What' are your favorite behind the scene stories on film?

October 21, 2011 9:02 AM

What are your favorite "insider" movies?

I'm looking for non-documentary films that tell a behind the scenes story. Must be told with intelligence. Often from a viewpoint laced with cynicism. Wit is a bonus, but not required. Sometimes these stories are funny, but tragic ones welcome as well.

But no "heartwarmers" here please. I suppose "Sea Biscuit" is an insider story (and it's a movie I REALLY like in other contexts) but has too much of a rosy glow to satisfy this itch.

Looking for true stories, though they may be somewhat fictionalized with names/details changed to protect the guilty and to heighten dramatic interest. Stories from the worlds of press, politics/government, business, entertainment, tech or other interesting arenas that I failed to consider.

Examples of what I'm looking for:

The Social Network (inside view of the creation of Facebook)
The Insider (whistle blowing at RJR and CBS's role in the story)
Recount (the mad scramble to win the unsettled 2000 election)
Late Shift (backstabbing in the Leno-Letterman Tonight Show war)
All the Presidents Men (getting the scoop on Watergate)
Primary Colors (fictionalized story of Clinton's first run for the White House)
Shattered Glass (havoc at the New Republic when a young reporter turns out to be a fake)

posted by marsha56 to media & arts (47 answers total)

The Informant! is a great example of an up-and-coming executive who may or may not be trying to sabotage his company for personal gains. He also may or may not be completely insane.
posted by Yowser at 9:04 AM on October 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

I absolutely love Wag the Dog. With the exception that it's purely fictional, I think it fits what you're looking for to a T.
posted by phunniemee at 9:06 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

In the Loop is hilarious.
posted by oneironaut at 9:12 AM on October 21, 2011 [12 favorites]

Apollo 13, despite the "heartwarming" finish.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:12 AM on October 21, 2011

Seconding The Informant, particular as it relates to the trials and tribulations of managing a snitch if you're an FBI agent (played by Scott Bakula, who was about as perfect an FBI agent as there ever was, if you've ever known one IRL).
posted by jquinby at 9:15 AM on October 21, 2011

I suppose "Sea Biscuit" is an insider story (and it's a movie I REALLY like in other contexts) but has too much of a rosy glow to satisfy this itch.
In that case, you might really like "Phar Lap." Pretty gritty story of an Austrailian racer in the late 1920s and early 30s. No rosy-glow ending to that one.
posted by Dolley at 9:15 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Charlie Wilson's War" covers 3 main characters, a Texas Congressman with a bad reputation, a Texas socialite, and a CIA Spook, who together orchestrated and funded arms for the Afghan resistance against the Soviet invasion, as well as supporting refugees in Pakistan. Also an excellent book. If the book was based on fact, the movie was only trivially fictionalized. Without overdoing it, these are also the events that set up a great portion of our current relationship with Pakistan (recent episode notwithstanding), and fertilized the grounds for the Taliban takeover.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:15 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ning Ying's On The Beat (民警故事) - docu-drama (lots of non-professional actors) following Beijing's finest as they patrol the back-alleys of a city undergoing epochal change, lots of unforced comedy from the situations too.
posted by Abiezer at 9:15 AM on October 21, 2011

Oh - Good Night and Good Luck, which depicts the takedown of Joe McCarthy by Edward R. Murrow.
posted by jquinby at 9:16 AM on October 21, 2011

The usual name for this overall genre is "docudrama," although you are talking about a particular subset of those films. The Wikipedia page about it has a list. Along the lines of The Late Shift, Pirates of Silicon Valley is about Jobs and Gates among others in the early days of Apple and Microsoft.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:20 AM on October 21, 2011

Have you seen Hollywoodland? It's not for all tastes but it could be right up your alley.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:21 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

The movie The TV Set is a fictional narrative, but the director has said that it's an accurate collage of the experiences he and his friends have had working in television, and it does indeed come across as an insider trying to show why TV programs often turn from brilliant concepts to terrible dreck.
posted by Greg Nog at 9:22 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Quiz Show," Robert Redford-directed movie about a 1950's game show which scandalously cheated in order to provide a more telegenic winner for their viewers (and sponsors).

And along those lines, but only half what you're looking for, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," the autobiopic of Chuck Barris, with some true insidery bits of his life as the host of The Gong Show and The Dating Game, in addition to a dramatisation of his autobio's claims that he was a CIA assassin the whole time. (It's taken for granted that this was a steaming pile that he added to his book to make his life more interesting, but the movie is set as though it's pure reality.) Directed by either George Clooney or his obvious directing mentor, Steven Soderburgh. Sam Rockwell as Barris.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:22 AM on October 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

Frost/Nixon is pretty good.
posted by logicpunk at 9:26 AM on October 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

Moneyball
Too Big to Fail (the HBO movie based Aaron Sorkin's book about the financial crisis)
posted by mullacc at 9:28 AM on October 21, 2011

I mean Andrew Sorkin, the journalist. Not Aaron Sorkin the screenwriter.
posted by mullacc at 9:29 AM on October 21, 2011

Man on the Moon (an Andy Kaufman biopic) has a lot of "here's what really went on" moments. Definitely not heart warming.
posted by The Deej at 9:31 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Boiler Room is a sleeper about telemarketing. Vin Deisel not beating anyone up and Giovanni Ribisi.

