Saw State and Main, a farcical showbiz film about a hoard of Hollywood-types who descend on a sleepy little town straight out of Norman Rockwell. This is written and directed by David Mamet though, so things are a little poisonous, a little dangerous. The film is kept busy and frantic by a motor-mouthed William H Macy (Mamet's muse) and a thronging team of assistants all clamoring for his attention. He must talk a hysterical actress into doing a topless scene while an interviewer is on the phone with him.
Meanwhile, the town is reacting with dull surprise to all the goings on. The ancient farmers change from gently teasing each other to reading Variety and commenting on average view per screen ratings. The local politician, a hideously self-serving ass who is "this close from being this close to being next in line for congress!", reacts with hostility to what is supplanting his role as the mover and shaker. Cleverly, the film has cast famous actors as the Hollywood types and unknowns as the townsfolk.
The central plot of the film revolves around the budding romance of the writer and the local politician's girlfriend, a bookish woman who is constantly adopting an attitude of "gee shucks, us country folk with our wise little ways, huh?" which I imagine must get tiring eventually. The film intelligently avoids the easy sentimentalism of siding with the townsfolk against the Hollywood-ites, rather adopting a more turbulent middle-ground. Of course the actors come off way worse than the townsfolk, but the townies have their failings too. In the Mamet-verse everyone is swinish to various degrees. The nearest thing to a villain in this film (apart from the elemental force of chaos, the engine of all farces) is the local politician, after all.
The dialogue is snappy, the plot constantly frantically spinning, and the underlying juggling act of our interests and alliances as audience members is masterful. Not a brilliant or stuffed-shirt kind of a movie, but very good.
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