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Capone says Soderbergh's THE INFORMANT! is one of the funniest films of the year!!!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Have you seen the poster for Steven Soderbergh's latest work THE INFORMANT!? In many parts of the country, this is Soderbergh's third film to come out this year, following two other outstanding — damn-near miraculous--works, CHE and THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. The poster for the new film features Matt Damon gazing upwards in wide wonder with a joyful smile on his slightly pudgy face. Even the title of the film is excited; that explanation point in the title THE INFORMANT! is not my addition. Movie posters are supposed to capture the spirit of the film, not just give us a cast list with a series of faces, and I can't think of a poster in recent memory that quite captures what fuels The Informant! better than the near-orgasmic, open-mouthed smiling Matt Damon.
In this true-life tale, Damon plays Mark Whitacre, a vice president at Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agribusiness multinationals, which became a target of a huge FBI investigation into price fixing in the 1990s, thanks entirely to Whitacre's whistle blowing and subsequent audio- and videotaping for the Bureau. But what THE INFORMANT! teaches us is that the only reason Whitacre was ratting out his company's upper management was to save his own job at a company that might have been driven out of business by his actions. A formula he was working on kept developing a virus for reasons he couldn't explain. Whitacre lied and said that a Japanese competitor had a mole in ADM that was deliberately injecting the virus into the formula and was demanding a huge pay off to provide the solution to the problem. This was all a lie to buy Whitacre time to figure out the real source of the virus. But because of the accusation of corporate espionage, the FBI was brought in to tap Mark's business lines, and thus the stage was set for one of the strangest criminal cases with one of the most bizarre characters at the center of this circus.
Watching THE INFORMANT! is like watching a building fall down one brick at a time, but in rapid succession. Whitacre is clearly bipolar and a compulsive liar, and Damon's performance is, without debate, the finest he's ever committed to film. His issue is not that he wants to do the right thing. Specifically, he wants the world to look at him as someone that did the right thing. He has a hero complex, and when his multiple lies start to be revealed, he wants the world to see him as a victim of the very law-enforcement agencies he sought to assist. To try to explain the layers of lies that Whitacre here would be pointless for two reasons: it would be a very boring read and it would in no way convey just how damn funny watching this thoroughly bat-shit crazy this movie gets at times. It literally gets to the point where every time Damon tells someone that he needs to talk, you hold your breath and wait for what new bit of information he's about to drop like a hand grenade in a room full of window panes. He's as infuriating as he is hilarious.
But Damon is only a portion of why THE INFORMANT! absolutely rules. One of the most bizarre choices on Soderbergh's part is the casting of a large number of stand-up comics and comedic actors in many of the supporting roles, all playing it straight and serious. From Joel McHale as one of two FBI agents who are Whitacre's handlers (the other is played by Scott Bakula) to Patton Oswalt to both Smothers Brothers (in separate scenes) to Paul F. Tompkins to Tony Hale. Look for Candy Clark (AMERICAN GRAFFITI, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER [the film]) as Mark's mother. I spent half the movie having the best time admiring Soderbergh's unexpected yet totally successful casting choices. He's having fun letting these funny people work against type, and it works.
The screenplay from Scott Z. Burns (who co-wrote THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and adapted this story from the book by Kurt Eichenwald) is stuffed with sharp observations about behavior, motivation and just general loopy behavior. In a weird way, THE INFORMANT! plays like a thriller at times because Whitacre is so incompetent at times that we're sure he's going to get caught. But the film's greatest strength is that we literally never know from scene to scene where this story is going to take us or end up. This is not some trumped-up, inflated Hollywood version of corporate America loaded with assassins trying to silence a whistle blower. The lawyers for ADM are smart enough to know that if they just let Whitacre keep talking (which is does, often, against the explicit instructions of the FBI and his lawyers), he'll eventually hang himself. One more exceptional cast member I should mention is Melanie Lynskey and Whitacre's ever-loyal wife Ginger, who may or may not know what her husband is up to, but it doesn't matter. She will support him no matter how dumb he reveals himself to be or how much trouble his mouth gets him in to.
My first thought after watching THE INFORMANT! was "How soon do I get to experience that again?" Soderbergh makes smart films look effortless, and that is no easy task. Not all of his films have been great, but he goes out of his way not only to find unusual stories to tell, but also fascinating ways to tell them. And with word just coming out that his Spalding Gray documentary is finally finished and premiering at Slamdance in January, and casting news about his actioner Knockout being revealed, hopefully that means we'll be getting a couple more new Soderbergh joints in the next year. There are few things that excite me more than that prospect. In the mean time, just go see THE INFORMANT!, one of the funniest, most intelligent and entertaining bits of wackiness you'll see all year.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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I did enjoy it, but more of "oh, that's kind of funny" way. The soundtrack was great, though.
