Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

SnoopyStyle Director Walt Price (William H. Macy) finds his new shooting location in Waterford, Vermont with the needed old mill after the previous small New Hampshire town made too many demands. Then he discovers the mill had burned down in 1960. Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is adapting his work and is forced to rewrite. His fan Annie Black (Rebecca Pidgeon) owns the local book store. She breaks up with Doug Mackenzie (Clark Gregg) who tries to bring down the production. Claire Wellesley (Sarah Jessica Parker) refuses to go topless for the movie. Leading man Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin) chases after local teen Carla (Julia Stiles). Studio producer (David Paymer) comes into town to fix the problems.Something about every one of these characters annoyed me. First of all, this cast is stacked. In a way, it's too stacked. Even the yokel locals are Hollywood veterans. It doesn't feel natural. Julia Stiles looks too old for what the character is suppose to represent. She does not look underage. She's young and pretty. Unless she's pregnant, there is no real scandal. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor but his character is too naive. His cluelessness seems too artificial. Even worst, he has very little chemistry with the wooden Rebecca Pidgeon. Pidgeon is great at certain things but not as the romantic lead. Sarah Jessica Parker is also great but there is no way the producer would even consider backing down from her. There is a signed contract and they would sue her for the cost of the whole production. The resolution doesn't make sense because Hollywood is not about what happened. It's about showing the boobs. Time and time again, I feel like the story is almost there but it keeps doing something wrong. David Mamet is trying to make a fun romp but I didn't have much fun.

Desertman84 State and Main is a comedy starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Stiles, William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin.The plot involves the on-location production in Waterford, Vermont of a film called The Old Mill.It was written and directed by David Mamet.Havoc is wrought on the inhabitants of a small New England town by a troubled film production. After the leading man's penchant for teenage girls gets them banished from their New Hampshire location, a film crew relocates to the small town of Waterford, Vermont, to finish shooting "The Old Mill."As its title suggests, the film depends on the presence of a genuine mill, something the town is reported to possess. Unfortunately, with only days before principal photography begins, it becomes apparent that the mill in fact burned down decades ago. Unfazed, the film's director, Walt Price, places his faith in the ability of first-time screenwriter Joseph Turner White to alter the script; what he doesn't count on is White's apparently bottomless reserve of angst-fueled writer's block.The film's leading lady refuses to do her contracted nude scene unless she's paid an additional $800,000, while a foreign cinematographer offends the locals by messing with a historic firehouse. Meanwhile, the leading man, Bob Barrenger, dallies with Carla, a crafty local teen. Everything comes to a head after Barrenger and Carla are injured in a car accident, which leads White to another emotional quandary and into the arms of local bookseller Annie Black. Meanwhile a powerful movie producer comes to town to help Price with the ensuing mess.State and Main offers plenty of wit and laughs in its lampoons of the movie industry.It is the funniest and most accessible film to date by David Mamet, propelled by the rocket fuel of his showbiz experience and driven by an ensemble cast that simply couldn't be better. Naturally, the writer's dilemma is the meatiest one and he arrives at a solution that's as hilarious as it is morally justified. Along the way, the rigors of film making are explored with farcical abandon, such as how to provide a high-tech product placement in a 19th-century story. His razor-sharp dialogue is gourmet popcorn here--each kernel yields a tasty surprise--and the whole scenario 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.Obviously,the nice thing about it is that it won't disappoint the viewer.

pontifikator This is a very funny movie written and directed by David Mamet. His script requires some close attention, though, as the jokes are subtle and come at you out of left field.The cast is excellent: Clark Gregg, Charles Durning, Christopher Kaldor, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, David Paymer, and Rebecca Pidgeon, to name too few. The plot is tight, the dialogue is fast-paced, and the actors deliver with great precision and aplomb.Macy plays the director of a movie that has had to leave its earlier location for a reason that leaks out of the dialogue without ever being stated. And we watch as history repeats itself with the inevitability of history itself. Macy's character, Walt Price, is a lying, conniving, manipulative, unfeeling jerk that Macy keeps from being unlikeable by showing us that Walt _needs_ to be all those things to get the film in the can.Walt Price and his crew are trying to shoot a film in a small town in Vermont, where the residents are wowed by the attention. Mamet's script is a silent riot, as we see the rubes go from reading the local paper to Variety, all in the background, so if you're not paying attention to the background, you're missing a substantial part of the humor and foreshadowing of what's going to happen. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, so lawyers are brought in, cash is brought in, and love is brought in. Rebecca Pidgeon is great as the straight-faced, straight-talking love interest for Hoffman, and Hoffman delivers a great performance as Mamet -- the writer of art who gets the full Hollywood treatment and who must decide between love/art and seduction/corruption. As Hoffman's character keeps saying, it's all about purity.This is a very funny movie, and I wouldn't want to be an associate producer. (Oh, and be sure to watch through the credits and read them. Only 2 animals were harmed during the production of this movie!)

writers_reign It seems that at one time or another everyone and his Uncle Max wants to make a film about Hollywood and in my case, as a viewer, I welcome them whilst acknowledging that the best novel about Hollywood, Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run, has yet to be filmed - unless you know something I don't - though Ervin Drake did turn it into a Broadway musical. In some ways David Mamet attempts to rectify this by coming at Sammy from another angle so that Sammy Glick, no-talent writer-on-the-make is here the Producer combined with the sleazy small-town lawyer, whilst Schulberg's hero, the idealistic writer used as a pawn by Glick is retained in the shape of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Mamet manages a number of digs at easy but nonetheless amusing targets and really showcases his real-life wife, Rebecca Pigeon, who has never looked lovelier or been more believable even if it is a tad unrealistic that such a lovely, erudite creature would be withering on the wine of Smalltown, USA. This is a lot of fun to watch first time around but I wonder if it will stand multiple viewings.