The Player

The Player is Altman at his most outwardly meta. The satire here is delivered in the most delicious ways. The opening shot being 8 minutes and containing characters discussing movies with a 6 minute opening shot, Habeus Corpus’s pitch versus the final product, and the beautiful ending are all incredible examples of this film slapping you in this face with its satire. Tim Robbin’s is incredible to watch transform entirely over the films runtime. This is the most Hitchcockian I’ve seen Altman. His wandering camera feels more succinct than his other films and it works to keep that gripping tension until the very end.