Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Player (1992)

10/11/2023

The Player (1992) - Altman's overrated Hollywood satire

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Film strip is fashioned in a noose across a glitzy Hollywood background on this neat poster for Robert Altman's The Player

A famed Hollywood studio executive receives death threats from an incensed screenwriter and meets him one night, but the meeting goes horrible wrong, - and then the question gnaws, if the writer at the meeting was indeed the person behind the threats?

The Player is written by Michael Tolkin (Deep Impact (1998)), adapting his own same-titled 1988 novel, and directed by Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (The Delinquents (1957)), whose 26th feature it was.

It is a cleverly constructed tongue-in-cheek satirical, cinephile's treat, which both loves cinema and Hollywood and hates it and displays the disconnect, cynicism and hollowness that's so rampant in Tinseltown.

Tim Robbins (Portlandia (2012, TV-series)) is good, but best here is Greta Scacchi (Palm Beach (2019)), Peter Gallagher (Palm Springs (2020)) as Robbins' studio opponent and Cynthia Stevenson (Scandal (2013, TV-series)) as his assistant, among a sea of celebrity cameos. The film is mildly entertaining, - and mostly for the Hollywood interested audience, - for others it may prove less fun or thrilling than one might hope. The Player is elegantly staged but, as the environment it portrays, a bit distant and safe, or perhaps simply overly well-behaved and padded.

Related posts:

Robert Altman: The Company (2003) - Campbell, Turner and Altman's fine ballet picture

Gosford Park (2001) - Smith triumphs in Altman & Fellowes' exquisite whodunit

Ready to Wear/Prêt-à-Porter (1994) - Paris fashion week through the Altman lens

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 28.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.6 times its cost)

[The Player premiered 3 April (Cleveland International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August 1991 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #16 to a 302k $ first weekend in 23 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #4 and in 452 theaters (different weeks), grossing 21.7 mil. $ (75.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, losing all. It lost Best Director to Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven, Editing also to Unforgiven, and Adapted Screenplay to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for Howards End. It also won 2/5 BAFTA nominations, 2 awards in Cannes, losing the Palme d'Or to The Best Intentions, was nominated for a César award, won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Altman returned with Short Cuts (1993). Robbins returned in Bob Roberts (1992); Scacchi in Desire (1992). The Player is certified fresh at 97 % with a 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/11/2023

The Player (1992) - Altman's overrated Hollywood satire

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