Might also recommend David Mamet's films House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner about con men/confidence scams.
posted by elendil71 at 9:32 AM on October 21, 2011

Some other finance-related movies:
Barbarians at the Gate (about the takeover of RJR Nabisco)
Rogue Trader (about Nick Leeson, whose trading caused the failure of Barings Bank)
posted by mullacc at 9:36 AM on October 21, 2011

Whistleblower is based on a non-fiction book about human trafficking as witnessed by an out of work uS cop who went to the former Yugoslavia to be a UN peacekeeper. It's one of the least rosy, most eye-opening things I've seen in a while.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 9:47 AM on October 21, 2011

Living in Oblivion---a film about filmaking---with what was believed to be a send up of Brad Pitt.
posted by vitabellosi at 9:50 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

What Just Happened -- directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robert De Niro, Catherine Keener, Bruce Willis, Robin Wright, Stanley Tucci, etc -- is hands down the best representation of what it's really like to work as an executive in the film industry. It got SCATHING reviews, but those of us who have lived this life know that it's spot on.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:57 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

From Wikipedia, Rendition "is a 2007 drama film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri."

Great movie.
posted by losvedir at 10:04 AM on October 21, 2011

Seconding Living in Oblivion. Adding The Player.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:15 AM on October 21, 2011 [4 favorites]

There was a film version of the novel House of God that is very hard to find but if you can it is a deeply cynical look at the workings of a major teaching hospital. I have not seen it myself but other physicians who have said it was pretty accurate, and the book it is based on is a bit of a legend in the medical community.
posted by TedW at 10:32 AM on October 21, 2011

Second Moneyball-- I could give a fig about baseball, but the characters drew me in and the story of this new sort of teambuilding they tried, especially as it was contrasted with the career history of the protagonist, was kind of enthralling.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:52 AM on October 21, 2011

Network. When it was written, Paddy Chayefsky tried to make it ridiculously extreme. But when we watch it now, it's rather terrifying how reality has gone even beyond what he described.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:53 AM on October 21, 2011

Another like that is S.O.B.

Neither is directly documentary, but both are from insiders who are satirizing what they see going on behind the scenes, so they are "truthy" though not literally true.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:58 AM on October 21, 2011

The Paper.
posted by koucha at 11:10 AM on October 21, 2011

One more, though it might be a stretch. It came up in another recent Ask thread about spy stories, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (once made as a BBC miniseries, and about to be released as a movie starring Gary Oldman) is considered to be a pretty accurate look at life behind the scenes at British intelligence during the Kim Philby period.
posted by jquinby at 11:12 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seconding The TV Set. As a TV writer who's done pilots, it made me want to lie down and weep, while simultaneously being very funny.
posted by OolooKitty at 11:18 AM on October 21, 2011

Silkwood.
posted by coolguymichael at 11:36 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Devil Wears Prada.
posted by Melismata at 12:23 PM on October 21, 2011

From The Earth To The Moon is brilliant, it's about the whole apollo program, produced by Tom Hanks after he made Apollo 13. It actually convinced a friend of mine of pursuing an engineering degree. My favorite episode is Spider, about the evolution of the lunar module.
posted by palbo at 12:28 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thank You for Smoking.
posted by litnerd at 12:46 PM on October 21, 2011

Sneakers. Perfect movie. So is Broadcast News.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:34 PM on October 21, 2011

The Right Stuff. (1983) How the Mercury 7 Astronauts came to be. (youtube)
I also really like how the story starts - "There was a demon that lived in the air"
posted by -harlequin- at 3:14 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

City of God is a personal favorite.
posted by Sphinx at 4:15 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Syriana actually got rather mixed reviews primarily because its portrayal of the oil/war/terrorism/espionage nexus was so true-to-life (i.e., incredibly convoluted and confusing).
posted by Rhaomi at 9:59 PM on October 21, 2011

The Wrestler is a drama directed in a documentary style about a professional WWE-style wrestler. An awesome, awesome film.
posted by lovedbymarylane at 3:18 AM on October 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Breach which is about one the biggest security leaks in the history of the US. Not brilliant, but Chris Cooper is stellar.

In the same vein, but more fictionalised, is The Good Sheperd which loosely follows the inception of the CIA.
posted by slimepuppy at 12:47 PM on October 23, 2011

24 Hour Party People - comedic story of Manchester music scene in the 80s/early 90s with emphasis on the Hacienda & Factory Records.
posted by screamingnotlaughing at 2:46 PM on October 23, 2011

Fair Game (about the Valerie Plame fiasco) is probably the best film I've seen in the last couple of years.
posted by peacay at 11:09 PM on October 23, 2011

The Player and The Paper are two of my all-time favorite movies, but I came to say Conan O'Brien Can't Stop.
posted by kostia at 9:21 AM on October 24, 2011

sigh, I missed the "non-" before "documentary." Still think you'd like it.
posted by kostia at 9:21 AM on October 24, 2011

Seconding In the Loop. An obscenity-laced, pee-your-pants funny glimpse inside political machinations.
posted by Jezebella at 5:02 PM on October 24, 2011

The World's Fastest Indian. Touching and funny movie about a regular guy from the wops of New Zealand who built his own bike, financed his own trips abroad to break a world speed record in the 1950s. Anthony Hopkins in the lead role is incredible, as always.
posted by hootenatty at 7:11 PM on October 25, 2011