Robert Altman’s The Player wants its audience to ask, "Does Hollywood have anything new to offer?" This dark satire gives the ultimate marketing machine a gratifying kick in the groin. The pleasure comes from a biting wit and self-reflective gaze married with a who’s-who stable of stars. From the opening clapboard and introspective 8-minute tracking shot, this fast-paced movie about movies blends elitism and corruption with its success and inevitable failure.
Suave and temperamentally cool, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a hand-shaking L.A. film studio deal maker. But his decadent world of swimming pools, power lunches, and weekends at the desert spa goes horribly wrong. Not only is he in danger of being replaced by the latest executive hotshot, but when he starts getting hate mail, he is driven to a desperate act.
Satirical dialogue, a hilariously black plot and a sassy smash at the industrial nation of entertainment are true charmers for this flick. As in Altman’s Short Cuts, one could spend half the film pointing out celebrities, from Whoopi Goldberg’s wickedly in-your-face cop to Buck Henry pitching the sequel to The Graduate. Everyone who’s anyone queued up to be in this picture, and none escaped the self-mocking humour. With over fifty cameos including Lily Tomlin, Burt Reynolds, Jeff Goldblum and Angelica Huston, it can be difficult to discern who is actually playing a part or playing himself.
Michael Tolkin adapted his novel of the same name for the screen, sharpening the perfect irony of the studio-exec-writer hierarchy. Jean Lepine’s camerawork sets off the picture-perfect world, magnificently bringing Hollywood glamour to a utilitarian level.
Whether you’re an Altman fan or just love movies, The Player is an excellent sardonic springboard into the perils of showbiz.
