The Informers
The Informers
R | 05 November 2008 (USA)
The Informers Trailers

A collection of intersecting short stories set in early 1980s Los Angeles, depicts a week in the lives of an assortment of socially alienated, mainly well-off characters who numb their sense of emptiness with casual sex, violence, and drugs.

Reviews
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Flaco10004 I'm struggling to push this wheel barrow full of adjectives up a steep hill at the moment, so would you forgive me if I just dump some of them out as I stagger past this film's review section? Let's see, what have I got in here?Tedious, clichéd, dreary, pointless, clueless, predictable, rambling, pretentious... that's better.It's LA in the mid 80s and those young (and not so young) beautiful thangs are dropping tabs, sniffing talcum powder laced with cocaine, boozing and grinding their friends, friends' boy/girlfriends, their friends' parents and generally revelling in a life of unrestrained hedonism and vice interspersed with the occasional dip into the mundanity of death, failed relationships and guilt-ridden existential anguish. OK, got that (yawn). And? Oh wait, that's the film. That's it in it's mind numbingly boring entirety. I sat through 60 mins of what should have been a 10 min recap of the 80s before it slowly dawned on me that there was nothing even vaguely interesting likely to unfold from that point. Oh wait, no, that's not entirely correct; one of the main protagonists had a profoundly deep, mesmerisingly incisive moment of sheer human brilliance which went something along the lines of "what happens when people don't warn us about the bad things in life?"... oh I don't know mate, if you really have to ask that, wear a bell around your neck, go feed on a hillside somewhere and stop your mewling, please.I fell for this film because the cast reads like a Hall of Fame list but even the likes of Thornton, Basinger, Ryder and Rourke struggled (bravely but unsuccessfully) to make the meagre amount of silk they'd been given stretch over the huge, rancid pigs ear they had dumped on them. This is horrible, craftless film making.
Rodrigo Amaro It's kind of strange to explain why I liked this film. Maybe it was the ensemble casting united; or maybe it's because I tend to enjoy hyper-linked stories where unconnected situations and characters will connect with each other at the ending; I really don't know. Or more important, perhaps I didn't find reasons enough to dislike it even though there were plenty of them.Bret Easton Ellis adapts his own novel into the screen and even though I haven't read the book I believe this is somewhat well adapted, very close to his style of writing and characters presentations and inconclusive endings to some of them. The story presented has several characters (played by Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Jon Foster, Lou Taylor Pucci, Winona Ryder, Brad Renfro, Mickey Rourke, Chris Isaak, Rhys Ifans among others) messing up with their lives while trying to figure out a meaning to it. It all takes place in the 1980's (as usual with Ellis works) and it does involve sex, drugs and rock n'roll. The problem with "The Informers" is that it is a movie that doesn't have a heart or it just doesn't beat enough, by that I mean that you leave the experience without getting much except the reunion of a good cast giving average performances. We're thrown with these characters, know few things about them, then the story tries to conclude something but not enough to let us take our own conclusions of why they do what they do. For instance, the story involving the kid and his father on vacation trying to get to know each other where the father tries to communicate with his son who knows that this is impossible, since they have nothing in common. It only gives innuendos about the boy's sexuality, some sort of confusion and in the end we kept wondering what was that all about. There's something there that could be explored more, the script never answered what needed to be answered so the bond with its audience is a little inexistent.The weakest aspect of all is that it doesn't look the 80's, it's too much 2000's, it's too updated. To have an good example of recreating an decade years later and also a film based on Ellis novel, "American Psycho" was infinitely better not only the story but also bringing the 1980's back with their colors, the loud music (and of great quality), the pop culture references. In "The Informers" it's only a music here and there or a TV report about the AIDS that inform us that we are in another decade. This melancholic tale about ill fated characters living as a lost generation has its good moments. It's a good film, it never leaves you uninterested or bored or angry. It's main difficulty is a script that doesn't dig a little deeper and rarely gives some powerful insights about how troubled was the 1980's even with everything going in your favor like the characters presented here, all rich and beautiful but miserably sad. 6/10
huh_oh_i_c really hard to make out who's who. All through the movie, from the very start, you wonder who is who, because he actors all look so similar. When you sort of figure out who is doing who in this movie it is mildly interesting.It's all very exaggerated, though. There's this dysfunctional rich family, with a completely boiler-plate, run-of-the-mill setup: Big shot movie producer (Thornton) has left his wife (Basinger) and two college age kids for a younger woman, but returns when he realize how costly a divorce is gonna be.Then there's the proverbial Rock Star who's completely amoral, British of course (because gAWd forbid, that men from Utah might sleep around, have sex with kids and cheat on their wife ... oh wait, they DO do that in Midwestern America, it just looks better if a Brit does it, so Red Staters can fully be hypocrites and imagine that they're better than everybody else). The British Rockstar also has very predictable life story: his British wife left him and the British rain perhaps, to live on the Cali beach, while having full custody over his ten year old kid.Then there are the teens. Hollywood movie in it's sincerest attempt to emulate soaps: Graham, the son of aforementioned Big Shot Hollywood producer has a girlfriend (Amber Heard), but she's openly having sex with his best friend Martin, who is by the way, also screwing the boys' mother (Basinger). And of course, Martin also has sex with Graham himself.Throughout the movie there are hints about AIDS, which at that time, is not yet identified as a killer disease.There's a child abuse story line, but, unsurprisingly, in the end the kid is unharmed as per usual in a Hollywood movie. Kids NEVER die or get raped in Hollywood movies. If only a studio would have the balls to kill off a kid ... The predictability is numbing.The Melancholic Alcoholic.
tmattcooper I watched this movie about a week ago for the first time and have watched it 4 times since. This movie is highly underrated! From the music to issues plaguing "high society" during this period of time, I can't think of a better movie I've seen in a while. This could be considered a "Dazed and Confused" of the 80s. While the ending could use some work, the overall movie is great and I'm surprised at the lack of success in the box office and further. Even the acting is great considering the lackluster cast....I would highly recommend this movie to anyone and plan on adding this one to my collection. Great flick...a marketing push and some exposure might just revive this movie to give it the credit it deserves.