THE PLAYER

Maybe it's because I love when Hollywood makes fun of itself. Maybe it's because I straight up hate Hollywood. Maybe it's because I love when a movie can beautifully balance two different concepts (such as satire and thrills). Maybe it's because I love how Robert Altman moves a camera and how he gets eerily natural performances out of every one of his actors. Whatever the reason was, I loved every second of THE PLAYER.

From it's opening scene, a five-minute long single shot taking place in a film studio parking lot feauting different groups of people talking about movie related things (including, most hilariously, a conversation involving how Hollywood is succumbing to too many quickly edited scenes). The mood is set from there on in, a party of a movie with brains and brawn, enough to take on the film industry with many of its most famous actors poking fun. Cameo after cameo roll in and out of the film, and it is no surprise, considering how well Altman works with his actors.

Tim Robbins is Griffin Mill, a mid-level studio executive living the dream, for the most part, in Hollywood. He has a loving wife and everyone knows him. He begins receiving threatening postcards however, from what he believes is a disgruntled writer he turned down. The writer is David Kahane, played by a young Vincent D'onofrio (now enjoying his own Hollywood fame in LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT). It isn't long though before things escalate, Mill freaks, and kills Kahane. The kicker: it's the wrong guy.

This is where things get really juicy. Robbins is great as a man who is unraveling but can't show it. Hollywood is a town that says 'we love you, but what have you done for me lately?' Griffin has little on the table, and if anyone finds out that he's a murderer to boot, he's done.

Meanwhile, Hollywood is running along as usual. A dead writer is ninth page news, which says something about the town. Maybe it is because he is never been mainstream, but was always able to work with the best in Hollywood that Robert Altman was the best man to direct this satire. It bites, and bites hard. The stars lined up for it too, with more than 100 cameo roles coming and going. It is a great filjm about film, a satire of the sometimes absurdity of Hollywood, and an absorbing thriller.

A+