{"id":1988,"date":"2020-08-11T15:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T21:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2020-06-26T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T03:52:08","slug":"movie-the-player-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/11\/movie-the-player-1992\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: The Player (1992)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheThe Player
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1992
\nRating: R
\nLength: 124 minutes \/ 2.07 hours<\/p>\n

Those who are aware of Robert Altman\u2019s other films are sure to recognize the themes that permeated his oeuvre. He always seemed to find a way to satirize something in a way that underscored how broken the system is. From the military in M*A*S*H<\/em> (1970) to the music industry in Nashville<\/em> (1975), Altman had a keen eye to bring the ridiculous nature of these anthropological machines into the spotlight. Clearly, his time in the movie industry helped him adapt Michael Tolkin\u2019s novel into The Player<\/em> (1992). In a weird and meta way, nothing has changed since its early-90\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re playing the \u201c6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon<\/a>\u201d game at home, this film is literally a \u201cwho\u2019s who\u201d of actors and movie personalities (many of whom appear \u201cas themselves\u201d). Unfortunately, this film does suffer from its early-90\u2019s aesthetic, often highlighting how far we\u2019ve come in terms of fashion and technology in nearly three decades. Weirdly enough, though, many of the pitches for movies given in this film are exactly how I imagine these kinds of projects get made, even today. There\u2019s almost a timeless quality to how Hollywood works, and it\u2019s on full display here.<\/p>\n

Of course, the satire here is that Hollywood is an industry. Films will often start as good ideas, but are crammed into the mold of the \u201csuccessful\u201d formula to ensure the studio gets the most bang for its buck. Initially, I felt that The Player<\/em> was a so-so story with an almost absurd murder mystery running alongside the usual Hollywood hustle and bustle. Then I got to the end. It\u2019s stunning how a movie about making movies by cramming them into boxes for maximum audience returns also seems to abide by these same rules, thus making it look much more \u201cwoke\u201d when the twist at the end hits.<\/p>\n

An incredibly meta examination of the Hollywood formula, I give The Player<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Player Year: 1992 Rating: R Length: 124 minutes \/ 2.07 hours Those who are aware of Robert Altman\u2019s other films are sure to recognize the themes that permeated his oeuvre. He always seemed to find a way to satirize something in a way that underscored how broken the system is. From the military in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,2],"tags":[2229,2225,1252,404,1413,13,8,2227,2228,2226],"class_list":["post-1988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21","category-4-0-stars","category-movie","tag-1990s","tag-2225","tag-formulaic","tag-hollywood","tag-meta","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-robert-altman","tag-the-player","tag-tim-robbins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1994,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}