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State and Main
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: David Mamet
Directed by: David Mamet
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 22, 2000
DVD: June 19, 2001
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: France / USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and brief sexual images
Starring Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Patti LuPone, and Sarah Jessica Parker
A big-budget movie crew descends upon a quaint New England village, sowing a bumper crop of corruption, vanity and greed. (Fine Line Features)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Heist Redbelt Spanish Prisoner, The Spartan Winslow Boy, The
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
You may want to revisit this profanely hilarious Hollywood satire. . .just to catch the zingers the audience often drowns out with laughter. Hollywood corrupts absolutely, and Mamet turns the toxic process into the year's best and smartest comedy.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
Writer/director David Mamet, who's built a career in both theater and film by being a hyper-manly sort of writer, has crafted a film that is laugh out loud funny and dinner-conversation smart.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Bouncing giddily from subplot to subplot and wisecrack to wisecrack, Mamet and company (and this is one of the truest ensemble works in years) satirize the slippery morals of the film racket and the surface-only decency of small town America.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A quintessentially wised-up insider comedy, ideally cast and filled with sharp writing from start to finish.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A snarling satire of Hollywood single-mindedness and its lack of any moral underpinning.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
I laughed a lot at the anti-Hollywood humor and generally had a fine time, in spite of the holier-than-thou hypocrisy that makes this movie easily and even intentionally Mamet's most Hollywoodish picture to date.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
This is probably the funniest Mamet piece to date (but not the weightiest), and it might be destined to take a seat alongside "The Player" and "Sunset Boulevard" in the front row of movieland satires.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Mamet does a shrewdly skillful job with these Tinseltown terrors.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
His (Mamet) direction is unobtrusive, unflashy, and always willing to allow the hilarious cast all the room it needs.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Mamet finds an angle just new enough to be fresh.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's Mamet in a lighthearted mood, playing with dialogue, repeating phrases just because he likes them, and supplying us with a closing line that achieves, I think, a kind of greatness.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Sara Wildberger
A surfeit of farce and fast-talking makes up for a lack of plot.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Mamet's screenplay is full of savvy satire and the cast couldn't be better.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Mamet's jabs at Tinseltown's silken ruthlessness are quietly pointed, and the ensemble cast -- even the brittle and sometimes annoying Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) -- is brilliant.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Marc Caro
Mamet's movie has its moments of wit and warmth, but here he's mostly behind, not ahead of, the curve.
Salon.com Charles Taylor
At its best, State and Main is fast and sharp, but when a movie like this goes off the rails, it's more disappointing than when a bad movie does.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
For all its wit and sharp casting, State and Main is way too pleased with itself to be funny or endearing.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
State and Main is a Hollywood satire as cynical and thickheaded as its supposed targets.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A surprisingly unpolished piece of work that plays as though it were written for the stage and only slightly modified for the screen.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Nasja de V. gave it an8:
Good tempo, nice references. Overall very enjoyable.
Chad S. gave it a 9:
Unlike The Coen Brothers' "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou", David Mamet's "State and Main" doesn't treat smalltown folks like affected hayseeds. In Mamet's world, the denizens of Vermont are allowed to be sophisticated, which could also an affectation, but it's better to be portrayed as smart rather than dumb. They're allowed to know the names of obscure playwrights, read Variety, and interact with Hollywood types without being at a disadvantage. Mamet's great achievement here is finding the right tone for the assembled film team. The rustic charm of the town and its inhabitants softens the pretty people's urban edge without effacing their immoral centers. At the center of "State and Main", is the wonderful pairing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Rebecca Pidgeon, who have the starry-eyed wonder of young lovers from "Our Town". They have a lot of chemistry. Who knew?
Pat C. gave it a 3:
First Rule of Moviemaking: Don't fritter away the attention of the audience in the first 10 minutes. After one initially effective one-liner is panned by Macy's character, the show plunges into unmitigated disjointed banter involving a slew of characters and phone voices all disrupting the continuity with unrelating dialogue about things that are neither interesting nor matter. If I want to hear people interrupt each other, I'll watch political talk shows. I deserted this show after 15 minutes, so I didn't watch it all. If it was good from there on, a 3 is the best I could have given it, and that's the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it was my second attempt. Sorry, but abusing the audience's gift of initial attention is a fatal error. It makes me suspect some critics may be taking complimentary drugs from the movie companies before reviewing their products. But hey, the value is merely misplaced: Rent this movie as a sedative.
Yoon Min C. gave it an 8:
Hard-hitting urbanite Mamet situates his usual story of hucksters and conmen in a quiet little NE town where the folks are not as simpleminded as they may first seem. The Mametisms here should by now be well-known to everyone. There is the signature cynicism taking advantage of wide-eyed trust; you have the hardened dupes retaliating in like manner. There are hidden motives, personal grudges, downright greed, and vanity fueling the engine for most of human behavior. Only two people--both playwrights--are good which may be Mamet patting the likes of himself on the back a bit too gently. The acting is good but limited as the movie never strives for anything other than light satire. The sense of irony evident in situations--moral or plotwise--is bit too obvious and the ending too pat. One even wonders if this would have worked better as a play than as a movie. Still, Mamet's control of his material and the medium is impeccable; without the customary mushiness and with a ruthlessness that doesn't degenerate into pointless ugliness, this is overall a well-observed movie about clash of egos, instability of values, and the power of money.
Shane gave it a 10:
Philip Seymour Hoffman's greatest acting job, ever.
VD gave it a 10:
I loved it.
Walter S. gave it a 2:
This has got to be one of the most overrated films I've seen in some time, and I see a LOT of movies, okay. This movies is botched in so many ways it's hard to keep track. It's almost easier to say what was good about it. William Macy's director was fantastic, both in writing and performance. The two leads (Baldwin, Parker) were great fun. Philip Seymour Hoffman did what he could well given the limits of his character's stereotypical drivel. And that's it. The editing was amateurish. The script was terrible. Mamet's wife? Miscast and her role was pathetic. Her fiance was just as unbelievable as a Vermonter. Durning needed a Starbucks. LiPone (who I love) was way off the mark. The local reporter had a British accent.. I mean who the f%$# was making this film? Too many subplots which are as quickly introduced and sloppily dismissed. Attention Hollywood: just because you make a self-loathing, self-indulgent feature doesn't mean it's injokes are really that interesting.
