Review of The Player (1992) by Vj B — 03 Apr 2008

I love movies, you know. I love sitting down to watch a movie expecting it to be great and realizing that it actually is great. I believe our society is 99% mediocre. I am not sure that I was given any particular talent to stand out except for one - to appreciate the work of those who do stand out.

It inspires me to watch a truly great film - perfect from the beginning to the end, from the idea to the execution, from the images to the underlying meaning. Too bad that the inspiration is wasted since I don't actually go and create something worthy of inspiring someone else.

I take it in and leave it there. Now, Robert Altman, the genius who directed this film, was a great artist and he loved movies. There are great artists out there who make movies who don't really love the medium.

Their movies are strong but not inspired. Altman's movies though are refreshingly alive and perfect. He takes stories and puts them on film and it always works. I don't care that some critics find several of his movies to be failures.

In some conventional sense they are, but who cares about conventions. Every movie I have seen by Altman, and I have seen many, leave me enlightened. This movie, The Player, is no exception. In fact, it is one of the best of Altman's films and certainly one of my favorite.

It is about Hollywood but it is not a Hollywood movie. In some ways it is a satire but not a mean-spirited one. The main character says, "Can we talk about something other than Hollywood for a change? We're educated people.

", then laughs. Who wants to talk about anything but Hollywood when you are in Hollywood? I wouldn't. Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie, you owe it to yourself. (Gosh, I hate that phrase.

).