Best: American Psycho (2000) Bale's transformation into an Actor Of Substance seems to have entirely missed the fact that he has always been great in genre movies that allow him to be unrestrained and embrace silliness. And he's never been better in those terms than in American Psycho, where he is an explosively violent, sublimely unlikeable but utterly charismatic psychopath, peacocking his way through a grotesque '80s cartoon of excess. He's never been better and his uneasy appeal (which worked so well for Bruce Wayne without anyone seeming to talk it up) has never been more perfectly pitched. Worst: Newsies (1992) Regardless of the cult fandom, Newsies is a horrible, horrible movie, which appears to be popular for those annoying kitsch reasons that seem to ignore all traditional issues of quality. It's an exhaustingly ludicrous experience that came before Bale grew into his charisma, so he comes across as an annoying little creep with ideas above his station. But then at least the swagger served him well in American Psycho.
