David Mamet is a Renaissance man who has written twenty-three plays, eight collections of essays, two novels, five children's books, two books of poetry, and eighteen films. State and Main is his seventh feature as a writer-director, after House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, Oleanna, The Spanish Prisoner, and The Winslow Boy. Mamet has received numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross.
In a witty introduction, Mamet talks about the inspiration for State and Main, a lively comedy about the invasion of a small New England town by a movie crew. The shooting script contains plenty of laughs about product placements, sexual indiscretions, the all-American obsessions with sports and suing, second chances, associate producer credits, and the foibles of wheeler-dealers who keep the engines of Hollywood running.
One of the best lines in the drama is spoken by Ann, a local bookseller who develops a crush on Joe, the screenplay writer for the film. He suggests that in a small town like this one, people have to make their own fun. She replies: "Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it ain't fun; it's entertainment."
In this scrappy morality play Mamet opens our eyes to the importance of being ourselves and exercising our values in tough times. Everything counts, and there are no trifling moments.