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

10/11/2023

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

♥♥♥

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.]

What do you think of The Player?

No comments:

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.

Roger Corman has passed away

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

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

10/11/2023

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

My Blog List