The Informant (Soderbergh)

[eternity]

I couldn't find a thread.

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/theinformant/

I wasn't expecting that.

[Acapelli]

worst mustache ever

but it looks hilarious

[number8]

That face screams "MAAAAATT DAAAMOOON."

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Does Soderberg have a family life or does he just make movies and masturbate?

[Ezee E]

Buster Bluth!

[Ivan Drago]

The shots with the news crew in front of the green barn was filmed 500 feet away from my house.

GAH I can't wait to see this movie!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Looks ridiculously entertaining.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Tony Hale + Joel McHale + Clancy Brown = Epic Win.

[B-side]

Eh.

[chrisnu]

Eh.
Yeah. I'll wait for reviews to come in.

[Sxottlan]

Scott Bakula!

[Dukefrukem]

That mustache looks so bad on him. But the movie looks funny as shit.

[Grouchy]

Matt Damon was born to play a role like this.

I'm definitively seeing it.

[baby doll]

Full Frontal: interesting but half baked.
Bubble: interesting but half baked.
Che: interesting but half baked.
The Girlfriend Experience: interesting but half baked.

Maybe if he weren't so concerned with trying to do something completely different every time he makes a film, he'd do something that's at least three-quarters baked.

[baby doll]

Does Soderberg have a family life or does he just make movies and masturbate?Repped.

[Ivan Drago]

Tony Hale + Joel McHale + Clancy Brown = Epic Win.

:eek: Mr. Krabs is in this????

:faints:

[Boner M]

Full Frontal: interesting but half baked.
Bubble: interesting but half baked.
Che: interesting but half baked.
The Girlfriend Experience: interesting but half baked.

Maybe if he weren't so concerned with trying to do something completely different every time he makes a film, he'd do something that's at least three-quarters baked.
Rolf de Heer and Michael Winterbottom could use similar advice.

[Sven]

Michael Winterbottom could use similar advice.

Problem with this one is, Winterbottom is frequently uninteresting and never quite even half baked. Exception: the great 24 Hour Party People, which could be the biggest fluke in cinema history.

[number8]

9 Songs has its... assets.

[Boner M]

Problem with this one is, Winterbottom is frequently uninteresting and never quite even half baked. Exception: the great 24 Hour Party People, which could be the biggest fluke in cinema history.
I haven't seen In This World or any of his (allegedly superior) 90's work, but based on what I have seen, you're right. I'm pissed that his next project is to be a neutering of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me, probably my favorite pulp novel ever. :frustrated:

[Qrazy]

The only Winterbottom film I've seen is 24 Hour Party People which I found to be quite poor.

[Duncan]

9 Songs has its... assets.

But not even, really. Why wouldn't you just go watch porn? Some of them even have better plots than that film. I mean, going to Antarctica after breaking up with someone...Jesus Christ.

[Duncan]

And I didn't even make it to the end of 24 Hour Party People. Shut it off halfway through.

[Qrazy]

And I didn't even make it to the end of 24 Hour Party People. Shut it off halfway through.

It gets slightly better and then worse.

[baby doll]

Rolf de Heer and Michael Winterbottom could use similar advice.And let's not forget Ozon, although I like his films a lot more than Winterbottom's (especially Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes, 8 femmes and Swimming Pool). 24 Party People was loads of fun--three quarters baked, easily--and I sort of liked Code 46 and 9 Songs. As long as they have numerical titles, I guess. I don't know de Heer's other films, but The Tracker was at least two thirds baked.

[Sven]

Code 46

This is one of the most ridiculous and useless films I've ever seen.

[Grouchy]

This is one of the most ridiculous and useless films I've ever seen.
Really? I saw it back when it was released in theaters and thought it was decent sci-fi. I liked the made up language and the third world environment. I don't remember a lot more about it, though.

[Ivan Drago]

Thought this was absolutely hysterical.

[Sxottlan]

This was fun. Damon is excellent and that's because I increasingly grew to dislike the character, but still found him entirely watchable.

