"State and Main" (2000): What Works/What Doesn't

In David Mamet's Hollywood satire, what starts as a farcical comedy romp quickly chokes on tsuris of its own making.

Synopsis - Location! Location! Location! (And Cut!) 🎬

While scouting film locations in New England, the sly and affably cunning director, Walt Price (William H. Macy) arrives with his big-budget film crew in Waterford, VT, a quaint village that provides the perfect pastoral for the “purity” story architected by playwright turned screenwriter, the ego-fragile Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman). However, the purity story is a misnomer. There’s talk of the lead actress, Claire (Sarah Jessica Parker) protesting her direction to do a topless scene. And the crew is fleeing a prior film location where the lead actor, Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin) got in trouble for his predatory penchant for sexual dalliances with teenage girls.

State and Main is a dramatic departure from any other Mamet film in its playful tone. Not to mention, its biting satire and condemnation of Hollywood culture. Typically Mamet’s cinematic wheelhouse involves sly conmen and complicated plots (Glengarry Glen Ross) that are hard to follow (The Spanish Prisoner), yet ones we don’t tend to question too much probably because the plots are too damn confusing. The exception is The Winslow Boy (1999) which is a beautifully depicted period drama about a boy who is accused of theft and the drastic lengths his devoted family goes to, to defend him.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jim from “The Office” AKA John Krasinski in a scene from “State and Main”

In State and Main, Mamet loses all of the emotional depth he channeled into The Winslow Boy a year prior. Instead, he unsuccessfully attempts to Frankenstein a film borne from the silly, quirky, satirical qualities of a Christopher Guest film (Best in Show) and the edgy, provocative, stylized elements of Robert Altman’s The Player. The result is that the film has no distinct identity or through line to speak of despite its immensely talented acting pool.

If one is to find redemption here, it’s in the portrayal of the townspeople. Helmed by the smart, grounded, and astute Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet’s real-life love partner) as Ann, we are charmed by their small-town gumption and earnestness, especially in contrast to the smooth-talking, yet crude city-slicker studio interlopers (Macy, Paymer). While locals like the Mayor and his wife are initially seduced by the film’s interest in their humble town, others like Ann’s fiance “douchey” Doug the aspiring politician (Clark Gregg) are opportunistic and seek to make a financial killing from the opportunity.

Like Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985) which is hands down the better film, the central catalyst for conflict is that someone is somewhere they shouldn’t be. In After Hours, it’s the Griffin Dunne character loitering around Soho. In the case of the Hollywood film crew, it’s in Waterford, VT.

Characters (That Work)

• Waterford, VT- In real life, State and Main was not filmed in a town called Waterford, VT, but around Massachusetts, specifically in Beverly, Manchester-on-the-Sea, and my hometown of Waltham, MA! (also the hometown of Ava (Hannah Einbinder) from the hit comedy show Hacks). Notably, locals like a very young John Krasinski and Sarah Silverman’s sister, Laura Silverman are extras in this film. The scenery provides a pleasing, picturesque, and idyllic, “snapshot-in-time” backdrop - a blank, yet quaint canvas on which the Hollywood execs proceed to perform all matters of vandalism, cover-ups, and criminal acts.

  Worth mentioning that this is the second post in this series where I’ve called out a locale as a character (that work(s)). The first one was Minneapolis for Untamed Heart. [Review here]

  Perhaps I need to rebrand this series “Locales that work” and just focus on settings. Thoughts?

  

• Rebecca Pidgeon as Ann Black and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Joseph Turner White. Ann Black and Joseph Turner White fall in love. I think there’s something beautifully symbiotic about the creative coagulation of these names. Given Ann’s steady confidence and Joseph’s mercurial mind, this suits the couple. Plus, this is most definitely a couple that will hyphenate their names upon marriage, making Ann, “Ann Black-White” and Joseph, “Joseph Turner White-Black.”

  Anne to Joseph: Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment.

  

• Julia Stiles as Carla. The romantic overtures made by the teenage Carla towards the lecherous lead, Bob, don’t materialize into an on-screen sex scene, but it’s implied. Stiles as Carla is so precocious and skilled at making herself useful both in the restaurant and for the film crew (e.g. She reads in a Hollywood fan magazine that Bob’s favorite food is tuna melt and brings him one), that when she finally knocks on Bob’s door, you know she knows how the interaction will play out. She’s the most interesting and arresting character in this film. It’s too bad she’s not in more of it.

Carla (Stiles) and Bob (Baldwin) get it on.

Subplots (That Didn’t)

• The Hollywood Jewish Lawyer

  • The stereotype of the cutthroat, money-hungry Jewish businessman is a blood libel slander, that’s probably older than Shakespeare’s Shylock. I wasn’t impressed by the constant reminders of it in this film in the characterization of Marty Rossen (David Paymer) and his Yiddishisms. No thanks.

• The Icky Bob. The early aughts were not a high point for female empowerment on screen, especially when it came to the popularization of hyper-sexualization or humorous depictions of bad sex situations (American Pie) and fraught power dynamics that spilled into sexual relationships. It’s hard to remove the post #metoo lens here, but even so, having icky Bob be a sought-out actor here who jokingly commits statutory rape and then also is the victim. That’s a tough one to bear.

  

• Ann’s Falling for Joseph. While I’m always up for a sweet romance and this one had elements of it, Joseph seemed lame. Like Ann was the whole package - in the looks dept. and personality, she was a NY 9 and Joseph was not. First, she's with douchey Doug the Dog, then Joseph. I just want her to get out of Dodge Waterford and experience life on her own a bit.

Let’s Discuss

• Are you a Mamet fan?

• Which films of his have you watched and would rate highly?

• If you saw this film, what did you think of it?

• Is it also hard for you to watch Y2K films sometimes?

To read more Characters (That Work), Subplots (That Don’t) posts, GO HERE