The Informers (released in theaters on April 24, 2009) serves as a chilling, mosaic-style exploration of moral decay in early 1980s Los Angeles. Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ short story collection, the film captures the same hollow, high-fashion dread found in his other works like American Psycho.
The film presents a city where the sunlight is blinding, but the souls are pitch black and it is a haunting ensemble piece that trades traditional narrative arcs for a series of interconnected vignettes, illustrating a world where beauty is a mask for profound emptiness.
Set in 1983, the story weaves through the lives of film executives, rock stars, and lost youth, all drifting through a landscape of sex, drugs, and casual cruelty.
William Sloan (Billy Bob Thornton) is a high-powered movie producer attempting to reconcile with his estranged wife, Laura (Kim Basinger), while maintaining an affair with a younger news anchor, Cheryl Moore (Winona Ryder).
Their lives are a revolving door of luxury and apathy, mirrored by their son, Graham (Jon Foster), who spends his days in a drug-fueled haze with his girlfriend, Christie (Amber Heard), and his best friend, Martin (Austin Nichols).
Parallel to the upper-class decadence is a grittier underworld. Peter (Mickey Rourke) is a sinister figure involved in a kidnapping plot, representing the predatory violence bubbling beneath the city’s glossy surface.
Meanwhile, a rock star named Les Price (Chris Isaak) grapples with his fading relevance and strained relationship with his son.
The cast is rounded out by a tragic performance from Brad Renfro in his final film role, along with Katy Mixon, as characters who intersect in a series of increasingly desperate encounters.
As the various plotlines collide, the film explores the consequences of a life lived without consequence, culminating in a series of hollow tragedies that suggest that in a city built on artifice, the only thing real is the eventual, inevitable crash.
The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2009.
Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger in The Informers (Photo/Senator Entertainment)
Reception for The Informers
The Informers grossed $300,000 on its opening weekend, in limited release.
The film would gross a disappointing $382,174 against a $18 million budget.
Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half out of four stars in his review.
Legacy
The legacy of The Informers is its status as a polarizing, unflinching time capsule of 1980s nihilism.
The movie is celebrated by fans of Ellis for its visual fidelity to his prose, capturing the specific “MTV-noir” aesthetic of Los Angeles with a soundtrack and wardrobe that feel both authentic and alienating.
The Informers stands as a grim, beautiful artifact of late-2000s independent cinema, praised for its moody cinematography and its chilling reminder of the darkness that thrives behind the bright lights of Hollywood.
