and I invited David Mamet over to discuss this filmed adaptation of his play.
Dr. Monkey Hussein Monkerstein: Welcome to my blog Mr. Mamet.David Mamet: Thanks. Your...
Dr. MHM: Blog. That's right.
Mamet: Right. Right. Blog.
Dr. MHM: Let me say that I thought the film was a wildly funny over the top black comedy.
Mamet: You thought...
DR. MHM: Yes.
Mamet: The thinking on your part was...
Dr. MHM: Yes.
Mamet: Film. Funny.
DR. MHM: Yep.
Mamet: Yes. Film. Your blog. Yes.
Dr. MHM: This might go on forever...
Mamet: This? What?
Dr. MHM: Us, speaking in...
Mamet: Mametian ellipses? Speaking...
DR. MHM: Holy fucking fuck yes. Take a break Davey boy and let me show some pictures from the film.
Bai Ling loves to show her small boobs off. Thank goodness she didn't sing in this role, she only danced "seductively."
Mena Suvari looks like she's 12. I'm sorry but she does.
Mamet: You didn't show a picture of my wife. She's in this movie too.
Dr. MHM: Yes. Your wife...
Mamet: You were saying.
Dr. MHM: Yeah. I'm just saying.
Mamet: And that's all? I mean, you were showing pictures one second and saying things the next. Yes.
Dr. MHM: Holy shit, you've sucked me back in to speaking like people do in your films.
Mamet: Speaking.
Dr. MHM: Okay, that 's it. You've got to go. We've almost wasted this entire post and we didn't discuss this film much.
Mamet: My...(fault)...really. Yes. (Loooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggg pause) Yes. Mine. The fault lies with me. Yes. Certainly. Yes.
Dr. MHM: Okay that's it Mamet. You shut your face while I tell everyone about this film.
Mamet:
Dr. MHM: This movie is based on the play of the same name and it's about one man's descent into all the circles of hell in one night, although they changed it a bit for this movie adaptation. Bill Macy leaves his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon, aka David Mamet's wife) and he decides to get some strange and start his life over. During his quest for strange he runs afoul of many hookers, strippers, pimps, three card Monte dealers, kills Julia Stiles, gets sent to prison, and ends up in a cell with a big black man who makes him be his bitch. This film is all about white guilt, resentment towards black men, and living the urban nightmare. Maybe if I had seen it when it was a play when it premiered back in the 1970's it might not have struck me as such a false and over wrought production, but I didn't. I saw it now and times are very different than when it was written and hearing white male characters call blacks the 'n' word made me recoil in horror. Then I just stopped taking it so seriously and I decided that this film as it is is nothing more than a way over the top black comedy. And despite all the acting talent assembled in it and the fact that Mamet...
Mamet: Yes. Me.
DR. MHM: ...adapted the script from his own play, the whole thing wasn't very good. In fact, it kind of stank.
Mamet: But my wife...
DR. MHM: Yes. She looked cute in it.
Mamet: Thanks. She stays in shape. She has to. It's in our pre nup.
Dr. MHM: Okay folks, I'm going to stuff a rag in Mamet's mouth now. Avoid this film if at all possible, unless you like campy urban melodrama that's way over the line.
7 comments:
Thanks for the review, and please tell Mamet to give it up already. His plays are annoying.
Hilarious review. I thought Mamet was married to Lindsay Crouse. And I like Julia Stiles, I'd like to see her in more movies.
I actually saw the premiere run of the play at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in 1982. At the time I thought it sucked, and I'm actually a big fan of Mamet's work.
Thanks for the witty review, Monkey. "I can't wait to miss that one", she said, brightly.
Mamet was married to Lindsay Crouse, but she cheated on him. Actually, they both cheated, but she cheated with someone more famous than Mamet, and that just wouldn't do.
I like Mamet. I do. Ellipses and all. But early Mamet is not as good as late Mamet. And very early Mamet, especially pre Glengarry Glen Ross Mamet, can be a very sad thing indeed.
(Please read this comment in a snootily cultured accent) I find film adaptations of Mamet's work to be spotty. Some of them are excellent, some of them not so much. Things Change is one that I remember enjoying quite a bit, and surprise, surprise, according to IMDB it was co-written by Shel Silverstein.
I'll tell you something though: I can hardly wait for the release of his next film, Joan of Bark, the Dog That Saved France. Sounds like a winner!
Over the top melodrama, I thought that was his bag, baby?
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