Seth Rogen’s new comedy collection would possibly really feel recent, but it surely’s not precisely unique. The Studio, which is streaming on Apple TV+, follows a fictional studio government as he meets with real-life actors in a present with the principle goal of satirizing Hollywood. The Studio is just not the primary present or film to do that, as The Participant had a near-identical premise however with a plot that makes it far more like a thriller than a comedy. The Studio even makes at the least one reference to the movie.
The Participant was based mostly on successful e-book and acquired vital acclaim when it got here out, with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie may need gone underneath a couple of folks’s radars because it was distributed by a small studio that was absorbed by Warner Bros. Nonetheless, it is now streaming on Max, and it is price trying out.
The Participant
- Launch Date
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April 3, 1992
- Runtime
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124 minutes
- Director
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Robert Altman
‘The Participant’ Is Hollywood Satire With a Thrilling Twist
In The Participant, Tim Robbins performs a studio government named Griffin Mill. He listens to pitches from screenwriters and decides what movies to supply. He is relationship a narrative editor at his workplace, and life nearly appears high quality for him. Nonetheless, as a brand new government begins making a reputation for himself at Griffin’s studio, Griffin additionally begins receiving threatening notes, which he assumes are from a screenwriter he rejected.
The setting of The Participant is supposed to be a satirical model of Hollywood, but it surely’s not just for film buffs and folks within the business. The plot is extra akin to a basic thriller, as Griffin tries to seek out the particular person sending him threatening notes whereas making an attempt to keep away from the police. Whereas doing this, Griffin additionally will get caught up in new romances and government antics as he tries to sabotage the brand new government. It ought to be no shock that Robert Altman directed The Participant, because it’s proper up his road to make satirical thrillers like M*A*S*H and The Lengthy Goodbye.
Being set in Hollywood, The Participant naturally options some cameos from massive names on the time. On the very starting, Griffin Mill meets with Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate, who needs to pitch his concept for a sequel in one of many movie’s most memorable scenes. Not all of the cameos get that a lot consideration, although the ending has some actually improbable ones. Among the actors who make appearances embrace Cher, Jeff Goldblum, Burt Reynolds, Harry Belafonte, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Andie MacDowell, John Cusack, Elliott Gould, and extra.
The Participant was well-received when it was launched. The movie received two Golden Globes: one for being the very best comedy of the 12 months and the opposite for Tim Robbins’ efficiency. The 2 most well-known critics on the time, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, additionally gave the movie glowing critiques, with every critic score the movie 4 out of 4 stars. In his evaluation, Ebert praised the humor and Altman’s directing, writing that The Participant is “hilarious and heartless in about equal measure, and infrequently on the identical time.”
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‘The Studio’ is a genuinely humorous and brilliantly directed TV present, one of many few tasks that tries to be intelligent and is.
‘The Studio’ Has at Least One Reference to ‘The Participant’
Though The Studio remains to be going, The Studio and The Participant have already got fairly a bit in widespread. They each satirize the lives of Hollywood studio executives. They each function many cameos from well-known actors, and a few faux movies. Nonetheless, there are additionally extra obtrusive similarities that simply cannot be ignored.
For starters, one of many characters in The Studio really shares a reputation with the principle character of The Participant. Bryan Cranston performs Griffin Mill in The Studio. It is not explicitly clear that they are alleged to be the identical character, as Cranston would not seem like Tim Robbins and would not work on the identical studio as Griffin Mill in The Participant. It may simply be a joke from the writers of The Studio.
There’s nearly no approach the creators of The Studio weren’t impressed by The Participant, at the least a bit of. The principle poster for The Participant iconically has a movie reel formed right into a noose. One of many posters for The Studio has Seth Rogen climbing a movie reel prefer it’s a ladder, nearly as if it is an homage to The Participant.
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It is the very last thing you’d anticipate.
The filming types of The Participant and The Studio are comparable as nicely. The Studio tries to copy a basic Hollywood, shot-on-film search for its visuals, which seems to be quite a bit like The Participant. The second episode of The Studio can also be made to seem like it was filmed in a single shot. Whereas The Participant is just not the one movie to do an extended and tedious one-shot scene, its opening has an iconic eight-minute crane shot that would have impressed that episode of The Studio.
How To Watch ‘The Participant’
Fortunately, The Participant is offered to observe in a couple of locations. The film is offered on Max with a subscription to the streaming service (ad-supported or premium). The Participant will also be watched with a subscription to the Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel’s model has numerous particular options like commentary and deleted scenes, and there is a Blu-ray for it as nicely. For individuals who do not have subscriptions to both of these providers, The Participant is offered to hire or purchase on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Dwelling.
The Studio is streaming completely on Apple TV+, which requires a subscription. New episodes launch weekly on Wednesdays, going all the best way to Might 21. Viewers ought to tune in to see if there are any extra references to The Participant, and to expertise comedy concentrating on a extra fashionable Hollywood. In any case, The Participant is about 30 years in the past, and flicks have modified fairly quickly.