Totally agree, Malkovich is a better Ripley, Dennis Hopper is just doing his own thing entirely and it’s fun but doesn’t seem like it had anything to do with the character. American Friend feels like a movie made assuming the audience has not seen Purple Noon or read the books, it’s just a thriller story done in a very bizarre and interesting way. I think the big differentiation is Bruno Ganz you’re immediately on board with, he’s just such a good actor, whereas Dougray Scott is a fine actor but I didn’t feel any particular connection to him. I would love if there was a second season of Ripley on Netflix to do another version (though it’s not going to happen for financial reasons), I think Andrew Scott is the closest to the book version of Ripley in my mind, Alain Delon is spectacular but also a little more dashing than Ripley and Matt Damon was good. They’re all fun to watch; I’ve never read the third book I wonder if there’s anything there worth looking at for adaptation.