Episode 373: THE INSIDER (1999) with Abbie Phelps
About this episode
The episode discusses Michael Mann's film THE INSIDER and its themes related to the tobacco industry and media.
Even in the famous glut of great movies that came out in 1999, Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER stands out because it works as a great legal thriller/biopic and as something much sadder and more compelling. Jeff Wigand (Russell Crowe) is a poindexter sitting on a story that could take down the third-largest tobacco company in the U.S., and Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) is the 60 Minutes producer who wants to help him get it out there. Abbie believes it’s Mann’s best (just wait ‘til she sees THIEF (1981)!) both because of its mealy newsiness and for much more textural reasons. It’s one of Mann’s last films before his jump to digital, giving him the perfect opportunity to use the beautiful tones of celluloid to close the frame around each scene, creating an increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere as the intersecting forces of Big Tobacco, government, media consolidation, government, and the court of public opinion constrict around Wigand’s masculinity, autonomy, and very life. Find Abbie… On Bluesky On Letterboxd On Trylove episodes about DRIVE ANGRY (2011), WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), THE TRAIN (1964), MOULIN ROUGE! (2001), PHANTOM THREAD…
More episodes of Trylove
- Episode 381: FAMILY PLOT (1976)
- Episode 379: COLLATERAL (2004)
- Episode 378: HEAT (1995) with Kelly Krantz and Natalie Marlin
- Episode 377: THIEF (1981) with Kelly Krantz
- Episode 376: DEMONLOVER (2002) with Natalie Marlin
- Episode 375: MATEWAN (1987) with Louis Gagnon
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