FeedingDream Already a fan of Mamet, this was one of the best works (second to Spanish Prisoner) that shows his unique style of making stage play into motion picture.If you're not a fan of stage acting, this film will make you one. That's the unique talent that Mamet has in timing and dialogue that engages an audience of the screen as if you were sitting in a theatre. Few people can take one sentence of dialogue and turn it into a depth of character like he does. The humor is fast-moving and subtle, and you have to pay attention to appreciate the flowing story and intricate relationships. And that subtlety is CONSTANT.This was obviously accomplished by a superb cast and I swear that Oliver Stapleton (cinematography) was inside Mamet's head because the camera was like liquid in the story and did half the talking. You almost knew what was coming, but didn't get it until it was happening. It's a comedy that carries you along in your own head. Freaking hilarious.No need to talk about the cast. Exceptional, and they played so well together that I wish they had done more like this. It was a while ago, but I hope Mamet comes up with something in this vein again.This is a film for filmmakers because as messed up as this industry is, you still love it and all the bs that goes along with it. It's about passion for the art at all costs and OMG does this show how horrible and wonderful that can be. Pure genius and debauchery.Love-hate relationships with almost every character. Almost. One or two loves in there. But mostly love-hate. I won't say who it was for me - you have to watch to make your own call there.IF you can set aside your precepts of the cast (which is hard to do with this line-up), then you'll love this film and laugh yourself silly. Mamet rocked this one. And if you get his style of humor, you'll buy the DVD just to have it on hand. If you don't, then this film isn't for you. I think you're either a Mamet fan or not. Maybe that's the question.

itamarscomix In the hands of a director with a vision, State And Main could have been an excellent little film. Instead David Mamet directed it himself and it turned out to be remarkably mediocre, at best. The dialog is good, as Mamet's generally is, but the pace of the movie is terribly dull, and the delivery of the lines is completely flat, which is a shame considering it's filled with top-rate character actors, none of which reach their full potential. Being a sucker for films about filmmaking I really wanted to enjoy State and Main, and I did, at times, enjoy the satire and the observational humor, but it's better read than watched.

jpschapira I have, for seven years, been waiting to see this film. I always tell the story about the time I went with some friends to the cinema and convinced everyone to watch this film and once inside the theater everyone wanted to go because they didn't like what they were watching but I wanted to stay because I liked it very much. And because I think there's a time for movies and that they arrive when they arrive, I have just found David Mamet's "State and Main" and, luckily, I've liked it very much. Of course, it's a special movie, but not in the sense that it's not for everyone. It's an easy-going movie, with a clear and simple plot line, nice sceneries and a cinematography that doesn't take any risks; but I could merely recommend, with enthusiasm, that everyone who watches assume a commitment. What do I mean by this? Well, that if you pay more attention than usual you should really enjoy it. The thing is that "State and Main" is a movie about a movie, and it's written by David Mamet, fact that naturally makes it not 'any' movie about a movie. I'll take a risk and say that this is based on one of Mamet's plays (I don't know that for a fact), because it looks very theatrical, but with the exceptional cast (by genius Avy Kaufman) and Theodore Shapiro's shifting score, we quickly forget about it. We don't forget, however, what may originally have come from a play; and that's Mamet's use of language. From scene one, where a doctor encounters a patient on the street and Walt (William H. Macy) argues with his team about the place they've ended up in, the writer/director establishes a style in his screenplay that we feel throughout the whole ride and contains certain characteristics: sharp, witty, direct, humorous and, at surprising times, reflexive and profound. Walt is a director who comes to shoot a film to Waterford, Vermont; the place they've ended up in: the middle of nowhere. The fact that Waterford is a little town where everyone has a big smile on their faces and don't seem to have problems (Julia Stiles' perfect working teenager; Rebecca Pidgeon's kind and loving Annie; Charles Durning's mayor), helps to establish a contrast with the neurotic director and his Hollywood crew: the manipulative and unstoppable producer Marty (a wonderful David Paymer); the popular star with a 'thing' for minors Bob (the role Alec Baldwin knows by heart); the pretty and stupid popular actress (Sarah Jessica Parker, in the role that suits her quite well); and the character with which you should implement my recommendation of paying attention: the creative, insecure writer of the film, Joe, played by the Great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Stereotypes? Why not some of them? But Manet is so gifted that, instead of assuming a character is stereotyped, he gives them lines for us to recognize, through their personality, the stereotype they represent. This sound simple, but it's not. It's the same I try to say about "State and Main": it looks simple, and it can be; but it doesn't have to be if you want it to. If you want, you can put yourselves in Joe the writer's position and try to figure out the truth, whatever it may be. If you want, you can enter as an outsider to the world of making a film and what it has to offer; to the political aspirations and perspectives of a little town; to the tradition and the stories and the sense of home of a little town. Mamet knows all of these things, and here sometimes he takes a stand; he sometimes mocks, other times he praises, most of the time he makes no sense at all, but all the time he's showing these things to us, in any form you may want to take them. And what's what cinema essentially does?

Robert J. Maxwell It's not hilarious but it's consistent in its good-natured cynicism, from which most of its amusement quotient is derived. Mamet takes us to a small town in Vermont where Bill Macy is trying to set up locations for a film he is directing, (Some problems there with the old watermill, the centerpiece of the story, which doesn't exist anymore.)Alec Baldwin is a little careless about his attraction to young girls and this adds to the difficulties when he's put upon by the authorities. He has the best line though -- the last in the film -- when he shuffles off to the set and mutters, "It beats working." Philip Seymour Hoffman has a strange face, indeed a strange presence, and brings a good deal of talent to the role of a screenwriter with principle, probably the closest thing to a protagonist the movie offers us. He quits his job at one point before having an epiphany and returning to work. And he has a romance with the attractive, perceptive, flatly matter-of-fact Rebecca Pigeon, who projects an extraordinary intelligence and sexiness despite her ski boots and overgrown running shoes, which any normal viewer would love to pluck off and turn into soup. As their romance is nudged forward by events, she asks Hoffman, "How do you feel about children?" He stares back open mouthed, his mind whirling, before he replies, "I never could see the point." I just claimed his mind was whirling but he gives no evidence of it in his behavior. He simply stands there agog and hesitates for some seconds before speaking. But a viewer KNOWS his brain is clicking, even though it's moving in an unanticipated direction. That's acting talent, and pretty good writing too. Some clever lines are sprinkled over the script. Macy examines the wardrobe sketches and remarks, "Who designed these costumes? It looks like Edith Head puked and the puke designed the costumes." Well, I'm not sure that's "clever" but it's funny.It will probably leave you smiling, so go ahead and watch it if you can.