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Fantastic!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

There aren't many literary geniuses with wide recognition these days. Most film scripts rely on special effects and actors to make them memorable. It's rare that you'll find a movie where the "star" is the dialogue, and not a thespian or CGI explosion. But with David Mamet, that's what you get.In general, I'm not a David Mamet fan. Although his films are always well-written, and his trademark stylization of speaking dialogue in his movies is always fun to listen to (although it's restrained here), they are not my cup of tea. I didn't like "Glengarry Glen Ross," and I found "Spartan" interesting but poorly paced. I did, however, like his hysterical play, "November," and after hearing good things about "State and Main" from critics and word of mouth, I decided to check it out. It's consistently amusing, but not as funny as it wants to be."State and Main" is an ensemble comedy. It's about a desperate film crew who finally finds a place to shoot their movie, but they are all about to have a disastrous run-in with Murphy's Law. The big-star, Bob Beringer (Alec Baldwin) can't keep himself from his hobby (young girls like Carla, played by Julia Stiles). The director, Walt Price (Mamet regular William H. Macy) suddenly realizes that his newfound shooting spot doesn't have an old mill anymore (the film they're shooting is called "The Old Mill"). The ditsy female star, Claire Wellesley (Sarah Jessica Parker) is having second thoughts about taking her shirt off on camera. And the screenwriter, Joeseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is having to constantly rewrite his script to deal with the crises, all while falling for his newfound muse, the local bookstore owner Ana (Rebecca Pigeon, aka Mrs. David Mamet).The best thing about this movie (other than the brilliant script) is the fact that Mamet never takes the easy way out. He eschews the easy targets (movie stars with huge egos and/or no brains, greedy lawyers, etc.). To be sure, they make an appearance, but they aren't a huge source of the film's comedy. This is all but to be expected; Mamet has been on the film scene for the last two decades, and is widely recognized as one of the best script doctors. He knows how making a movie REALLY works, and attacks it with a his scythe of satire.Unfortunately, while this opens up the potential for new and funny jokes, plot twists and gags (and Mamet actually exploits it), it's just not as funny as he intended it to be. It's clear that this is supposed to be 105 minutes of madcap insanity, which it is, but it's just not a laugh a minute riot (as was the intention).The acting is great, and the actors poke fun at their reputations (like Baldwin and Parker). And we actually begin to care about Joesph and Ana. And although it's not as funny as it is meant to be, there are some great one liners.It's worth a rental, especially for Mamet fans, movie lovers, and intelligent viewers.

This very enjoyable witty and sophisticated parody of an independent motion picture company selecting a small town in Vermont as a location to make a major film, after being ejected from a small town in New Hampshire (for some unspecified bad behavior), is kind of a David Mamet family project. Mamet is credited as the writer and director. The most compelling character in the film, Ann, who owns and runs the town's book store and heads the town drama club, is played excellently by Mamet's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon. Her brother, Matthew Pidgeon, has a bit part as a British TV newscaster, Mamet's brother Tony plays an electrician. While on the subject of the cast, Broadway musical great Patti LuPone does a nice job, in a very minor role, as the small town Mayor's wife who apparently has high society ambitions and apparently money enough to back up that ambition. She is not someone you want to make angry because the Mayor (Charles Durning effortlessly playing a kind of mild- mannered role I've seen him in before) is also the Town Council. As long as his wife is happy he is thrilled to have the company use his town. Major movie star and heartthrob Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin), the male lead of the movie that the fictional film company is making, is an oblivious sex addict with a taste for underage girls. His activities are one of the major problems the film director (William H. Macy) and producers face. Another is that the lead actress (Sarah Jessica Parker), who was cast because of her contractual agreement to play a nude scene as she has done in several earlier films, has changed her mind. A third crisis for the producers has to do with the town's historic mill that was the main reason they chose the town, and a fourth is a splendid stained glass window that is in the way of a crucial camera shot.I would have preferred that the film had a different title than " State and Main." Perhaps something such as "The Old Mill Set" or "Second Chance." I think I noticed two goofs in the film: When a date on the white board has to be written again because it is accidentally erased, it is clearly rewritten on the same date as the original. In a critical later scene it is at a different date. The other is Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the fictional first time screenwriter and author of the fictional book the fictional film is based on, says at one point that he has perjured himself although he knows at that time that he was not really under oath when he lied. When watching "State and Main," don't turn it off before the credits or you'll miss some of the wit.

Recap: A film team practically invades a small rural town in Vermont after being kicked out of their last intended shooting location. Short on cash, short on time and with a lot of people talented in finding trouble they must convince the townsfolk to let the shoot their movie, and use their building. Problem is, the building they want to use burned downed in 1960.Comments: A movie about all the small things that complicate your life as a movie producer or director. Never mind that you're short on cash and time, but when your lead star has an improper taste for (too) young girls, your shooting location burnt down a few decades ago and a town council member really hates you, then you almost appreciate the small troubles of life.This intention to make the movie a hectic, intense and funny project that finds trouble everywhere it goes is also it biggest problem. There are so many small sub-plots that none of them are given much time to grow and evolve. The result is that there are a lot of small "ha-ha"s but you never got a joke that really is given time to build up and make you roll on the floor laughing.It is nice, not hilarious. But it does redeem itself a little at the end, where it actually connects a lot of these sub-plots in one scene. And it also got a good cast with a few actually making a little something with the scarce screen time they get with so many plots to go around. I think especially of Macy, Stiles and Hoffman.But I had expected more. A laugh or two maybe. Something to get the movie going. Something extra. Unfortunately I got a little disappointed.5/10

It took quite a bit of negotiation to get the family to see "State and Main," but the cast of William Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin, etc. finally convinced them. My husband was leery that David Mamet could be funny, but we all thought it was hysterical and laughed heartily.It's a much more mordant take on movie-making than Truffaut's "Day For Night" where a love for the magic of the movies still shows through. This has much more of a "Larry Sanders Show" sensibility of total cynicism about the internal and external goings on as a movie company takes over a quaint New England town.While the writer is poked fun at as much as anyone, Mamet's wife Rebecca Pigeon of course gets to play a nice, bright, if manipulative, lady.I'm pretty sure we were the only ones at the audience in Houston who got the Yiddish jokes and references.Stay for all the credits; the jokes continue through the very last frame.(originally written 2/4/2001)