What I know of Mamet is that he is a superb creative person, in both visual and verbal media. His contributions to the stage are legendary. Not to mention his rich personal life.
So if you're a Mamet fan or a student of cinema or of dialogue or of acting or of martial arts, see REDBELT (one word). If not don't bother.
In the New York Times Mamet wrote about the great Takashi Shimura in Kurosawa's masterpiece (one of many), SEVEN SAMURAI. He wrote of the inevitable sadness in his and in any fighter's face. And by implication, of his goal of capturing that sadness in his movie (written and directed).
What he got instead was actors whose faces showed no emotion. Not inner sadness masking the emotion they had trained themselves not to feel--which would require superb acting. But just no expression.
The exception was Emily Mortimer who put life and harmony and rhythm on the screen for this movie, but only when she was on screen. And Mamet stalwart Joe Mantegna, whose work of late has been average, does very fine work, renewing my interest in watching CRIMINAL MINDS on TV just to watch him work. MametMantegnaMortimer. Hmmmm?
Then there was the fact that, it seemed to me, characters did things that may or may not have had anything to do with the characters themselves, just to move the story or plot or scene forward. That's a writer cheating the viewer as if anything at all can happen, then we have deluded ourselves into thinking we know anything about any of the characters. I have no idea what was behind the pawned watch subplot. But I suspect it was this:
And this may be more important than anything I have said above-- It may be that Mamet sees such cynical ugliness and dirtiness in Hollywood and in professional fighting (both part of the same set of ethics) that no plot point is needed to simply tell us, Hey, those are bad people.
But if cynicism is what he wants to promote, how's this: I cynically suspect Mamet wrote this story so he could meet some favorite boxers and hang out inside the boxing and martial arts scene.
If so, hope he got it out of his system. He's too great a creative person to remember with this chazzerei.
So if you're a Mamet fan or a student of cinema or of dialogue or of acting or of martial arts, see REDBELT (one word). If not don't bother.
In the New York Times Mamet wrote about the great Takashi Shimura in Kurosawa's masterpiece (one of many), SEVEN SAMURAI. He wrote of the inevitable sadness in his and in any fighter's face. And by implication, of his goal of capturing that sadness in his movie (written and directed).
What he got instead was actors whose faces showed no emotion. Not inner sadness masking the emotion they had trained themselves not to feel--which would require superb acting. But just no expression.
The exception was Emily Mortimer who put life and harmony and rhythm on the screen for this movie, but only when she was on screen. And Mamet stalwart Joe Mantegna, whose work of late has been average, does very fine work, renewing my interest in watching CRIMINAL MINDS on TV just to watch him work. MametMantegnaMortimer. Hmmmm?
Then there was the fact that, it seemed to me, characters did things that may or may not have had anything to do with the characters themselves, just to move the story or plot or scene forward. That's a writer cheating the viewer as if anything at all can happen, then we have deluded ourselves into thinking we know anything about any of the characters. I have no idea what was behind the pawned watch subplot. But I suspect it was this:
And this may be more important than anything I have said above-- It may be that Mamet sees such cynical ugliness and dirtiness in Hollywood and in professional fighting (both part of the same set of ethics) that no plot point is needed to simply tell us, Hey, those are bad people.
But if cynicism is what he wants to promote, how's this: I cynically suspect Mamet wrote this story so he could meet some favorite boxers and hang out inside the boxing and martial arts scene.
If so, hope he got it out of his system. He's too great a creative person to remember with this chazzerei.