..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Edmond

Directed by Stuart Gordon
First Independent Pictures

What do you give the man who kills everything?

It is unlikely there will be a more controversial film at any of the festivals this year than Edmond, adapted from the early Mamet play, title charactered by William H. Macy, and directed by Stuart Gordon.

What's the big deal?

Edmond is a guy who takes the social selfishness of the moment - has it ever been different and have we ever been as indulgent? - to its horrifyingly logical end. What does Edmond want? He just wants what most people want. To be satisfied, to feel safe, to be loved.

But Edmond has lost his social boundaries. Of course, Mamet dramatizes this in the most head-spinning ways, with enough sex and violence to make the boys of Glengarry Glen Ross blush like nuns in a strip club. Mamet wrote, "I have become what I beheld," for the very square Elliott Ness to say in The Untouchables. And indeed, that is Edmond's story as well... just not as square.

The storyline of Edmond is filled with shocking surprises and I'll allow you discover them for yourselves when you see this movie. (It's unlikely that any of the Dependents would have the guts to release such an audience-provoking film.) But the basic outline of the film is of a man who starts with very little power, but seeks a real change in his life, makes changes, gets drunk with his newfound strength (as people do) and forces you, as an audience member, to consider how you assert yourself in the world.

If you are seeing a similarity to Fight Club here, you aren't far off, though Bill Macy is no Brad Pitt and Fight Club's third act foretold a far more hopeful future. In many ways, Edmond is the second act of Fight Club writ large, without the soft pillow of suburban satire that defined the first act or the parachute of love that saved the third.

William H. Macy is brilliant here, interestingly doing less of the "Mametspeak" rhythm than he has in other Mamet roles. There is a beautiful, tiny turn from Joe Mantagna. And a small role by Julia Stiles is all grown up and makes you wish Ms. Stiles was more stiffly challenged more often. The performances are, really, across the board, dead on.

But oh, what a fight you'll have at dinner after seeing Edmond. And best of all, I think you might be surprised by who takes which side in the fight. Like the best of Richard Pryor, this is a provocative experience that some people will have a very hard time with, unable to see past the violence, emotional and otherwise, that they might dismiss as cheap or unnecessary. But as the rouge rises in their cheeks as they speak of it, you will know that it was absolutely necessary, a hard slap in the face for people who want to wake up.

But folks... don't try this at home.

- David Poland