So...what does it mean? (Spoilers)

There were some interesting things in this movie. It seemed that everything Rick said and did was designed to bring out the worst in John. Apparently John felt very entitled and superior to everyone else, but he bottled it up because he saw himself as a special snowflake of morality.

It was interesting how all he needed was for Rick to give him an excuse and all of a sudden he started being abusive to his girlfriend out of nowhere. His girlfriend was insensitive, and his boss was an insensitive believer in meritocracy. If this had been a feel-good movie, we would have seen Rick learn to stand up for himself, or realize that there are more important things in life and go be a painter or something. Since this definitely wasn't a feel-good movie, we saw him learn how to deal with his problems by bullying, lying and manipulating people to get his way.

It was interesting and odd that it ended with John shooting Rick, since Rick was never the real problem. All Rick did was give John the excuses he needed to hear. It reminds me of what con artists say, that you can't con an honest person. John was vulnerable to Rick's manipulation because John himself had a manipulative bully inside him that was just waiting to get out. Rick was like the devil on John's shoulder, coaxing him to do things.

So..I'm just not sure what the point was in the end.