The Player

1992 Directed by Robert Altman

Everything you've heard is true!

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

Tim Robbins Greta Scacchi Fred Ward Whoopi Goldberg Peter Gallagher Brion James Cynthia Stevenson Vincent D'Onofrio Dean Stockwell Richard E. Grant Sydney Pollack Lyle Lovett Dina Merrill Angela Hall Randall Batinkoff Jeremy Piven Gina Gershon Michael Tolkin Steve Allen Richard Anderson René Auberjonois Harry Belafonte Karen Black Michael Bowen Gary Busey Robert Carradine Cher James Coburn John Cusack Show All…

Alternative Titles

I Protagonisti, 플레이어, O paiktis

thriller comedy drama crime

124 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★★ 12

The Player is a Hollywood satire which, as all great satire does, looks less like satire today than it did when it was made.
Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a big studio producer worried about being pushed out of the business by younger talent. He's been receiving death threats via postcards from a writer he snubbed at some indeterminate point in his career. When he thinks he's found a lead, he goes out to investigate and ends up killing a writer. He is forced to cover up his crime while maintaining his position at the studio and juggling his budding romance with—of all people—his victim's widow.
And for the most part, Griffin Mill is a pretty sympathetic guy. We all…
Review by BRAT ★★★★½ 4

hail caesar (2016) WISHES!!!!
Review by iana ★★★★ 4

i really should start checking if the film has nudity before i start watching it in the library and i look up from writing notes to see tim robbins with his dick out
Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★★ 6

Movies, Now More Than Ever!

This honestly might be my favorite fictional slogan. If I were to rename my podcast, it would probably be that.
Altman hates Hollywood and that’s never been clearer. He weaves this story together so well and makes you despise but root for your protagonist. And Tim Robbins plays the character perfectly. I would put this ahead of Shawshank as my favorite performance of his.
The cameos add a while additional layer to this film. They’re quite fun to spot but they serve a purpose, in giving you a sense of glamor that Tim Robbins is leading. (My absolute favorite is Buck Henry pitching The Graduate 2!)
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Never has a happy ending been so…
Review by Siegel™ ★★★★★ 6

-"Asshole"
-"He's one of a kind"
-"No, he's not actually. There's a whole bunch like him. They're breeding them over there."

Hollywood is a vile system that ostracizes talent, categorizes originality until it's perfectly unremarkable and indistinctive, and doesn't merely stifle creativity but runs it through the mud and obliterates any potential for innovation - both actively and intentionally as well as through its very foundational progresses. Altman, Hollywood's golden-boy-turned-outcast, the creative genius who himself was put through the ringer by the institutionalization of American filmmaking, hits back with a diabolically cynical and endlessly clever critique of Hollywood. With its every breathing moment the film screams an invigorating and empowering FUCK YOU to the establishment that acts as a black…
Review by Tylot Lantern ★★★★ 3

124 minutes of me doing the Pointing Rick Dalton meme.
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½ 2

Now, more than ever, they don’t make ’em like they used to.
Review by Jizzmonkey ★★★★★ 5

I loved this - except the casting was terrible, just a bunch of nobodies.
Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★★ 1

best part of that opening long shot has gotta be seeing Richard E. Grant's name come up in those credits, baby!!!
Review by George Clark ★★★★ 3

The Player is a 1992 American satirical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and stars Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James and Cynthia Stevenson. The film follows the story of a Hollywood studio executive who kills an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.
For this weeks Film Club Siegels picked 1992’s The Player, a film many of us had never seen and a film that was drastically different to both Tangled and Mommy that had come before. Having never heard of The Player let alone seen it, I had no idea how critical Robert Altman eye would turned out to be. That long opening shot featuring various conversations all building the context…
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★½

This satirical black comedy from Robert Altman is based on Michael Tolkin’s 1988 book and features compelling performances from all concerned. It concisely analyses the shiftlessness that has resulted in Hollywood manufacturing so many soulless productions, something which is even more pertinent now than ever before. It's a pointed harpooning of the Hollywood studio system, where executives aspire to manufacture movies consistent to what they believe audiences crave rather than what they genuinely want, and it's caustically hilarious.
Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★★ 7

It's nice to see a film that plays with the usual Hollywood tropes yet at the same time expose something rather truthful about the way the system works, and suddenly the in-joke being presented hits you. Robert Altman, a director who always was searching for a manner to go against the norms amidst the studio influence gives a clear picture of what harm it does to the most valuable thing behind what forms what we come to view; the visions. Amazingly, The Player chooses never to head into the territory where it would highly offend anyone working within the business, but there's a uniqueness to the satire we're finding here that just allows it to stand out from other films…

Recent reviews

Review by Anna Nappi ★★★½

this story fits altman’s style so perfectly, it’s the ideal meta dramedy satire for his dry hangout conversational tone and specific brand of sound design & camerawork. everything that interests and bores me in one. tim robbins is TALL
Review by Matthewinuk1 ★★★★

A fantastic film, expertly made by Robert Atman with a cast to end all casts!
Review by asup

Замечательно передает атмосферу (даже если было не так, я не знаю) америки на стыке 80х-90х. Вообще всем, цветами, съемкой, шрифтом и т.п.
Даже если не брать во внимание всякие там референсы, добротный и интересный триллер + смешная комедия.
Review by DT Kersten ★★★★★

Outside of The Long Goodbye, I'm a pretty big Altman denier. But the magnetism of this movie ooooooozes from the screen. I started it far too late and still stayed up to finish. KP came to collect me at about 4am, to which I asked for another 15 mins to finish. Excellent movie.
Review by cranbasketball

*I proceed to go to tvtropes to educate myself and falsely brag that I understood exactly what this film pulled*
The way Robert Altman uses close-ups and dramatic zooms ins in some of the films most unnerving and tension collision filled moments is something to behold. And Thomas Newman's trible minimalist score is another great addition to his masterwork of composing.
Review by Gerry Hartman ★★★½

very fun! learning between this and Dr T & the Women that Altman knows how to have fun! also Tim Robbins is so tall it’s almost eerie in the wide shots
Review by yon_rogg ★★½

Another movie in which, in their one scene together, John Cusack treats Tim Robbins with utter disdain.
Review by anna 🧙‍♀️ ★★★★

i never had more fun seeing old celebrities. the lily tomlin cameo *mwah*. her angrily drawing a cigarette in a turquoise silk robe, what more could i ask for?!! but the best one has to be peter falk. what was he writing in his tiny notebook with his fedora!!!!!
Review by tombgins ★★★★

a many star
Review by bear_parker ★★★★

I'm not usually a big Altman fan. But it was easy for me to see the confidence and brilliance of this one. The dialogue in particular is so snappy.
I found the deluge of stars in this to be a little much… and they're not really doing a whole lot; they're more just background. I mean, throw in Andie MacDowell so the Robbins character can say: "Oh, I just bumped into Malcom McDowell." A little corny. I mean, Cher is in this — and they couldn't give her something fun to say? I don't think any of the celebrity cameos had any good lines?
I was ready to just give 3 stars, but the climax of this is fantastic.
My faves in this were Richard E. Grant and Whoopi. And Tim Robbins is so dorky-cute and low-key sexy that I couldn't help but like his character regardless.
Review by Steve II ★★★★

Terrific. This is the kind of film I'd want to introduce a friend to "good" film with.
Review by jmall5 ★★★★

Traffic was a bitch....