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219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:00 am
by MichaelB
THINGS CHANGE
(David Mamet, 1988)
Release date: 22 March 2021
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World Blu-ray premiere)
Pre-order
here
Written and directed by David Mamet (
Oleanna), the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for his intense dramas,
Things Change is a charming, expertly crafted ‘mistaken identity’ comedy.
The Mob force unassuming shoe-shine man Gino (Don Ameche,
Trading Places) into taking the hit for a murder he didn't commit. The pay-off? A fishing boat in Sicily when he gets out. Small-time crook Jerry (Joe Mantegna,
House of Games) takes Gino on one last jaunt to Lake Tahoe before his term begins, but, when Gino is mistaken for a major league gangster, the duo soon fall prey to local hoodlums…
An unexpected change of pace for Mamet,
Things Change benefits from an intelligent, witty script and superb central performances from Ameche and Mantegna, who received Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival for their efforts.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
• High Definition remaster
• Original stereo audio
• New interview with writer-director David Mamet
• New interview with actor Joe Mantegna
• New Interview with actor William H Macy
• New Interview with composer Alaric Jans
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Ellen Cheshire, an archival production report, extracts from interviews with David Mamet and Don Ameche, an overview of contemporary critical responses and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies
• All extras subject to change
#PHILTD219
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697921052
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:10 pm
by Finch
Roger Ebert's contemporary 3 star review
Pity Ricky Jay isn't around anymore to contribute to the extras.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:32 pm
by domino harvey
Nice that they got Mamet to participate in the extras this go around!
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:36 pm
by MichaelB
He was aware of Indicator's Oleanna and I believe he gave the project his blessing, but I think he strongly felt that that particular piece should speak for itself.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 4:50 pm
by beamish14
MichaelB wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:36 pm
He was aware of Indicator's
Oleanna and I believe he gave the project his blessing, but I think he strongly felt that that particular piece should speak for itself.
Mamet felt personally attacked when the play got some very hostile responses during its initial staging with William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon
at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1992.
I adore
Things Change, and I hope more of his work keeps coming out on Blu. Fingers crossed we'll even get television productions like
The Water Engine
and
A Life in the Theatre one day.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:18 pm
by domino harvey
Lakeboat would have been a good bonus film for this given the Mamet and Mantegna factor
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:29 pm
by beamish14
domino harvey wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:18 pm
Lakeboat would have been a good bonus film for this given the Mamet and Mantegna factor
Oh, definitely. I really like that, and I don't think it's ever been released in its OAR. Really nice late career performance
from Peter Falk in it. Mamet's half-brother stars in it; he's not terribly magnetic, but it doesn't bring down the film.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 1:26 pm
by MichaelB
Final specs:
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:55 am
by MichaelB
CineSavant - he's a long-term fan of the film, which he regards as "nearly perfect" and reckons that it's the first great film that Don Ameche starred in since Lubitsch's
Heaven Can Wait 45 years earlier.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 11:25 am
by knives
That seems a needlessly cruel opinion. I love the film too, but there’s no need to throw out so much great work to praise it.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:44 pm
by MichaelB
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:05 pm
by rapta
Cannot wait for this one. Watched Mamet's Homicide for the first time recently, and well...I would love to see a label like this get hold of it one day.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:09 pm
by therewillbeblus
rapta wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:05 pm
Cannot wait for this one. Watched Mamet's
Homicide for the first time recently, and well...I would love to see a label like this get hold of it one day.
Well you're in luck: there is an in-print Criterion DVD, which will presumably be upgraded eventually
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 4:44 pm
by MichaelB
CineOutsider - another fan from its original release.
Re: 219 Things Change
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:43 am
by Slaphappy
Things Change still delights and is all the more enchanting for being so atypical of its writer-director whilst still absolutely bearing his mark, from his precise direction and smartly-written dialogue to the smooth flow of the storytelling and the excellent performances he elicits from his perfectly chosen cast.
Is it atypical though? My five favourite David Mamet movies are Things Change, Oleanna, Winslow Boy, State And Main and Phil Spector and I love the benevolence of these movies. Even Oleanna has that quality, although it’s extremely divisive on surface. They are all more or less movies about starry-eyed uprightness and stylistically both naive and complex at the same time. In fact this benevolence is the first attribute I've ever attached on Mamet while watching State And Main when it came out and now that I was watching Things Change for the first time I had a complete trust on him, that
it'll all be good in the end
.