[NickGlass]

Hysterical? Fun? It's deeper than that, but it's not. It's meant to be taken seriously, but it's not. Sure, Melvin Hamlish's swinging score certainly contributes to a buoyant tone, but the portrait is ultimately rather devastating.

[By the way, this is totally a thread that should be off-limits to people who have not seen the film yet, although I could warn those unseen eyes that they will be (appropriately?) jerked around by the film.]

Why does Soderberg have to make so many movies that annoy me, yet when having a conversation afterwards, I inevitably defend the film and justify the annoyances? It confuses me so.

[Ivan Drago]

Hysterical? Fun? It's deeper than that, but it's not. It's meant to be taken seriously, but it's not.

"How do polar bears know their noses are black? Do they look at themselves in the water? Do they look at other polar bears and go, 'Man, I'd be camouflaged if it weren't for that." :lol:

[monolith94]

Fun, solid, movie. Nothing earth-shaking, but a very good time. I was the youngest person in the audience.

[balmakboor]

This movie worked for me from start to finish. I've only been a moderate Soderbergh fan, but now I'm ready to revisit all of his filmography.

[Ezee E]

Eh...... This kinda bored me. Wacky, different. Yes. All a front for what I found an uninteresting story.

[Spinal]

Pretty throughly unengaging. Not much style. Not much humor. Not much clarity. Not much insight. Would have been better with Damon replaced by Bruce McCulloch. I'm surprised to see the generally positive critical reaction to this one.

[Spinal]

Problem with this one is, Winterbottom is frequently uninteresting and never quite even half baked. Exception: the great 24 Hour Party People, which could be the biggest fluke in cinema history.

Jude and Welcome to Sarajevo are both excellent.

[Adam]

I'll back Welcome to Sarajevo as one of the most devastating movies I've seen, Code 46 has its moments and A Cock & Bull Story is pretty hilarious and clever throughout. The Claim is solid, too, even if it kind of plays like McCabe & Mrs. Miller lite. In a related story, I want to do horrible things on Sarah Polley's body

[Kurosawa Fan]

Funny at times, but too often it was a bit dull and uninvolving. Perhaps a bit too breezy for the material, damaging some dramatic weight that the film needed as it drew to a close. That said, I had a good time with it for the most part, even though it's forgettable stuff.

[Raiders]

Yeah, I had absolutely nothing to say about this movie (saw it like three months ago). For me, it's certainly just about the dullest film I think Soderbergh has made. I especially began to despise the random thoughts Damon's character kept having. They seemed almost entirely designed to try and lighten up and distract from the dull material but never succeeded.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yeah, I had absolutely nothing to say about this movie (saw it like three months ago). For me, it's certainly just about the dullest film I think Soderbergh has made. I especially began to despise the random thoughts Damon's character kept having. They seemed almost entirely designed to try and lighten up and distract from the dull material but never succeeded.

:lol:

I actually saw it two weeks ago, and forgot I had even seen it until I decided to go to Netflix and start adding DVDs that are coming out soon that I missed in theaters. I guess maybe I need to drop my rating a bit.

[Melville]

Yeah, I had absolutely nothing to say about this movie (saw it like three months ago). For me, it's certainly just about the dullest film I think Soderbergh has made. I especially began to despise the random thoughts Damon's character kept having. They seemed almost entirely designed to try and lighten up and distract from the dull material but never succeeded.
The random thoughts pretty much made the movie for me. They were amusing, and in that sense they lightened things up, but I mostly liked them as an unusual means of developing the character.

[Raiders]

The random thoughts pretty much made the movie for me. They were amusing, and in that sense they lightened things up, but I mostly liked them as an unusual means of developing the character.

I don't know. He seemed just as developed by the plot and his actions as he was by the fact that he was actually constant thinking of pointless tangents then anything of consequence (which his personality shows he has no gauge of).