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Isn't it weird? A movie with a legendary voice actor opens this weekend, but it's NOT the animated one!
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Damon and humor is straining my suspension of disbelief. I'd rather think that Megan Fox was possessed or that giant food items were falling from the sky before I plunked down any cash for The Informant!
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Since Damon completely threw out preconceptions of his ability and film range with the Bourne movies (I mean, seriously - before the first of his versions came out, whoever saw that casting coming) I've looked forward to his movies. He does some pretty good work, and he's turning into a serious MOVIE STAR alongside the likes of Hanks and Clooney. He's got some great movies to come I think. Looking forward to this.
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Soderbergh is a skilled filmmaker, amazing how well he can rip off another filmmaker's style and use it for his own with hardly anybody noticing. I hope people realize TRAFFIC was a Michael Mann film...
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The guy can do anything he wants- action, comedy, drama, dramedy, breakfast, lunch, brunch, you name it. That guy is the real deal.
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You guys really need to learn basic fucking grammar.
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Scott Bakula fucking rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He needs to be in more films! Like Star Trek 2 (12?) Oh Yeah!!!!
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And it may not really be stunt casting, Soderbergh stated he wanted to cast comedians because of their timing and rhythm, but it would take me out of the movie everytime I saw some comic I recognized..."Hey look, its so-and-so."
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all you have is the "grainy gritty look" argument on that one. It didn't have any shitty Chris Cornell or Moby soundtrack. And nobody stared each other down for at least 10 minutes. Also Soderbergh's the better director, because he's willing to switch things up sometimes.
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will see it this weekend fo sho
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Clooney and Hanks. He doesn't have a hundredth of their charisma.
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Oliver Stone. The blue-light stuff he swiped from Mann. I know it's hard to keep up with the man!
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Billy & Mandy? Fuckin' Cartoon Network teasing folks with the release of the first season, seemingly a promise of more to come, and then nothing...
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Vis-a-vis the chicken.
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Call me silly...but i love twat.
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Sep 18, 2009 11:32:43 AM CDT
CAPONE: Was ur incompetant sentence abt incompetance intentional
by squashua
Or only at times?
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Capone musta ran this review through every Babelfish language translator before he translated it back into English. Wow what an awful read. Proof before ya post!
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Sep 18, 2009 2:50:26 PM CDT
Just because there's an exclamation point in the movie's title..
by nasty in the pasty
...that doesn't mean you can use a hundred of the fucking things and STRETCH OUT THE TALKBACK SCREEN, YOU THOUGHTLESS SHIT!!!
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Worth a rental at best. Do not waste your money. It really loses momentum about half way through and never really recovers. Do not listen to the AICN reviewers on this. Informant is quite boring actually.
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Damon is a good actor, but he bombs at comedy.
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I'd rather watch EPIC MOVIE than be subjected to this.
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This review is the exact opposite of every other review I have read. I would like for this movie to be great, but sadly I think it will suck.
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I will trust reviewers before I trust anyone that actually uses the word "snoozefest"...
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why the fuck shouldn't movies be clever and witty?god, people are stupid. Epic Movie was a good choice there...
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Sep 18, 2009 7:05:48 PM CDT
actually i'd probably take cyanide instead of either
by takingscorpioscalls
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WTF did you just say?
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Sep 18, 2009 9:21:50 PM CDT
The "witty and clever is bad" comes from anti-intellectualism
by snallyg
The poster who make this comment is the kind of person who's more interested in accusing someone of elitism than actually pay attention to the discussion itself. Either that, or he's a troll. Can't speak for the film itself not having seen it.
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....and then hear it straight from the crowd of 60 adults in the movie's lobby I was at: this movie fucking sucked. It's clear that the director can't pick a decent scripot to save his life and the pitch to make the movie was probably better than the finished product. I get the impression that the only reason this movie was made was to use the obscure soundtrack of the director's personal favorite tunes that littered this hommage to narcolepsy.
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thank you talkbackers
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The Informant is far from hilarious, it really missed the boat. The ridiculous voice-over totally distracts one from the movie. Matt Damon had some really good moments but I can't say the same for the rest of the cast.
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