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THE PLAYER
January 28, 2017  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 9:45 p.m. ET

 

Tune in early for tonight’s TCM showing of this 1992 Robert Altman film, because you don’t want to miss the lengthy, involved opening tracking shot. It’s one of many, many inside jokes served up to film buffs in this very knowing satire of Hollywood. Tim Robbins plays a studio executive who keeps getting threatening notes from a writer whose work he’s rejected. The cast includes Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, and so, so many great cameos, starting with Karen Black, Cher, James Coburn, John Cusack, Gary Busey, Peter Falk, Dennis Franz, Teri Garr, Louise Fletcher, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Anjelica Huston, Buck Henry, Jack Lemmon and Malcolm McDowell. They’re all playing sly, often unflattering versions of themselves, long before Larry David perfected the art in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Listen closely, during the opening sequence, for Buck Henry pitching the sequel to a movie he co-scripted back in the 1960s – The Graduate.

 
 
 
 
 
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