State & Main (2001)

Pity the poor film director (William H. Macy). He's arrived with cast and crew in the perfectly Rockwellian town of Waterford, Vermont, only to discover that the local mill--a crucial location for his movie, since it's titled "The Old Mill"--burned down in 1960. The idealistic screenwriter (Philip Seymour Hoffman) would rather pursue a pure-hearted local (Rebecca Pidgeon) than do a last-minute rewrite; the town's aspiring politico (Clark Gregg) wants to milk the production for every dime it's worth; the oft-exposed bimbo starlet (Sarah Jessica Parker) is now balking at her contractual nude scene; and a local teenager (Julia Stiles) is only too willing to exploit the indiscretions of the film's skirt-chasing star (Alec Baldwin). And of course, the power-wielding producer (David Paymer) is panicking about everything.

Welcome to David Mamet's State and Main, the acclaimed writer-director's funniest and most accessible film to date, propelled by the rocket fuel of Mamet's show-biz experience and driven by an ensemble cast that simply couldn't be better. Naturally, the writer's dilemma is the meatiest one--will he be noble or sell out?--and Mamet arrives at a solution that's as hilarious as it is morally justified. Along the way, the rigors of filmmaking are explored with farcical abandon, such as how to provide a high-tech product placement... in a 19th-century story. Mamet's razor-sharp dialogue is gourmet popcorn here--each kernel yields a tasty surprise--and the whole scenario (intentionally modeled in the style of Preston Sturges) plays out with the breezy assurance of vintage screwball comedy. It's pure gold from start to finish, and even the closing credits offer another reason to laugh. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Mamet Sparkles

"That's absurd."
"So is our electoral system, but we still vote."

Few people can cut through the nonsense with as much wit as David Mamet, and in State and Main, the writer/director puts his talents to great use. The movie shows us the insides of filmmaking, a view that manages to be both ugly and hilarious. The cast, for the most part, is great, particularly William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman. If you're looking for vintage Mamet, you can't go wrong with State and Main.
February 4, 2008

Small town USA meets big city slickers

This comedy takes the unoriginal concept of bringing big-town city-slickers to small-town real folk, but in fairness, they try to add a few new twists. Overall, it didn't work for me. A movie crew takes over a small Vermont town, and even though this movie has a couple of big, expensive stars, they arrive on the scene without a script. No problem, they've brought along a script writer, who has had some experience writing plays. The male star, Alec Baldwin, is a notorious pedophile whose vice is tolerated by everyone. "Everyone needs a hobby," is his excuse. The female star, Sarah Jessica Parker, is a typical prima donna. The script writer is a confused, conflicted, ambivalent mess, with no gift for verbal expression, and it is a wonder that he has achieved any success with his writing. The Vermonters do not come off as stereotypical, but they don't come off as normal, either. The big-city slickers are excessively vulgar, as if to underscore that they are big-city slickers. As a light comedy, this film has its moments, but since one theme of the film is about second chances, I would not watch this film a second time, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone even for a first time October 3, 2005

"GO HUSKIES!"

It sure sounds familiar. A Hollywood film crew causes havoc in a small American town while filming a movie. It seems they were kicked out of a previous small town due to the lead actor's (Alec Baldwin), penchant for young teenage girls. And it's deja vu all over again.

What I liked about "State and Main" is it's treatment of the small town locals as being as sophisticated, savvy, and in the case ot the young teenage girl, promiscuous as the blindsided big city moviemakers, while never abandoning it's Rockwellian small town charm, or it's big city smarts. It's a perfect marriage of the two cultures clashing, never wallwoing in the expected morales and pathos of its conflict.

The ensemble cast takes David Mamet's witty and clever script and flesh out the characters to sharp edged precision and humor. William H. Macy is perfectly and forgivingly corrupt as the film's director, (he'd kill a horse to make a dead horse scene look real), and Rebecca Pidgeon radiates a secure small town confidence as the local book store owner forced to abandon her plans for a community play, while setting her sights on the film's morally conflicted writer.

September 24, 2005

Best Thing on Film Ever

This is one of the very few movies that both my wife and I love and have watched several times and never get sick of it. It is hard to believe that David Mamet has something this good inside of him - it has to do with people not crime and violence.

If you like this one, you will probably like "Breaking Away", "Strictly Ballroom", "Dirty Dancing", "What Planet Are You From?" (Mike Nichols), and the Burt Reynolds classic "The End" (the movie for people who don't even like Burt Reymolds). September 20, 2005

For Mamet fans only!

I couldn't get past the very stylized dialogue which seemed to coming from the same source although different actors were speaking. The characters are cliches through and through and does anyone really speak the way the people do? Mamet appears to have never left Manhattan and has no clue to writing non urban roles or a script with enough nuance to delineate his characters perspective. To be honest I didn't finish the entire film, but instead checked the TV Guide for reruns of Northern Exposure for the real thing. June 15, 2005

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