Two Tuesdays: The Player (1992)
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected, but which one? (R, 124 min.)
Showtimes
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
7:00 PM
Discover cinematic connections with Two Tuesdays—a curated film series pairing related movies on the last two Tuesdays of the month. This series is Free for Members.
April 23: Sunset Blvd. (1950)
April 30: The Player (1992)
A Hollywood studio executive with a shaky moral compass (Tim Robbins) finds himself caught up in a criminal situation that would be right at home in one of his movie projects, in this biting industry satire from Robert Altman. Mixing elements of film noir with sly insider comedy, The Player, based on a novel by Michael Tolkin, functions as both a nifty stylish murder story and a commentary on its own making, and it is stocked with a heroic supporting cast (Peter Gallagher, Whoopi Goldberg, Greta Scacchi, Dean Stockwell, Fred Ward) and a lineup of star cameos that make for an astonishing Hollywood who’s who. This complexly woven grand entertainment (which kicks off with one of American cinema’s most audacious and acclaimed opening shots) was the film that marked Altman’s triumphant commercial comeback in the early 1990s. [Criterion]
Starring: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward
Director: Robert Altman
Genre(s): Crime, Comedy, Drama
"The Player is a rare commodity. It's brilliant and a guilty pleasure."
— Desson Thomson, Washington Post
"Few Hollywood satires have come close to matching the brilliance of The Player."
— Caroline Westbrook, Empire Magazine
"Hilarious and deadly, this may be Altman's most completely realized film since his glory days in the '70s."
— David Ansen, Newsweek
"[Altman] sticks it to every target, himself and us included, with a wicked zest that hurts only when you laugh."
— Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"A movie about today's Hollywood -- hilarious and heartless in about equal measure, and often at the same time."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"A masterly distillation of Tinseltown foibles which also works as a compelling moral thriller and a commentary on the cult of celebrity."
— Neil Smith, BBC.com
"Mercilessly satiric yet good-natured, this enormously entertaining slam dunk quite possibly is the most resonant Hollywood saga since the days of Sunset Blvd. and The Bad and the Beautiful."
— Staff, Variety
"From its brilliant and sublime opening sequence to its self-reflexive ending, The Player distills everything that's wrong with the American film industry with the precision of someone who's been there."
— Steve Davis, Austin Chronicle
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