ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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.

arfdawg-1 The Plot.Having left New Hampshire over excessive demands by the locals, the cast and crew of "The Old Mill" moves their movie shoot to a small town in Vermont. However, they soon discover that The Old Mill burned down in 1960, the star can't keep his pants zipped, the starlet won't take her top off, and the locals aren't quite as easily conned as they appear.Well I LOVE Mamet.This is not one of his best efforts.Starts off good and once SJP comes in the scene things plummet.She cannot act her way out of a paper bag.

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.

tieman64 This is a brief review of "State and Main" and "Oleander", two films by David Mamet.The better of the two, "State" takes Mamet's usual tale of con-men and hucksters and places it in the quiet town of Waterford, Vermont. Here the con-men are not gangsters or card players, but a group of Hollywood filmmakers who wish to spend several weeks filming in the sleepy town.For a Mamet flick, "State" is surprisingly cute. Much of the film watches as slick big-city filmmakers try to exploit cuddly small towners, only to find that the country folk aren't as simpleminded as they first seemed. By the film's end everyone is taking advantage of everyone else, money constantly shifting hands and deals hastily being made.Like Altman's "The Player", "State" also satirizes various Hollywood types and Tinseltown customs, poking fun at actors, lawyers, producers, cinematographers, writers, assistants, nudity clauses and amateur theatre productions. Unlike Altman's film, however, Mamet's going for charm and whimsy. It's a light-hearted comedy, though it does contain one dark subplot about clashing egos, the instability of values (see Mamet's "Redbelt), artistic integrity and the corrosive power of money. It also gives Mamet a chance to indulge in his love for miscommunication and misdirection - for Mamet, all language is a con - and allows Alec Baldwin to sink his teeth in one of his best roles since "Glengarry Glen Ross"."Oleanna", also directed by David Mamet, is a claustrophobic film which mostly takes place in a single room. The film's first half consists of a Professor having a long discussion with one of his female students. Later we learn that she is failing his class and that she blames this on his "inability to clearly communicate". She then accuses him of using his "power" as a Professor to engage in a sort of "word rape", stating that she dislikes the way that he constantly uses pretentious words and convoluted metaphors to belittle his students. The second half of the film then shows the balance of power shifting between the Professor and the Student. She now speaks with confidence, whilst he continually stammers. She is now dressed with authority, whilst he is dishevelled. As this stage of the film progresses, she accuses him of sexual assault and threatens to have him fired and arrested. He, meanwhile, accuses her of misinterpreting his words and actions.Though overly theatrical (the film was based on one of Mamet's stage plays), "Oleanna" is endlessly fascinating. Primarily a backlash against the American political correctness movement of the early 1990s, the film takes political correctness to absurd lengths, the point being that if taken to its logical extreme, social sensitivity could become so invasive, so overpowering, that every interpersonal act could be construed as being sexual or punishable in nature.The film also offers a clever critique of educational systems (and their hierarchies of power), and allows Mamet to indulge in his love for word games (syntax as violence). Indeed, the film is one big semantic argument, the characters constantly battling over the "meaning" of words, "Oleanna" highlighting both the power and absurdity of language (Mamet has his characters speak in such a fashion as to highlight the very artificiality, arbitrariness and vagueness of words and/or meaning) and the way language leaves us vulnerable to misdirection.In typical Mamet fashion, the film eventually reveals itself to be a giant con game. Here it is explained that the female student was part of a "Group" which is plotting to remove the Professor from the school's faculty. 8/10 - Worth one viewing.