An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Edmond is a deeply introspective work exploring divorce, racial bias, and sexuality, all swirling around 'Edmond' - A white, urban, working "house husband", who suddenly leaves his long term marriage and all of its tired trappings due to a coincidence at a fortune teller.If you haven't been deeply hurt, if you haven't been blindsided, if you haven't questioned your place in the world without your long-term partner beside you, then you have absolutely no place commenting on this film.Edmond has a 'mixed' reputation because of this. Many couples, snuggling up with their junior high lovers on Netflix, leave 5/10 reviews (the lowest it could possibly receive, given the film's knock-out performances from an all-star cast). If, however, you are among the suffering, Edmond will speak to you.It's no wonder that Edmond had to be produced independently, and received no mainstream exposure, despite the A-list actors: It is racist, it is explosive, it is offensive. It puts academy award winning films to shame. What an embarrassment for the 'industry', that a powerhouse film like this could be made outside of Hollywood. It shows what Hollywood has become: A watered down, lowest-common-denominator paddle-pool (Who wants more Marvel!? Happy meals for everyone!!!). The cast is proof enough that many "professionals" believed very strongly in David Mamet's writing.Mamet wrote the script through the lens of divorce, and through this lens it is best seen. If you don't know the pain and rejection of divorce - the unreality and loneliness that it suddenly abandons you in - then leave your clean shoes at the door. Edmond has no place in your life.For me, and others like me, it is essential.

Another special little movie by horror director Stuart Gordon, who inserts a whole lot more drama into 'Edmond' than he usually does - I would guess, because I haven't seen all that much of his older work (of course, I did see his infamous and terrific debut 'Re-animator', and 'Dagon').A total blessing for this film is that William H. Macy agreed to do the lead, you can't go wrong with 'Jerry'! The beautiful female sidekicks (Julia Stiles, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Denise Richards, what a quartet!) don't have big parts, but they deliver lots and lots of fun. And let's not forget about the talk at the bar with Joe Mantegna. The story is quite 'simply' that of a man descending step by step into hell one night, but he redeems himself in a special kind of way... I won't tell, just go see. Being an adaptation of a stage play written by David Mamet (which will have helped Macy to take the role, he worked with Mamet many times before, in the theatre and in films), you might have another clue as what to expect, I thought it worked really well as a film.A good 8 out of 10.

Don't be fooled by the A-list cast, writer and director. This is probably the most disgusting, degrading and pointless movie made in the last 10 years. It is vicious, inflammatory and totally lacking in any worth whatsoever. Bill Macy must have been pretty desperate financially to participate in this ugly and hateful mess. I will never look at him the same way again. Judging by this syphilitic pus-bomb masquerading as a film, David Mamet needs to have his head examined. If you want the same effect as watching this turd, go plunge your head into a backed-up toilet. You'll have the same experience and, hey, you'll save yourself two hours.

This was written for Macy, right? Just as he "made" the earlier "Fargo," Macy's mesmerizing performance is the subject of "Edmond." Again he's an Everyman (make that a white Everyman), and again things go from bad to unbelievably bad in just under two hours' time. The movie had me at the edge of my seat throughout -- first because Edmond was speaking his mind in an almost Larry David-type way (albeit without any of the comedy). After the fateful meeting with the fortune teller he's just not gonna get screwed. How ironically it all turns out...The movie is definitely better at the beginning, when it looks like Edmond just possibly could live his life fairly normally while not having to suck up to assholes and jerks. But that all changes when, tellingly, it's a white person who turns up the victim.That's Julia Stiles, who was sublime in "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet", in the puzzling role of the barmaid. Why WAS it she went home with a battered homely man twice her age? That's where the movie starts to get a bit unbelievable. And then when Edmond's pontificating in her apartment, waving his knife around, and she's not even scared. It was at moments like that the movie lost its verisimilitude for me.Though parts of "Edmond" were truly unbelievable, the movie absolutely riveted me from the murder on. I caught this film on the IFC channel and had to stop it a couple of times during Macy's first encounter with his cell mate. I couldn't watch or listen except in doses. But I did manage to see this movie through to its stunning conclusion -- on a bizarrely fascinating note!