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State and Main
Metascore
75 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
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  1. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    100
    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.
  2. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    100
    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.
  3. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    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.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    A quintessentially wised-up insider comedy, ideally cast and filled with sharp writing from start to finish.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    90
    A bona fide populist laugh riot.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    Gently hilarious comedy.
  7. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    Hilarious sweet and sour David Mamet comedy.
  8. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    88
    A snarling satire of Hollywood single-mindedness and its lack of any moral underpinning.
    All this critic's reviews
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    Delectably caustic comedy.
  10. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    80
    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.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    Relentlessly funny satire.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    80
    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.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    78
    Mamet does a shrewdly skillful job with these Tinseltown terrors.
  14. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    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.
  15. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Mamet's screenplay is full of savvy satire and the cast couldn't be better.
  16. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Sara Wildberger
    75
    A surfeit of farce and fast-talking makes up for a lack of plot.
  17. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Desmond Ryan
    75
    His (Mamet) direction is unobtrusive, unflashy, and always willing to allow the hilarious cast all the room it needs.
  18. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    Mamet finds an angle just new enough to be fresh.
  19. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    75
    As close as anything could be to a light Mamet comedy.
  20. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    Good clean dirty fun.
  21. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    70
    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.
  22. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Marc Caro
    63
    Mamet's movie has its moments of wit and warmth, but here he's mostly behind, not ahead of, the curve.
    All this publication's reviews
  23. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    60
    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.
  24. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    58
    For all its wit and sharp casting, State and Main is way too pleased with itself to be funny or endearing.
  25. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    50
    State and Main is a Hollywood satire as cynical and thickheaded as its supposed targets.
  26. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    A surprisingly unpolished piece of work that plays as though it were written for the stage and only slightly modified for the screen.
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