Glengarry Glen Ross

Artisan ($26.98)

In his vaguely “Look what I made, Mommy!” audio commentary, director James Foley uses the word “fuck” a couple of times and calls the Glengarry Glen Ross set “filmmaking heaven.” How else could it be? With David Mamet’s best play adapted as his best screenplay, along with the ensemble cast of Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Jonathan Pryce, and Kevin Spacey (all Mamet and all men in this one, everybody), this eternally disturbing study of the inner workings of real-estate salesmanship and the way that grown men grow more and more desperate leaves you like you just saw a ghost: shaken and stirred, impressed but a little bit alarmed. It was an instant classic a decade ago — a truly memorable movie — and now, in remastered wide-screen supplemented by three documentaries (including a student film on a particularly quixotic furniture dealer and a tribute to the dearly departed Lemmon), as well as a Florida swamp-full of commentary and interviews, it will absolutely Always Be Closing.

This article appears in December 13 • 2002.

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