State and Main Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)December 2nd, 2000
PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
Films about filmmaking always seem to play well with critics, and State and Main isn’t likely to be any different (for some reason, most critics think they’re in The Business). David Mamet’s (The Winslow Boy) seventh directorial effort is a scathing, drop-dead hysterical look at the out-of-touch insincerity of Hollywood and its uncanny ability to corrupt everything it touches.
Main is set in tiny Waterford, Vermont, where the crew for a film called “The Old Mill” has recently relocated after being kicked out of a similar town in New Hampshire. The film, which is supposed to be about the search for purity set in the twilight of the 19th century, has chosen Waterford not only for its sleepy, picturesque porch-swing/white-picket-fence community, but also because the town is home to two structures integral to the picture’s plot – a mill and an old firehouse.
Taking place in the week leading up the filming of “The Old Mill,” Main features characters so real, so flawed and, for the most part, so instantly dislikeable, it’s hard not to find yourself immediately wrapped up in their antics. William H. Macy plays Walt Price, the film’s director, whose motto ("Shoot first – ask questions afterward”) is embroidered on a lucky pillow that he drags to each shoot. Marty Rossen (David Paymer, Bounce) is his producer, and the two men form an intimidating pair with an aggressive manner surpassed only by their ability to kiss the asses of their stars and trample the feelings of pretty much everybody else.
The production of “The Old Mill” has plenty of hilarious stumbling blocks to overcome before it begins principal photography. The process of casting extras for the film is at a standstill because of a local play to which most of Waterford’s citizens have already committed. The male lead (Alec Baldwin, Thomas and the Magic Railroad) has a thing for underage girls and begins sniffing around a nubile young Waterford native (Julia Stiles, Hamlet) as soon as he arrives in the small town. The female star (Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City) is balking at her nude scene, despite the fact that it is clearly specified in her contract.
On the more innocent side of things is Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Almost Famous), the film’s naïve playwright-turned-screenwriter who is baffled by the behind-the-scenes goings-on, not to mention the last-minute rewrites Price and Rossen demand he make, even though they would completely change his original script. He meets a local bookseller (Rebecca Pidgeon – Mamet’s real-life wife), who becomes White’s confidante and guiding light of veracity. Charles Durning (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Patti LuPone (Summer of Sam) play Waterford’s Mayor and his wife, who want only to host an elaborate dinner party for the cast and crew of the film.
Throw in a big pothole on Waterford’s Main Street, a local attorney with political ambitions (What Lies Beneath screenwriter Clark Gregg), a witty product-placement debate and a strange local catchphrase that the filmies adopt as their own, and you’ll start to wonder how Mamet was able to pack all of this into a 90-minute film. Heck, I was sad when it ended, wishing it could continue for at least another 90. The writer/director’s trademark hypnotically rhythmic salvos will do that kind of thing to you. The carefully written dialogue makes Main so much more than just a classier, feature-film version of the short-lived television show Action.
Another thing you can expect from a Mamet film is incredible acting performances, and Main doesn’t disappoint in that category, either. Several actors could be in the hunt for Oscar nominations, especially Hoffman, who plays his most normal (and most romantic) role to date as the beleaguered screenwriter. Main reminded me of the Mamet-penned Wag the Dog, which also dealt with unscrupulous film folk and their behind-the-scene shenanigans. My only complaint (other than the short running time) is a story thread involving the stained glass window of Waterford’s firehouse that goes unresolved.
If Kevin Bacon would only appear in one of Mamet’s films, it would make playing “The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” a lot easier. With Main, Mamet seems to borrow a majority of his cast from the regulars that turn up in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. Anderson, in turn, seems to do his casting from the roster of acting talent involved in films made by the Coen brothers. Hoffman and Macy were both in Anderson’s Magnolia and the Coens' The Big Lebowski. Ricky Jay and Gregg were also in Magnolia, as well as Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner. And Durning is in the Coens' upcoming O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in addition to the film version of Mamet’s play, Lakeboat.
1:30 – Rated R for adult language and some cartoon nudity
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