The Player(1992). Directed by Robert Altman, Starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Peter Gallagher, Vincent D'Onofrio and dozens of Hollywood stars in small/cameo roles
Robbins stars as Griffin Mill, a slimeball executive at a fictional Hollywood studio who's worried that an equally slimy up-and-comer(Gallagher) is angling for his job. To make matters worse, for weeks he's been receiving death threats via mail, presumably from a spurned screenwriter. But which one? There are thousands of writers to whom he's given the cold shoulder over the years. The studio's security chief(Ward) seems more interested in playing a Hollywood version of himself and talking about old movies that his father worked on than in doing his actual job. This, combined with the fact that Mills doesn't want to appear skittish to his boss during a moment of vulnerability, causes him to keep it a secret from everyone but his loyal secretary. Late one afternoon, having reached his breaking point, Mills searches back through months worth of pitch meetings until he believes he's identified the writer in question, David Kahane(D'Onofrio). That night Mills goes to to see him in the hope they can bury the hatchet. Kahane is as volatile as the letters suggest, but maintains that he didn't write them and spurns Mills' offer of employment....
The Player is darkly funny satire of Hollywood and the people in it. All of the actors give excellent performances, although none rise to the level all-time great. The film starts with a famous, nearly 8-minute long unedited shot. The script, adapted from his novel of the same name by Michael Tolkin, balances humour, tension and intrigue expertly and manages to keep different plot threads together without overwhelming the viewer. At no point is the viewer left with too many unknown questions, and at no point do we understand enough of the myriad characters to be sure of their motives or loyalties. In a town that markets illusion, everyone is an actor.
If I had to give this a numeric rating, I'd say 9/10. Even if you have no interest in the inner workings of Hollywood, there's still something in The Player that you'll enjoy, even if you don't understand the old movie references or recognize all the cameos and supporting actors(one of the highlights is Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett, who together play one of the quirkiest detective duos in movie history). For me it's a perfect 10, but movies about making movies is one of my favourite sub-genres, and it was directed by Robert Altman, so in a way it's as though this film was created specifically for me. If you like film noir(classic or modern), you'll love The Player. If you used to watch Entourage and thought "Boy I'm tired of Vince and the gang, but I love Ari and his various studio plots", you should definitely watch it(a very young Jeremy Piven has a small role).
A couple of warnings: The Player has some nudity, sex, profanity and violence. Though it's certainly nothing that an adult would consider excessive, it definitely isn't appropriate for children. My parents probably would have let me watch it at 14. If you've watched a bunch of Coen brothers movies, any teenager whom you feel is ready for the majority of their work is certainly ready for The Player.
The other warning is that the sound editing can be a little difficult for some people to follow, including me. If you've ever seen a Robert Altman movie before (MASH, The Long Goodbye, McCabe & Mrs. Miller) you'll know what to expect. If not, the sound editing is often done in such a way as to give the viewer the impression that they're in a room with multiple parallel conversations and they're trying to focus on one. This is often done in parallel with zooms. So there will be an establishing shot with a conversation happening in the foreground, which you'll hear at first, then the camera zooms past to focus on the main characters' conversation. As this happens the foreground conversation will fade out and the main dialogue will have it's volume increased. That being said, there's often something in the background so if you're like me and have difficulty separating out extraneous sounds when having a conversation, you'll probably want to watch The Player alone the first time so you can rewind a few seconds and catch the dialogue you missed.
People might be put off by the late 80's/early 90's wardrobe. If you watch the trailer keep in mind that all trailers were like that in the early 90's and that in three decades everyone will look back on trailers from our day and wonder why everyone seemed to ape Zero Dark Thirty.
I'll probably rent it again over the next week though. Yeah, I don't remember finding it difficult (or any of Lynch's movies for that matter). Excited to watch it. Might try to catch Roma tonight though.
