Word: altmans
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Robert Altman's The Player has the razorsharp quality of a grudge long nursed by lucid bitterness. Adapted by Michael Tolkin from his own book, the film plays like every screenwriter's revenge fantasy. With strychnine-laced, on-target humor, Altman's movie dissects Hollywood as if it were a corpse that hasn't quite died...
From the gloriously insolent eight-minute tracking shot that opens the movie, Altman established a sardonic, Multi-layered texture. Replete with inside jokes, the film is so sure handed and exquisitely paced that Altman's audacity takes the audience's breath away. Moving from icy satire to sleek thriller to offbeat love story to behind-the-scenes expose, Altman has made Sunset Boulevard's 92's offspring...
...Altman has assembled a dream cast to flesh out his ironic panoply. Besides Tim Robbins, the movie is blessed with the presence of Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Richard E. Grant (in a hilarious virtuoso turn as a writer) and Lyle Lovett (in his film debut...
...Altman manages to draw amazing performances from his cast. Robbins undergoes a striking transformation. From the running-scared and pudgy-faced individual we encounter at the beginning of the film, Mill develops into a confident winner, a killer who is the ultimate Player. It's a great, charismatic performance which the gangly Robbins carries off with the assurance of a Gary Cooper...
...addition to Robbins' splendid portrayal as Mill, Altman scores a coup by getting nearly one hundred stars (with names like Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Cher, Nick Nolte and Angelica Huston) to act in his movie for scale pay (which was in turn donated to charity). It speaks well of Altman's prestige among actors...