The Player

When a director makes a movie about the movie industry, there's a big chance the result is going to be a little icky. And The Player is a great example. Even when this little microcosmos is presented as a sleazy and backhanded industry, it ends up feeling like an attempt to make it more interesting than it truly is.

Griffin Mill is a typical Hollywood executive. He is dishonest and can talk his way out of any situation. Things get tricky when he starts getting postcards that threaten his well-being. He suspects it's one of the writers that he turned down recently, but he can't seem to figure out which one it might be.

The tone is light, but the comedy feels unearned. There's a love for classic cinema here that I don't share, there are a whole lot of B-actors with questionable performances and the plot didn't really interest me. I know cinephilia just loves films like these, but they rarely seem to work for me.