Film

The Informant!

Name: The Informant!
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: 2009
Cast: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey, Tom Papa

Soderbergh's tragicomic true story of an ADM executive who becomes an FBI informant while convinced he's the hero of his own redemption narrative. Matt Damon delivers a manic, self-deluding performance; the film finds comedy in delusion and disaster in ambition. For anyone who loves the specific texture of white-collar crime told from inside the criminal's head.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a narrator who is quietly unreliable and a comedy that stays deadpan while the corporate crime plays out around him, with its jaunty score doing the heavy lifting.

Skip it if you need belly laughs, since this one keeps its jokes small and its tone oddly flat, which can make the ride feel longer than its 108 minutes.

What it asks of you: Attention on the small print: long stretches of talk, voiceover that wanders, and a slow build where the laughs arrive sideways rather than on cue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Catch Me If You Can2002

Con man protagonist with genuine charisma and a twisted moral compass; Spielberg draws humour from the cat-and-mouse game without losing sight of the real damage. DiCaprio is endlessly watchable as someone perpetually one step ahead of himself.

But Significantly more sympathetic to its criminal. Whitacre's version is darker and stranger in ways this film doesn't quite reach.

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

Excess, self-deception, and the FBI closing in. Scorsese finds grotesque comedy in depravity and holds it steady for three hours. DiCaprio performing his own unreliability is masterclass.

But Much longer and much more hedonistic in its style. If you want subtlety or restraint, this isn't your film.

Margin Call2011

Confined, intimate corporate thriller that unfolds over twenty-four hours as the financial crisis begins. Intelligent dialogue, a stellar ensemble cast, and genuine tension despite minimal plot movement.

But Talky and cerebral where The Informant! is kinetic and comedic. This is poker-faced rather than manic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Informant!

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Best Laid Plans2012

Both are about men who think they're heroes while the FBI watches, waiting for the story they're telling themselves to collapse. Both find strange comedy in the gap between self-image and reality.

Miniseries about a failed FBI informant operation inside the IRA. Real documentary texture mixed with dramatised psychology—you watch the informant's certainty that he's doing the right thing collide with actual consequences. Shot like a thriller but grounded in messy human reality.

But British production with less narrative momentum than a Hollywood feature. The moral questions are left deliberately unresolved, which frustrates people who want closure.

The Big Short2015

Another corporate-crime story told with formal playfulness and genuine moral outrage underneath the style. McKay uses jokes and formal tricks to make complex fraud comprehensible and infuriating.

But Aggressively stylish in ways that can feel didactic. The anger is so present it can overwhelm the story you're actually watching.

Boiler Room2000

Younger, hungrier version of the corporate-crime story. Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi as penny-stock brokers in a den of pure fraud. The moral architecture is clearer and the pacing is relentless.

But Less sophisticated than The Informant!, and it wears its message on its sleeve. Whitacre's delusional psychology is replaced by a more straightforward narrative.

Z1969

Costa-Gavras's masterpiece: a political thriller about conspiracy and cover-up, told with kinetic energy and moral clarity. A whistleblower narrative where the stakes feel genuinely dangerous, not just comic.

But French-Algerian production in a different idiom entirely. The political paranoia is real, which means it lacks the darkly funny tone you love The Informant! for.

Glengarry Glen Ross1992

Mamet's salesmen in crisis: the corporate world as a zero-sum game of deception, performance, and survival. Harris is extraordinary, and the ensemble captures the specific moral rot of competitive workplace culture.

But One room, one day, no plot in the traditional sense. Static where The Informant! is mobile; it's a moral anatomy rather than a thriller.

Corporate2017

Biting comedy-drama about pharmaceutical corruption and the cost of whistleblowing. Smaller in scale than The Informant!, but sharp-eyed about how institutions protect themselves and how idealism gets ground down.

But Lower budget and less star power. The filmmaking is competent rather than distinctive, and it doesn't have Soderbergh's formal invention to carry it.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

The engine is the same: watching someone perform a version of themselves while we see the reality. Whitacre lies to the FBI. Isaac lies to himself. Both films make that gap the entire subject.

Bergman's masterwork reimagined as a miniseries—intimate, surgical examination of how two people deceive themselves about love and commitment. Devastating and formally adventurous. Oscar Isaac as a man whose self-delusion is existential rather than criminal.

But Not a crime story. No plot machinery. If you want external stakes and momentum, this is the opposite—it's all internal.

American Animals2018

All three are obsessed with how criminals construct narratives about themselves. The Informant! does it in tone; American Animals does it in form. Both understand that the lie is the story.

Documentary-fiction hybrid about college kids who rob a rare book library. Interviews with the actual criminals interspersed with dramatisation; you see them rewrite their own story in real time. Audacious formal choice that mirrors how memory and self-justification work.

But Blend of real and performed can feel gimmicky. The crime itself is silly—if you want weight, you won't find it here.