Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Informers (Tuesday, October 6, 2009) (139)

The 1980s in Los Angeles were a time of synthetic fabrics in various shades of brown, pink and light blue, big permed hair (sometimes with blond tips), small, fast cars, the end of modernism, buckets of cocaine, skinny people and new electronics. Such a trite list might sound tedious but it contains the only moderately entertaining aspects of The Informers, a lifeless movie about the end of modern civilization in the Reagan years.

The film follows several different dull stories of people living in LA in 1983. There are several kids in their early 20s who seem to screw, snort lines of coke and screw; there are a few adults who work in Hollywood and screw one another and their kids' friends; there are some lowlifes who deal drugs and kidnap kids for some white slavery ring. Uh - that's about all there is.

This is really a painfully boring movie with a big cast and writers behind it. Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Bassinger, Mickey Rourke, Chris Isaac and Winona Ryder all struggle with Brett Easton Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki's terrible script.

The art direction and production design, not to mention costumes and make up, are all worthy of praise. Each scene is beautifully set up and looks absolutely perfect for the time period. But these technical aspects are the only part of the film that are not totally mind-numbingly banal.

Stars: .5 of 4

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