THE PLAYER Retrospective

With an eight-minute tracking shot setting the stage for a movie within a movie, Robert Altman’s satire of the Hollywood studio machine is as sharp today as it was 25 years ago. Tim Robbins stars as Griffin Mill, a stereotypical studio suit whose life is turned upside down when he starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer. Unfortunately for Griffin, his confrontation with the man he believes to be the culprit ends in murder. Will he get away with it and have a happy ending? This is Hollywood, after all. THE PLAYER’s skewering of Western civilization and our obsession with greed, using Hollywood as a microcosm, is as relevant today as it was in 1992. – Jenn Murphy