The Informers is a 2009 American drama film written by Bret Easton Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki and directed by Gregor Jordan. The film is based on Ellis's 1994 collection of short stories of the same name. The film, which is set amidst the decadence of the early 1980s, depicts an assortment of socially alienated, mainly well-off characters who numb their sense of emptiness with casual sex, alcohol, and drugs. Filming took place in Los Angeles, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires in 2007.
It was the last feature film for actor Brad Renfro before his death on January 15, 2008, at the age of 25. The film was dedicated to his memory.
An article published by Reuters described the story as "seven stories taking course during a week in the life of movie executives, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters", set in 1980s Los Angeles. The supernatural content was not to be included in the final film, however.
Plot
In 1983, at an elegant Los Angeles party at a mansion, Bruce wanders away from the party and is killed by a speeding car. After the funeral, his friends Graham, Martin and Tim sit drinking with Raymond on a fancy hotel patio. Only Raymond is truly devastated and cries bitterly. The friends dismiss Raymond's tears. When Raymond leaves, Graham follows him.
Graham Sloan is the son of a rich, estranged couple and drives a Porsche, stays in glamorous hotel rooms, and is a drug dealer. His father William is a film producer with a pill-addled wife. William is having an affair with a local television anchorwoman, Cheryl Moore. His wife, meanwhile, is having sex with her son's friend Martin. Graham is aware that his girlfriend Christie is cheating on him with a number of men, including his best friend Martin, a bisexual rock video producer. Since Graham and Martin are also sleeping together, Graham appears to be trying to accept the open relationship.
A new wave rock singer named Bryan Metro flies into Los Angeles. He stumbles through his fancy hotel room and has sex with young groupies. Getting out of the bath, he slips on the wet floor and slashes open his hand. Upon answering the phone, he is berated by his manager for sleeping with underage groupies, and he mumbles that he needs a doctor. Later, he is taken to meet a film producer who hopes to make a profitable B-movie starring the singer. The singer appears to be barely coherent, and his attention is only caught when he sees a young girl wearing braces watching television in an adjoining room. Bryan staggers towards her and takes her into a bedroom. Later, he stumbles into a hotel room and finds a groupie in his bed. Slurring his words, he asks her to come closer, and he kisses her, and then punches her in the face.
Jack, a hotel doorman in Christie's place, has come to seek his fortune in Los Angeles as an actor. He is making a humble living working as a doorman and lives in a small, run-down house. He is alarmed when he receives a phone call from his grizzled uncle Peter, a drifter ex-con who claims he needs a place to stay. Jack angrily refuses the request, because he wants to leave the immoral, criminal side of his family background behind him. However, when Jack returns home, his uncle is waiting for him in a beaten-up van. To Jack's horror, his uncle is involved in a gangland kidnapping-for-hire plot, and the uncle has brought a kidnapped child to Jack's house. When a cleanly dressed, yet menacing gangster calls on Jack when the uncle is out, and asks to collect the "package", Jack feigns ignorance. When the uncle returns he tells Jack that the boy has to be killed, on the grounds that it will be more humane than what the gangsters will do to him, Jack offers to kill the boy. Instead of slitting the boy's throat, Jack pretends to kill the boy but actually releases him. Jack hides his failure to kill the boy by cutting open his hand and smearing blood on his hands and face, and he joins his uncle in the van and flees the scene.
Tim Price is pressured to go with his father, Les, on a trip to Hawaii, ostensibly for the two to share father–son bonding time. They go to a bar, where Les starts a chat with two young women, who may be willing to have sex with them. However, Tim is not interested, and he is disgusted by his father's drunken, leering passes at the women. Tim does later find a girl he likes at the beach, but when the three of them have dinner together, Les begins to make passes at her and then both the father and the young woman make fun of Tim by suggesting that gay men were making passes at him on the beach. Tim leaves the dinner and goes out to be alone. When his father finds him, Tim refuses to talk, saying he has nothing to say.