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Episode 373: THE INSIDER (1999) with Abbie Phelps

March 10, 2026·1 hr 48 min·9 clips
John Waters defies theater rules, urging you to smoke anyway because 'it gives ushers jobs.'
1. Try Love podcast discusses Michael Mann's 1999 film The Insider, recorded at a cabin in Lincoln, Nebraska with guest Abby Phelps. 2. The panel is Jason Daphnis (host, Nintendufus on social), Cody Narveson, Harry Mackin (Punished Take), Aaron (RB Please), and Abby Phelps, a returning guest who appeared on episodes covering Drive Angry, Blair Witch Project, Touch of Evil, and Star Wars. 3. The episode's core question is whether The Insider transcends the biopic format to become a systemic critique of corporate power in America. 4. Aaron summarizes the film: Al Pacino plays CBS producer Lowell Bergman, Russell Crowe plays tobacco whistleblower Dr. Jeffrey Weigand, Christopher Plummer plays 60 Minutes host Mike Wallace, and the film is based on Marie Brenner's 1996 Vanity Fair article 'The Man Who Knew Too Much.' 5. The Insider earned seven Academy Award nominations but was a box-office flop when it opened in 1999. 6. Abby calls it her favorite Michael Mann film, noting she first saw it during the pandemic, and says it was the only Mann film where she felt more than respect — 'oh, hell yeah, The Insider, I'll rewatch that.' 7. Cody and Harry both cite this as their third viewing, and Harry calls the film a masterpiece while noting one flaw he intends to discuss. 8. Harry argues the film is 'maybe Michael Mann's most angry and trenchant movie' about America being held hostage by corporate interests that have infiltrated and corrupted every institution meant to protect democracy. 9. A specific scene Harry highlights: FBI agents take Weigand's computer, and it later emerges at least one agent had a tobacco-company security job lined up — a detail that 'gets my blood fucking boiling.' 10. Jason identifies the tobacco CEO's sales-pitch scene as directly mirrored by Bergman's pitch to Weigand, making the film 'fundamentally about a man being manipulated from two different sides.' 11. Abby notes that of Mann's entire filmography she finds most of his work about 'a very specific idea of masculinity' she doesn't find compelling, but The Insider works for her because it's about journalism and uses 'arrestingly shot' compositions even within a conventional subject. 12. Harry compares Russell Crowe's performance to Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass — 'karmic opposites,' the same dweebish jangly paranoia, one deserved, one not. 13. Harry argues Weigand was going to stay silent until he was fired, that 'a big part of the reason why he ends up going with Lowell is because his ego is hurt,' and that he drinks and has anger problems — not a clean hero. 14. Cody describes the film as mapping Mann's technical style — trip-hop soundtrack, paranoid visual grammar — onto a scenario that is 'tense and kind of visually violent but quietly.' 15. Jason notes the film covers so many subplots (Unabomber, Hezbollah negotiations, Westinghouse merger) that each could carry a lesser film, yet all serve the central thesis. 16. The panel discusses how Mann gives both Weigand and Bergman the same 'horizon shot' — but for Weigand it's a desolate sea or his sad apartment looking at other workers, while for Bergman it's the opportunity of New York City. 17. The dossier scene is cited as a key achievement: the audience is momentarily convinced Weigand actually did whatever is alleged because the film has refused to make him simply sympathetic. 18. The episode's tone is conversational and discursive, with four hosts and a returning guest building on each other's points across nearly two hours; energy is enthusiastic without being reverential. 19. Listeners who enjoy detailed close-reading of prestige American films from the late-1990s and care about corporate power themes will find this useful. 20. Listeners who want a broad overview of Mann's career or prefer tighter episode formats may find the discussion sprawling.

As heard by us

A loose, sharp roundtable that makes *The Insider* feel both political and personal.

Try Love presents The Insider as a story about corporate power and the pressure that turns private doubt into public damage. The roundtable starts loose and funny, then settles into a crisp reading of the film, showing how the big tobacco fight can feel at once historical and…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For a smart, scrappy revisit of The Insider's corporate-pressure politics.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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