CHARMING CAST AND SCRIPT CONNECT IN 'STATE AND MAIN'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

``State and Main,'' David Mamet's ensemble comedy about a Hollywood movie crew's invasion of a picturesque Vermont town, is as smart, witty and nasty as anything you'd expect from the artist. It also sets up a shrewd, climactic fake-out in the great Mamet tradition, and with a refreshingly different tone to boot.

Toss in a crack cast of Mamet veterans (Alec Baldwin, William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon) and game, talented newbies (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer), and you've got an undeniably superior piece of satire.

But jeez, do we really need another show about the venality of movie people? Even one that democratically posits small-town New Englanders as equally corrupt? This is not new ground. Mamet himself exquisitely explored it in his stage play ``Speed-the-Plow'' so even the sharpest insights into the condition are beginning to look repetitive.

This stuff is still fun, though, and Mamet stages it with characteristically wicked verve.

After being shaken down and out of their original New Hampshire location, the cast and crew of the serious (but sexy!) period drama ``The Old Mill'' take their business to the supposedly more hospitable Waterford, Vt.

And what business it is. Director Walt Price (Macy) doesn't appear to be a very good filmmaker, but he's something of a genius when it comes to situational manipulation. Whether breaking it to his earnest playwright- turned-novice-screenwriter Joseph Turner White (Hoffman) that the new location lacks a few amenities - such as, oh, an old mill - or trying to convince neurotic leading lady Claire Wellesly (Parker) that she wasn't hired for her breasts but needs to show them anyway, Price is arguably the finest actor in the whole production.

But not, necessarily, in town. While the blowhard mayor (Charles Durning) and his aspiring wife (Patti LuPone) are appropriately starstruck at first, a greedy local pol (Clark Gregg) schemes to squeeze as much money out of the Hollywood folk as possible. Angling for a different kind of squeeze is local teen-ager Carla Taylor (Julia Stiles), who has read up studiously on star Bob Barrenger's (Baldwin) abiding interest in statutory romance.

A less toxic flirtation develops between writer White and the local bookstore owner/little theater director Ann Black (Pidgeon). After vehicular irresponsibility, embarrassing arrests and vandalism in the name of art grow out of these and other wayward liaisons, Marty Rossen (Paymer), the film's incomparably profane producer, arrives to set things straight ... or at least to try and buy everybody out of trouble.

A little obvious by Mamet standards, ``State and Main'' does admirably manage to sustain a high level of amusement.

``STATE AND MAIN''

(Rated R: language, nudity, sex)

The stars: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Clark Gregg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patti LuPone, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, Rebecca Pidgeon, Julia Stiles.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by David Mamet. Produced by Sarah Green. Released by Fine Line Features.

Running time: One hour, 42 minutes.

Playing: Selected theaters.

Our rating: Three stars