The life of a young successful executive writer, Griffin, who has a good life, has been changed completely, when faces the blackmail and challenge of an aspiring screenwriter who seeks to take his position.
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.
Altman knew Hollywood, but The Player casts a much wider net by allowing the movie industry to stand in for the shark-eat-shark nature of modern business in general
In "The Player," Altman creates a scathing satire of Hollywood - and then lets his satire itself gets seduced by Hollywood schmaltz. Because what better way to show how seductive it is?
Mr. Altman's most subversive message here is not that it's possible to get away with murder in Hollywood, but that the most grievous sin, in Hollywood terms anyway, is to make a film that flops.
Rolling Stone
June 06, 2001
[Altman] sticks it to every target, himself and us included, with a wicked zest that hurts only when you laugh.
CraveOnline
June 03, 2016
Altman was making a sour, salient, cynical, and passionate point about how artistry and edge had been drained from Hollywood. By 1992, the suits were in charge.
The Player, which Altman made after years of struggle, with all Hollywood fascination worn away, is Altman's dour version of Dante's Inferno. His satire forces us to realize the obscenity of Clinton-era corruption - once again.