They just really got irritating and as far as my sense of humor goes, I guess they really just didn't do it for me.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I fall somewhere in-between. I liked the random thoughts, but most of them were pretty flat, not really getting any laughs from me.

[Melville]

I don't know. He seemed just as developed by the plot and his actions as he was by the fact that he was actually constant thinking of pointless tangents then anything of consequence (which his personality shows he has no gauge of).

They just really got irritating and as far as my sense of humor goes, I guess they really just didn't do it for me.
I think that the stream-of-consciousness style provides an interesting picture of the character's immediate experience of the world, rather than just his outward personality/behavioral characteristics. And of course, that immediate evocation of experience is what I'm always after. But I do agree that the thoughts, while amusing, weren't as funny as they should have been (and probably were trying to be).

[Rowland]

Watched the first half of this tonight before life distracted me, not feeling terribly compelled to finish it before its due date tomorrow, which I suppose means I fall in line with what appears to be the general consensus in this thread. Zzz... The Girlfriend Experience was much better.

[Ivan Drago]

Watched the first half of this tonight before life distracted me, not feeling terribly compelled to finish it before its due date tomorrow, which I suppose means I fall in line with what appears to be the general consensus in this thread. Zzz... The Girlfriend Experience was much better.

The Girlfriend Experience was basically 90 minutes of Sasha Grey looking outside a car window looking contemplative. The Informant actually had a sense of humor going for it, along with Matt Damon's fun performance.

[megladon8]

I don't see how 90 minutes of Sasha Grey could ever be construed as a bad thing.

[Yxklyx]

Watched the first half of this tonight before life distracted me, not feeling terribly compelled to finish it before its due date tomorrow, which I suppose means I fall in line with what appears to be the general consensus in this thread. Zzz... The Girlfriend Experience was much better.

I agree, but this wasn't that bad. I liked the supporting cast.

[Ezee E]

I don't see how 90 minutes of Sasha Grey could ever be construed as a bad thing.
I had the same impression.

And she actually is quite good. It's the 15-20 minutes of following the guy around where they gossip nonstop that kills the movie.

[Rowland]

Good thing I decided to finish this one, since it turns out I turned the film off just as its detached veneer and slippery tone began to justify themselves, and both the surface narrative as well as the thematic undercurrents grew increasingly gripping. It's as much an intellectual exercise as The Girlfriend Experience, and in the end it's just as sly, as well as surprisingly of a piece with Soderbergh's increasingly transparent auteurist sensibilities. Also, many poignant performances by predominantly comic performers here, a particularly clever (and revealing) coup on Soderbergh's part.

[transmogrifier]

Quite surprisingly, the best film of 2009 so far right here, and Soderbergh's best since Out of Sight. It took me an age to get around to watching this, mainly because of the middling nature of Soderbergh's work in the 00s, and I expected something similar here. But instead, we have a genuinely nimble, funny, yet deeply cynical look at business culture and the delusions many of us need to cling to in order to maintain a life that looks good on the outside.

The way the film piles the revelations on top of each other near the end, sending everyone scrambling around for new ways to spin it to their advantage, is expertly crafted, and Soderbergh does well to maintain a consistently jaunty tone that accurately reflects the disjunct between what we project to others and what is happening beneath the surface.

"My leg! It's cramped!"

[Mysterious Dude]

I have to admit, this movie has stuck with me a little more than some other movies I saw last year.

[MadMan]

From what I recall from my viewing of it last year, I really liked this movie a lot. It feel outside of my Top 10, but it was still rather funny and very engaging. Matt Damon got nominated for the wrong performance (big surprise there), as he showcases his comedic chops, and I think that a funny yet biting satire of a cynical business culture is exactly what the subject matter really called for. I'd actually like to see this again, though, as perhaps it was a tad too breezy and thus I don't remember what my favorite part is.

[Derek]

I have to admit, this movie has stuck with me a little more than some other movies I saw last year.

It's certainly not the most forgettable movie of last year.