Review of The Insider (1999) by Sheril J — 26 Nov 2010

Making a good movie is hard enough. Capturing and telling a good story is harder. That's what co-writer/director Michael Mann does with "The Insider", an intense dramatization of real-life events that chills well with Mann's frenetic All-Bets-Are-Off filmmaking style.

It's a realist pseudo that comes off as nothing short of surreal. Mann doesn't once let his guard down, and for that the movie is never not interesting. It's the cusp of everyone all at once trying to tear down that fourth wall, the one that gives you a reason to care about the people inside the big houses.

Is it worth seeing? You bet, especially if you're into top-heavy political scandals and leading men with their own dashes of moral repugnance. Because "The Insider" is really those same men being chased away from each other by an invisible watchdog made up of their own reckonings with triumph and failure.

That's scary any way you cut it.