Two-Bit Waltz

While I am not a huge David Mamet fan I enjoyed most of his movies and think he's a good director. Since he's so famous his daughter Clara decided to direct and star in a movie... with disastrous results. And considering that there are only 5 reviews with three that give it 1s and one that gives it a 10 it seems like a polarizing movie.

Maude (Mamet) is a 18 year old girl that seems to live a perfect life until she is suspended from school for expressing her creative vein, loses one of her best friends when she has to move for job reasons and has a relationship with another boy but after a while he leaves her because he lost interest. So she finds some happiness in writing her novel but after a while she'll have the writers' block and things go awry. That's it folks.

To say that TWO BIT WALTZ is terrible is an understatement. Our lead was seen not only as a desperate loser, but also like a stupid that can't manage to have nothing going right in her life. The acting was lazy by all, including by talented William Macy as the careless dad that doesn't even care if he sleeps on the couch or on the toilet seat, or even if there is food in the kitchen. As for the other characters, they acted more like bad caricatures than normal people. And there were some dream sequences where Gloria imagines to be in a grass field and some people with the heads of elephants, rabbits and small birds and other people dressed in horse, lion and bear costumes that stand alone or dance in the grass... it just made me feel stupider. Oh and let me talk about few of the nasty moments:

1) The family goes to visit the grandmother on her death bed and as they come, she dies instantly. That's funny for some uh?

2) When Maude is suspended from school nobody except the mother seemed to care in the least, like if it's ok to have such a marvellous daughter (pun intended)

3) When the family goes to a psychiatrist (David Paymer) he scolds the family after some minutes and when she meets Maude out of the building he tells her ''Do me a w**k''. I can't say the full word because of IMDB standards, but it seriously makes you wonder about the depiction of psychiatry in movies and TV shows, and I assume that in real life he would have been fired ASAP!

Overall, a terrible movie caused not by nepotism but thanks to a terrible script that must have cost 5 cents, sleep-walking acting, the aforementioned nasty moments and some fantasy sequences so jarring that defy description. Easy to skip unless you love to see talented actors in embarassing performances.

If you are tired of movies that are "downers" - full of torture, violence, war, the apocalypse, drugs, zombies, vampires - this film is a breath of fresh air. It's quirky, funny, totally off-the-wall and thoroughly enjoyable! Maude is a teenager in trouble at school but the situations are funny! (Her school counselor is great!) Maude's home life is definitely not normal (and rather bizarre) - yet it is funny! Maude's frequent (yet brief) therapy sessions are funny! Maude's imagination is funny! Maude's mother is like no other movie mother - and so funny! The slick editing of this film does not give you a dull moment! The dialogue is quirky and funny and unique! We rent a lot of independent movies and have to say that we enjoy them much more than almost all mainstream movies we rent. Highly recommend if you like films that are quirky, creative, unique, and funny!

We can tell how this movie got made by watching it: Brainless, self-centered twit is too dim to realize that she knows nothing and should definitely continue her education, so she writes a film script and, lo and behold, her writer dad tells her she's really got something. Unfortunately, he's dead wrong.

If I hadn't seen this during a pre-screening where the director was present, I would have walked out instead of sitting through this with saintly patience, and I wouldn't have been alone. No one present valued the experience, and we were a forgiving bunch as we suffered through an interview and Q & A that made it very clear that Clara Mamet is as vacuous as her effort here. When asked why she included a brief scene where her character had an absurd number of lit cigarettes in her mouth at once, she responded that she really likes smoking. Pure unapologetic narcissism, through and through, as if we couldn't already tell from her work.

The reputable critic who reviewed this film and likened Ms. Mamet to Buster Keaton should probably consult a surgeon to have his tongue removed from her father's rectum. It should never have been made.

2 previous reviews here - at opposite ends, which generally means the film may be worth watching. unfortunately, this wasn't. it had potential, but i believe ms. Mamet, the director, writer and star of this work, lacks the depth her father has always had. as a director, she might have gained some insight in how to get the most from her actors but her own lack of acting acumen prevents her from achieving anything truly moving. as writer, she has some good ideas here, but far too juvenile to make the grade. i'd guess with her pedigree, doors were opened that are closed to the rest of us. maybe in about 5 years she'll have a bit more life experience from which to draw a decent story or two.

Two bit waltz is what happen when a really good directors child gets to direct a movie because their daddy is a director. Clara Mamet is a cinematic train wreck. She has no acting ability. Unless you call doing a Ellen Page in Juno impression in every show and movie she is in a talent. Her writing skills have the intellectual depth of a kiddie pool at Six Flags. Her directing skills are on par with a 6 year old teaching a poodle to jump through a hoop. I am mad that Mamet was allowed the funds and resources to make this turd of a movie when other good directors struggle so hard but don't have the luck to be the offspring of a really good Director. This movie shows why Mamet has not directed anything since. Check out her fathers movies. But this is overwhelming proof as to why Nepotism should be banned in Hollywood. Or at least change the spelling of Nepotism to C-L-A-R-A M-A-M-E-T.