Pretentious, over-serious, over-acted

Rating: 6/10 (24 July 2001)

In The Insider Michael Mann exposes the big bad evil of corporate America. Not that anyone would have realized that the tobacco industry was just trying to make people addicted to nicotine in order to sell more of their product without watching this hard-hitting docudrama expose. And in case you don't get this message in the first fifteen minutes of the film, Mann goes to great detail to drum it into you in every other scene. For example, we are shown--over and over and over-- the scene where Jeff Wigand (played so constipatedly by Russell Crowe) is being interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes while a camera softly pans the other characters' faces again and again as they poignantly watch the interview. I guess this is supposed to be like, a collective realization for all of us that yes, corporate America is evil and we, innocent the American citizens and liberal media have been duped by this evil force. Yes, Michael, I understand. Big tobacco = bad. Liberal media and American citizens = good victims. Deep. Very, very deep, Michael Mann. And I really dug the way Mann used the handheld camera for 3/4ths of the film, making some scenes so jumpy that I was wondering if the characters had nervous ticks or were jumping up and down for the camera. It was just like, so realistic and raw. And I really enjoyed the post-1960s Baby Boomer guilt of Al Pacino's character, Lowell Bergman. It's like, "Yes, I am a Yuppie who has a mulimillion dollar job, house, and life in New York city, but I relieve my 1960s liberal guilt by saying Herbert Marcuse was my mentor and proclaiming myself a 'liberal journalist.'" Wow. I guess that makes everything OK. And then there was Al Pacino's screaming like 50% of his lines in the film. That really brought out the "meaningfulness" of the whole "liberal media fighting evil corporate America" theme. And I just liked the way most of the characters were really unempathic to one another's nurturing needs, especially during the moments when they needed to cry or be held. It's always great to see Hollywood churn out another damaging image-fest where there's lots of yelling, advice giving, and abandonment when characters need to listen to one another. It really excites me when these images are held up for the whole world to see (especially when the images proclaim themselves to be examples of "real life" behavior, as in this flick) so kids and adults alike can imitate them and unconsciously internalize the oligarchical/patriarchal power structures which they represent. There were a few nice moments in the soundtrack--the opera piece stands out for me here--but overall, that ended up coming across as pretentious as well. I am definitely not in tune with the "Academy." I can't believe this film was nominated for 9 awards.