State and Main (2000)
Country: US
Technical: DuArt 106m
Director: David Mamet
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Julia Stiles
Synopsis:
A film company arrives in a small Vermont town to make a period movie and soon runs into trouble thanks to its leading man's taste in underage girls and various demands of the screenplay. The writer meanwhile, who has made friends with the local bookseller and am-dram queen, struggles to keep his vision and his soul pure in the face of a venal producer and a director who will compromise anything for the picture.
Review:
Mamet's essay in Industry satire doesn't quite work, though it has some attractive performances from Mamet stalwarts and Hoffman. Although the tone is characteristically throwaway and irreverent, the premise is too reminiscent of Sweet Liberty for comfort at times, and the Baldwin and Parker roles are weak and obvious, as if they belonged to such a movie. The writer-director manages to insert one of his appearance/reality flourishes towards the end, and there is some gentle humour of the Things Change variety: basically we've been here before.
Country: US
Technical: DuArt 106m
Director: David Mamet
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Julia Stiles
Synopsis:
A film company arrives in a small Vermont town to make a period movie and soon runs into trouble thanks to its leading man's taste in underage girls and various demands of the screenplay. The writer meanwhile, who has made friends with the local bookseller and am-dram queen, struggles to keep his vision and his soul pure in the face of a venal producer and a director who will compromise anything for the picture.
Review:
Mamet's essay in Industry satire doesn't quite work, though it has some attractive performances from Mamet stalwarts and Hoffman. Although the tone is characteristically throwaway and irreverent, the premise is too reminiscent of Sweet Liberty for comfort at times, and the Baldwin and Parker roles are weak and obvious, as if they belonged to such a movie. The writer-director manages to insert one of his appearance/reality flourishes towards the end, and there is some gentle humour of the Things Change variety: basically we've been here before.
Country: US
Technical: DuArt 106m
Director: David Mamet
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Julia Stiles
Synopsis:
A film company arrives in a small Vermont town to make a period movie and soon runs into trouble thanks to its leading man's taste in underage girls and various demands of the screenplay. The writer meanwhile, who has made friends with the local bookseller and am-dram queen, struggles to keep his vision and his soul pure in the face of a venal producer and a director who will compromise anything for the picture.
Review:
Mamet's essay in Industry satire doesn't quite work, though it has some attractive performances from Mamet stalwarts and Hoffman. Although the tone is characteristically throwaway and irreverent, the premise is too reminiscent of Sweet Liberty for comfort at times, and the Baldwin and Parker roles are weak and obvious, as if they belonged to such a movie. The writer-director manages to insert one of his appearance/reality flourishes towards the end, and there is some gentle humour of the Things Change variety: basically we've been here before.