Forgotten Film Friday: Insomnia

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

Two LAPD detectives facing indictments from Internal Affairs flee to the small Alaskan fishing village of Nightmute to assist local police with a homicide. There senior detective Will Dormer, played by an unusually reserved Al Pacino, begins to suffer from insomnia, hence the title, and plays a game of cat and mouse with strange mystery writer Walter Finch, a chilling Robin Williams.

I truly believe that one of the greatest modern directors is Christopher Nolan. I think arguably he could be called the greatest modern director. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are better than the entire MCU combined and a lot of that is because of Nolan's astonishing visual eye and his attention to detail. That hot take aside I find that some of Nolan's work pre-Batman is sort of forgotten, either as a film entirely or people forget he directed one of them. Memento is the standout of his pre-Batman era and yes, it is a modern masterpiece. If you've never seen Memento, fix that immediately. But Insomnia, a remake of a Swedish film of the same name from 1997, I feel is sadly overlooked. Which is wrong because this film is astonishing.

Pacino and Williams give some of the best performances of their careers and I think this is William's masterpiece as far as his dramatic work goes. He completely transforms himself to play a twisted and calculating killer. The scenes between Pacino and Williams are the highlight of the film. It's a game of cat and mouse where the cop never really has an edge.

Nolan directs the fuck out of this film. His shot choices, the lightning, enhancing Pacino's insomnia through some creative uses of editing and visual effects, it's a complete package. Why I don't think this is Nolan's best film, for me that's tie between Batman Begins and Memento, Insomnia is one of his best and I think better than any of the films he made post Batman. I like some of those sure, Interstellar all day, but I would love for him to make a quieter film like this in the future. Bombastic Nolan isn't necessarily the best. Not to take anything away from him though. He's a modern auter and I think years from now will be in the same conversation as directors like Spielberg and Scorsese.

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