Matinee: State and Main (35mm)

(David Mamet, US 2000, 105 min., 35mm)

A unique and clever take on the “films about filmmaking” genre, David Mamet’s absurdist comedy concerns the troubled production of a fictional film, The Old Mill. Plagued by setbacks, director Walt Price (William H. Macy) presses on after the company is kicked out of their New Hampshire location following a controversy with the film’s star. Things go downhill when the new town’s mill turns out not to exist, the new writer develops writer’s block, and the leading lady (Sarah Jessica Parker) questions her nude scenes. Philip Seymour Hoffman turns in a rare romantic lead role as Joseph Turner White, the afflicted writer called in to doctor the script and help the floundering production.