David Mamet hasn’t directed a film since 2008’s “Redbelt.” His indelibly stylish dialogue can be seen and heard in some of his best-known works, which include “House of Games”, “Homicide,” “The Untouchables,” “The Verdict,” “Ronin,” “Glengary Glen Ross”, “Wag the Dog”, “The Spanish Prisoner” “The Edge” and “Heist.” All superb films.
Mamet seems to be coming back in the spotlight. This past January, he revealed that he recently wrapped a film with Shia LaBeouf, an adaptation of his off-broadway play, “Henry Johnson”. Now, he’s saying that he’s been asked to write a script about Hunter Biden’s life.
Speaking to podcaster Andrew Klavan, Mamet blasted “brain-dead” Hollywood executives that he has met and noted that he does not work in the studio system anymore, “because, ‘A’ they don’t want me, and ‘B,’ I don’t want them.” However, he did confirm that the producers of “Sound of Freedom” came to him with an idea.
These guys who did the Sound of Freedom, they came to me and they said, ‘You want to write a a movie for us?’ I said, ‘Yeah sure, what do you got?’ They said they wanted to do a movie about Hunter Biden. I’m not going to call him Hunter Biden and it’s not going to be a travelogue.
Mamet, who is currently writing the screenplay, noted that the hardest part about doing the biopic is that it can easily become a film about all the places the famous subject went to, perfunctorily cataloging all of their most famous acts instead of developing a coherent theme, adding “So, the question is, if it’s not interesting, it doesn’t matter if it’s Hunter Biden. And if it is interesting, it doesn’t matter if it’s Hunter Biden. People don’t care, right?”
Mamet is known for his wittily acidic dialogue. In fact, a term was invented for his style of writing: “Mamet speak.” Mamet's style of writing is cynical, edgy, street and precisely crafted for effect. So, why has Mamet not directed a film in over 15 years? Well, for one, he outed himself as a Republican 10 years ago. His famous, or infamous, reasoning included this line:
In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.
Mamet then told The Guardian in 2022 that “Trump did a good job” as president, and that he didn’t disagree that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
I wouldn't call this film great — it stops short of that because of how neatly it resolves itself — but I'll give Rock his due here: this is much better than his previous directorial effort, "Top Five."