Part 90s neo-noir, part savage Hollywood satire, Robert Altman's The Player has a lot of fun with its material, especially on a meta-textual level. We have characters talking about long tracking shots while a long tracking shot is underway. We have dozens of big star cameos doing Altman a solid, mixing with recognizable faces playing even small roles. We have the story itself being one of the pitches heard during the film, daring you to decide where it was, itself, manipulated at the studio level. Lingering shots on movie posters that comment on the action. Everyone pushing for realistic endings (and tell me if the way this crazy story is resolved isn't actually realistic). It's a film about film-making (as a product? as art? dramatic ironies are well conceived) that knows, but hides, that it is itself a film (product? art?). I wonder how much of the producers' cynicism is based on Altman's real-life experiences in Hollywood. Probably 100%.

Fantastic movie. Witty and original satire of Hollywood. Metafictional elements are perfectly integrated into the film.

So many cameos! Brilliant film, manages to be thoroughly original despite being one great big satire. I particularly enjoyed Richard E. Grant.