mimicry

His films obsessively explore characters who adopt false identities and manipulate through calculated performance, from Patrick Bateman's social mimicry in *American Psycho* to the deceptive personas in *Gone Girl*.

He examines the performative nature of identity and social imitation throughout his career, particularly in *Day for Night* where filmmaking itself becomes an act of mimicry and illusion.

His darkly surreal films deconstruct human behavior as learned mimicry and social conditioning, with characters mechanically imitating societal norms in works like *The Killing of a Sacred Deer* and *Poor Things*.