Tuesday February 9, 2010 10:36 AM MST

Park City, Utah:

The Informers

Director(s):
Gregor Jordan
Screenwriter(s):
Bret Easton Ellis, Nicholas Jarecki
Executive Producers:
Bret Easton Ellis, Vanessa Coifman, Brian Young, Jere Hausfater, Nicholas Jarecki
Producer:
Marco Weber
Cinematographer:
Petra Korner

The Informers

US Narrative Feature Films
U.S.A.,  2008, 98 mins., color


Sex, drugs, and new wave...Los Angeles in the early 1980s: a time of excess and decadence, and nobody captures it better than Bret Easton Ellis as he coadapts his own acclaimed novel for the screen. Its multistrand narrative deftly balances a vast array of characters, who represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman and an amoral ex-con). Connecting his intertwining strands are the quintessential Ellis protagonists—a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs—and one another—with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of an abyss.Gregor Jordan returns to Sundance (Two Hands and Buffalo Soldiers played at previous Festivals) with a glamorous and gritty exposé of a culture where too much was never enough. He presents both the seductive and repellent sides of a time when safe sex meant being on the pill. Featuring a truly all-star cast who are at the top of their game, The Informers is a scathing descent into the morally bankrupt core beneath L.A.'s superficial beauty. It is both titillating and horrifying as it captures an era on the verge of an implosion whose effects we are still feeling today.
CAST
Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Jon Foster, Amber Heard
Gregor Jordan - Australian director Gregor Jordan made his debut with Swinger, which won the Jury Prize for best short film at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1995. His first feature, Two Hands, screened at Sundance and swept the Australian Film Institute Awards, taking five prizes, including best feature, best director, and best screenplay. Buffalo Soldiers screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. He released Ned Kelly in 2003 and has just completed work on The Informers. Jordan is currently directing the thriller Unthinkable, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen.
Screenings:

Thu. Jan 22 9:30 p.m. - INFOR22CN Eccles Theatre, Park City
Fri. Jan 23 8:30 a.m. - INFOR23LM Library Center Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 11:59 p.m. - INFOR24WL Tower Theatre, SLC