The Informers (2009)

Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Amber Heard, and Mickey Rourke.

It's about 3 or 4 different groups of people living in Los Angeles in the early 80's, somehow their groups all intertwine. There's a cheating movie producer (Thornton) and his wife, his ex-mistress (Ryder), his sons group of friends, the doorman at the apartment complex his sons girlfriend (Heard) lives in, that guys uncle (Rourke), and a doped up rock singer.

The producers wife is sleeping with the sons best friend, who also engages in group sex with the son and his girlfriend. That same best friend is also sleeping with the rock singers ex-wife. The doorman only knows them through conversation, his uncle is a convict who kidnaps a kid, has weird preppy gangsters try to come get the kid, then tells the nephew to cut the kids throat, to which the nephew cuts his own hand open and helps the kid escape. One of the sons friends goes to Hawaii with his douche bag father who tries to pick up girls, much to the sons dismay.

The movie starts with one of the sons pals being hit by a car and dying, followed by the funeral, then the above sequence happens, after which the rock star does drugs, fucks underage groupies, and chokes one, then punches her in the face. The film ends with the sons girlfriend apparently dying on the beath with 'lesions' all over her body. A quick plot summary google trip reveals that the girlfriend had AIDS.

The Informers garnered mostly negative reviews from every person who saw it, including, it seems, the author of the stories the movie is based on. The movie was compared to 'American Psycho' based on the nudity and blood. I, however, did not see any similarities at all. The Informers was not a sarcastic film. I saw no satire in it. Perhaps only exaggerations of the lavish (or frightening) lives of Hollywood stars and hopefuls in 1983. The movie was interesting, to say the least. It wasn't slow or wholly confusing, it just didn't seem to have any central plot. That is to say, it was a mess. A naked, drug infused mess.

Overall, I would give the movie a 7 or 8, based on my appreciation for weird, if not pointless, films. It is artistically, and beautifully, shot. I wouldn't recommend The Informers to the mainstream or trendy. If someone thinks so far outside the box that the box has disappeared entirely, then this movie is for them.

The Informers currently holds a 13% critic rating and a 22% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


The Informers trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11lHeI6fq_0

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865554/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008991-informers/