The Informers (2008)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Absolutely the worst movie.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Don't' listen to most people criticizing this movie. It's ridiculous that it currently has a rating of 5. This is an 8+ movie.**Spoiler** Preferably read this after seeing the movie**It's about AIDS and innocence lost. It's about being young and one day realizing you'll die. Going from being irresponsible, ignorant and immortal towards the opposite of those. The whole movie is leading up to the point where everyone's lives and actions become meaningless, and they will have to rethink and change their lifestyles. Even though this is untold, it also goes without saying and that is the beauty of this film. So it's partly about AIDS being introduced to the world, partly about becoming a grown-up or 'not-young-anymore', but mostly: It's about that one point in time when reality changes something and you realize you can never go back and nothing will be the same. The purported shallowness of this movie only serves to reinforce the depth of this transition. 'The higher they hang, the harder they fall' and so on. That's what the movie is about, a lot of people here obviously didn't get that so I guess the movie could be criticized for being too convoluted about its plot-twist ending.

This movie's reputation is a good example of herd mentality. The negative critical reaction to it was so overwhelming, that it even its screenwriter Bret Ellis became more and more critical of the film (although he had his own personal drama while trying to get this project made and really disagreed with director's interpretation). This movie IS an interpretation of the book it is based on and in my opinion, while it might not be the most entertaining interpretation there can be, it is actually very close to the . The film creates kind of a static feeling, a feeling of relaxation and being frozen in the moment - and it is the same feeling I've got from the book. Bret Ellis himself wanted a more active and fast-paced movie, and it probably would have been more entertaining, but also probably farther from source material, for better or worse. Some people have said the script was supposed to be much funnier and movie is too dark in its tone. Well it is subjective, in my opinion the humor is all there and actually it is even better for the dark humor of the situations and dialogue to amplify the darkness and despair. In my opinion the movie was hated so much to a large degree because people just don't want to see this more ambiguous material on the screen. They want to see more obvious, spelled out stories, heroes, villains, moral messages, powerful climaxes etc - which are not bad things, there are brilliant movies based on these elements, but they are not be all end all of art. This film, like the book it is based on, shows, explores, sometimes exaggerates and makes fun of - contrasts and conflicts of life, ambiguity of different life situations. What makes both the film and the book interesting is they avoid a lot of the more fake and unnatural literary devices like clear and powerful dramatic conclusions, idealized characters, forced plot. And people generally don't like this. They want a more clear "heroes" or "villains", they want plot to move quickly, film to have a clear message etc. But the most interesting thing about this film is there is no clear message like "Drugs are bad, go to school" and characters are more ambiguous. If you are honest with yourself, you won't just write them off as selfish empty people (the reaction to this film and a lot of Ellis prose shows that a lot of people don't want to be honest with themselves) - they are more interesting and while mostly being tragic have a perspective you can understand. A protagonist is a young guy who has all the money and time he can need and has group sex with very attractive people which, is very seductive. He starts to develop more traditional feelings toward a girl he sleeps with and tries to have more exclusivity with her, which she doesn't want at the moment because she still loves the polygamy and pleasures it brings and also may be too infantile to understand his impulse - also bad things are about to happen to her. An estranged father played excellently by Chris Isaac is a certain man who was disappointed in marriage and became a bachelor and is hitting on women everywhere without conscious effort and tries to connect with his son, but the man he is, his history with his son and how it has shaped his son's personality make it futile.Even the scary sociopath played by Billy Bob Thornton has a couple of moments when you understand where's he coming from - like his honest answer "I don't know" to his wife's question "Did you ever love me". In the end although I like the movie I must say I agree with Bret Ellis that if the movie was at the same time made longer to include more scenes that were shot and some scenes were made faster and less long and heavy it honestly might have benefited and made more rewatchable.

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

I am shocked by the terrible/mediocre reviews. This is an incredibly dense movie masquerading as a bunch of moral-free vignettes. The main thing to take away from this movie is: nothing. There is no discernible meaning to life when lines get blurred. Grant, sort of near the end, tells Martin that when you don't know what is good or bad, you don't know what to do anymore. This sums up this movie perfectly. I know people like this...that is, people who have everything and act like it is nothing. People who are so self-centered and naive that they actually believe their nihilism is justified. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but it is fascinating (for me at least) to watch. Every character is fleshed out pretty well, it is just that the details of their characters are semi-buried. If you watch closely, I think most will find an intimate portrait of bad people (Renfro's character may be the only 'decent' person in the film...and yet he aspires to be like the 'bad guys'...what does this say about our culture? This movie is tragic, but not in the usual way. We are forced to watch characters who have it all and act aloof. I kept thinking throughout the film, a surefire sign something was done right. I can easily imagine myself in the main characters' shoes - so withdrawn (from riches and drugs) from society that good and bad don't even exist anymore. Instead, there is just life - and to them, it sucks.Yes, there is some to be desired here, but I think this film more than any of the other Easton-Ellis adaptations shows how Brett views the world - as a cold place where those who have it all have nothing, and those who have nothing - still have nothing.From a film-making standpoint, there was some to be desired, but Gregor Jordan, overall, is an excellent filmmaker. I give this film a 7 for strong visuals (more impacting than the dialogue. usually) and a very realistic look at the philosophy of nihilism.