"The Informers" is vacant, isolated and angst-ridden. Much like the '80s, it has lots of placid exteriors, broken interiors, hot bodies, vast wealth and the search for meaning.
As is usual for Ellis characters, though, no one has the equipment to find any meaning. From the beginning, it's obvious the hunt will be fruitless. These people have been so badly socialized by their alienating culture of wealth that they often can't even find an emotional response to their inability to properly feel.
Also par for the course is the easily placed blame. Parents so wrapped up in themselves that their children's existence barely registers are hardly fit to bestow morals or wisdom or emotions or anything else. Privilege has its costs. When anything is attainable, meaning evaporates. Everyone is adrift, and it's everyone's fault.
This is a movie that will likely anger, disgust or bore those not familiar with Ellis' milieu, although many of us who lived through the '80s know what he's on about. It doesn't lead anywhere, just like the characters' internal compasses. A couple of times the dialogue felt like it was trying too hard to get the point across, where if you weren't getting it, you're too stupid to be worth telling. I don't remember the book banging you on the head that way, but maybe it did.
This is not a pleasant movie, so don't make it a date night. It is a lovely, enchanting cultural study of detachment and amorality. But again, it also is everyone's fault. Self-indulgence isn't attractive and doesn't engender pity. When Graham pleads, "I need someone to tell me what is good, OK? And I need someone to tell me what's bad," you can't feel anything for him.
He's lost, they're all lost, there's no hope.
As is usual for Ellis characters, though, no one has the equipment to find any meaning. From the beginning, it's obvious the hunt will be fruitless. These people have been so badly socialized by their alienating culture of wealth that they often can't even find an emotional response to their inability to properly feel.
Also par for the course is the easily placed blame. Parents so wrapped up in themselves that their children's existence barely registers are hardly fit to bestow morals or wisdom or emotions or anything else. Privilege has its costs. When anything is attainable, meaning evaporates. Everyone is adrift, and it's everyone's fault.
This is a movie that will likely anger, disgust or bore those not familiar with Ellis' milieu, although many of us who lived through the '80s know what he's on about. It doesn't lead anywhere, just like the characters' internal compasses. A couple of times the dialogue felt like it was trying too hard to get the point across, where if you weren't getting it, you're too stupid to be worth telling. I don't remember the book banging you on the head that way, but maybe it did.
This is not a pleasant movie, so don't make it a date night. It is a lovely, enchanting cultural study of detachment and amorality. But again, it also is everyone's fault. Self-indulgence isn't attractive and doesn't engender pity. When Graham pleads, "I need someone to tell me what is good, OK? And I need someone to tell me what's bad," you can't feel anything for him.
He's lost, they're all lost, there's no hope.