , ellis only winds up reducing them to facile morality lessons . he also eats up screen time defending his prose from vicious critics , often protesting far too much for comfort . i don't hate women ! american psycho is a feminist tract ! less than zero was not autobiographical ! it's a sensationalized version of my post-college years . this vain little man seems to care an awful lot about what people think of him . oh , go ahead ! try telling him that and he'll retreat back into a banal shell of doublespeak . as one critic points out , it's almost impossible to discuss ellis' flaws without him embracing them as part of his integrity . of course it's shallow , of course it's nihilistic ! that's the world he created . see how slippery he is ? what was that great bill murray quote from rushmore ? " money can buy a lot of things , but it can't buy you backbone . take dead aim at the rich kids ! " i don't think i ever truly appreciated that slice of wisdom until ellis got in my face . hey bret : here's a quarter . go call someone who cares . and pass the amphetamines . fast . you're losing me . 
