Written and Directed by

[chrisakachris]

No, not Joss Whedon, actually (though I shan't apologize for my addiction to Buffy which has recently been, well, rebuffed).

 

 

David Mamet.

I've just seen Heist, and it was disappointing, since Rebecca Pidgeon didn't (and did I mention spoilers will be dangling loosly here?), you know, win big.

 

But anyway, he's good.

 

Spanish Prisoner was good.

 

The Winslow Affair was good (I know nothing about filmmaking, but I understand he did some rather ingenious things there).

 

And there was this play, Speed the Plough, which I saw in London a year or two ago, which was very very good.

 

 

So, Tom Stoppard anyone?

[Doubleplus GC]

It was too bad that Rebecca Pidgeon didn't win big, but I thought Heist was nonetheless extrordinarily entertaining and wicked slick. This movie had the visual style and sharp writing that the Ocean's Eleven remake didn't quite pull off.

 

Hackman's the man.

 

David Mamet is quite good, though he deserves censure for writing Hannibal. But, from what I hear, the book was so bad that no one could make a good film from it. That's why it had first-rate actors, writer, and director, and still blew ass.

 

Stoppard indeed.

[chrisakachris]

Mamet's in Israel for the Jerusalem Film Festival, by the way. There was a short interview with him on TV today. He said the perfect film, as he sees it, should have no dialogue, and noted Chaplin, Keaton and.. some guy, with a Jewish name, i dunno.

 

Naturally, the interviewer asked him, "but you're known as the master of dialogue."

He said, "yeah, but I'm learning to do the other thing".

[Doubleplus GC]

I recently saw Buffalo 66 on TMC, which we are strangely getting for free right now (there must have been a power outage recently, or maybe we left the toaster on).

 

Anyway, as is common to Mamet, there is a whole lot of fascinating characters and brilliant dialogue, but as he sometimes does, the story in the end goes absolutely nowhere. It one of those movies where in the end you (this is the proverbial "you", the non-gender and non-quantitative and unspecific "you" which translates roughly to "I") get kinda pissed that such a well crafted setting ended up being essentially plotless.

 

Still, the guy kicks some serious ass.

[chrisakachris]

Once again, you should see or read Speed The Plough, which is very Mamety.

 

Then again, everything he does is Mamety.

[Doubleplus GC]

I actually have a copy of Speed The Plough. I guess I should read it.

 

Mamet is such a joy to watch but such a chore to read.