The Player

Movie Name: The Player
Year of Release: 1992
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Cynthia Stevenson, Brion James, Dean Stockwell, Richard E. Grant, Sydney Pollack, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lyle Lovett, Dina Merrill, Angela Hall, Leah Ayres
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review:

After the 80s, where he spent much of that decade recovering from the debacle which was his version of "Popeye", the 90s started off quite strongly for director Robert Altman in the form of "The Player". The film which premiered commercially and at the Cannes film festival in May of 1992, went on to achieve great critical success and was a comeback for the director, who quickly followed with the equally well received "Short Cuts". "The Player" which is based on the novel by Michael Tolkin, follows the story of Griffin Mill, a Hollywood Executive, responsible for hearing pitches from writers, and deciding on their quality, and their potential to actually move forward into development. His current job is being somewhat threatened by a new addition to the studio, the energetic and with dubious taste, Larry Levy. He's also receiving threatening postcards, which he attributes to a disgruntled writer whom he refused. He assumes that writer to be David Kahane, and following an attempt to offer him a job in the hopes of dissuading him to stop the death threats, that conversation goes nowhere and they get involved in a fight. The brawl sadly goes too far and Mill ends up killing Kahane. He tries to disguise the situation as a robbery, and quickly flees the scene. However the menacing postcards continue, and the police eventually trace the events back to him, wanting to know of his relationship with Kahane, and what happened that evening.

"The Player" is a satire focused on Hollywood, aiming to demonstrate how self centered and cold hearted  its universe actually is, particularly when it comes to its executives and key players. It's also a somewhat cynical view of how the dream factory that Hollywood is supposed to be, actually disguises an ego driven industry, where people literally get away with anything, including murder. The central character, the young and ambitious Hollywood executive, who knows just enough of film history to essentially get by and also green-light films, is a perfect embodiment of what the film sets out to criticize. Self absorption, somewhat unscrupulous, and without any vestiges of a conscience. As he briefly dabbles with paranoia due to the death threats, and then the murder of the wrong culprit, he conveniently sidesteps any moral niceties he may have had , and moves on with his life. It's a film that has its moments, and where the biting satire lives (and the numerous cameos are also an illustration of the vapidness of the industry), but also one where most of the characters are thinly characterized, where all these Hollywood archetypes don't actually gain much dimension (the always interesting Cynthia Stevenson and Whoopi Goldberg don't get much to do). The cast is uniformly solid, led by Tim Robbins, with great support from Fred Ward, Peter Gallagher, Cynthia Stevenson, Whoopi Goldberg, Dean Stockwell and Richard E. Grant. The score from Thomas Newman is impeccable, as is the production design from Stephen Altman and Geraldine Peroni. Entertaining and worth watching.