Sideways
I heard so much about Sideways that I had a completely twisted view as to what it was supposed to be about. I knew it was funny, I knew it was about wine snobs, and I knew it had a lot of good acting-enough to merit an Oscar nod.
What nobody tells you is that Sideways is about a wine snob (Miles, played by Paul Giamatti) who's a neurotic eighth-grade English teacher trying to get his novel published. Or that it's not really about wine at all, but mostly about sex. Or that it's not even really about sex, but mostly about relationships, fidelity, life and death, success and failure, happiness and sorrow. In short, it's a romantic comedy dressed up as a road trip. Anyone who thinks the movie is an art film about guys discussing wine and standing around in sun-dappled fields of grape is in for a rude surprise.
In fact, come to think of it, there were a lot of grandmotherly types who looked utterly horrified after the movie ended. Read on if you want to understand whether or not this movie is for you.
Jack (Thomas Haden Church), Miles' college roommate, is going to get married. Miles plans to take Jack out for one week on a manly tour of the wineries of northern California with a little golf interspersed throughout. Jack has other plans.
Jack is a formerly famous actor from a soap who now only does voiceovers for commercials. Tanned and with an awful mop that looks like a hair transplant, Jack sees this trip as an opportunity to get laid. In essence, this is his last fling...the world's worst (or perhaps best, depending on your perspective) bachelor party.
Discussions of wine are mostly relegated to making Miles look like the awkward, mawkish nerd of the pair. Everyone knows somebody likes Miles. Dressed in rumpled sweaters, balding and with a slight lisp, Miles is everybody's English teacher and sad sack friend. Jack, on the other hand, is the frat buddy who refuses to let go of his college years.
It doesn't take long before Jack begins projecting his lifestyle onto Miles. Miles has been divorced and never quite recovered, so Jack sees it as his responsibility to also get Miles laid. This incidentally makes Jack feel better, as Miles is his only guilty conscience.
The object of Miles' affection is Maya (Virginia Madsen), a recently divorced waitress at a restaurant appropriately names The Hitching Post. Jack discovers a willing companion in another winery's hostess, Stephanie (Sandra Oh). This merry quartet ends up double dating with varying degrees of success.
We follow Miles' ups and downs as he worries about meeting a woman, grumbles about his own mealy mouthed presence, argues with Jack over his infidelity, and ultimately despairs over his writing career. At his lowest moment, Miles sneaks into his mother's house and steals money from her. There's not a lot to like about Miles.
And yet it would be hypocrisy to merely condemn him. In fact, what's exhilarating about Sideways is that the characters appears to be caricatures but are actually fleshed out personalities. The stereotypes that define the two characters slowly dissolve, even as they accuse each other of being a stereotype. Jack is clearly the dominant personality, but eventually he screws things up so badly that only Miles can save him. It's one of the funniest scenes in the movie. It also happens to involve male full frontal nudity. And it's more Al Bundy than Brad Pitt nudity.
AAAGH! I STILL can't get that out of my head! Now I must think of sandpaper to scrape that off my brain!
Anyway, the script is clever enough to allow the characters varying degrees of subtlety in their conversation, comparing their lives to wine. The beauty of the film is that it's not about wine--it could have been about coffee, really-but about how people view themselves and relate to each other. Maya and Miles' conversation about why they like wine is as much a dialogue about the grape as it is about their own relationships.
And that's the charm of Sideways. Faced with major life changes, Jack and Miles take that one week to utterly regress. Maybe they don't quite take a step back because they've stumbled backwards so far already, but they certainly move sideways: in their lives, in their careers, in their relationships. Ultimately, the movie ends on a high note, although perhaps bittersweet.
Any man who has struggled with marriage and adulthood will thoroughly enjoy this movie. Any author that battles to get his book published (guilty as charged!) will sympathize with Miles' struggle. And yes, wine aficionados will probably enjoy it too.
What nobody tells you is that Sideways is about a wine snob (Miles, played by Paul Giamatti) who's a neurotic eighth-grade English teacher trying to get his novel published. Or that it's not really about wine at all, but mostly about sex. Or that it's not even really about sex, but mostly about relationships, fidelity, life and death, success and failure, happiness and sorrow. In short, it's a romantic comedy dressed up as a road trip. Anyone who thinks the movie is an art film about guys discussing wine and standing around in sun-dappled fields of grape is in for a rude surprise.
In fact, come to think of it, there were a lot of grandmotherly types who looked utterly horrified after the movie ended. Read on if you want to understand whether or not this movie is for you.
Jack (Thomas Haden Church), Miles' college roommate, is going to get married. Miles plans to take Jack out for one week on a manly tour of the wineries of northern California with a little golf interspersed throughout. Jack has other plans.
Jack is a formerly famous actor from a soap who now only does voiceovers for commercials. Tanned and with an awful mop that looks like a hair transplant, Jack sees this trip as an opportunity to get laid. In essence, this is his last fling...the world's worst (or perhaps best, depending on your perspective) bachelor party.
Discussions of wine are mostly relegated to making Miles look like the awkward, mawkish nerd of the pair. Everyone knows somebody likes Miles. Dressed in rumpled sweaters, balding and with a slight lisp, Miles is everybody's English teacher and sad sack friend. Jack, on the other hand, is the frat buddy who refuses to let go of his college years.
It doesn't take long before Jack begins projecting his lifestyle onto Miles. Miles has been divorced and never quite recovered, so Jack sees it as his responsibility to also get Miles laid. This incidentally makes Jack feel better, as Miles is his only guilty conscience.
The object of Miles' affection is Maya (Virginia Madsen), a recently divorced waitress at a restaurant appropriately names The Hitching Post. Jack discovers a willing companion in another winery's hostess, Stephanie (Sandra Oh). This merry quartet ends up double dating with varying degrees of success.
We follow Miles' ups and downs as he worries about meeting a woman, grumbles about his own mealy mouthed presence, argues with Jack over his infidelity, and ultimately despairs over his writing career. At his lowest moment, Miles sneaks into his mother's house and steals money from her. There's not a lot to like about Miles.
And yet it would be hypocrisy to merely condemn him. In fact, what's exhilarating about Sideways is that the characters appears to be caricatures but are actually fleshed out personalities. The stereotypes that define the two characters slowly dissolve, even as they accuse each other of being a stereotype. Jack is clearly the dominant personality, but eventually he screws things up so badly that only Miles can save him. It's one of the funniest scenes in the movie. It also happens to involve male full frontal nudity. And it's more Al Bundy than Brad Pitt nudity.
AAAGH! I STILL can't get that out of my head! Now I must think of sandpaper to scrape that off my brain!
Anyway, the script is clever enough to allow the characters varying degrees of subtlety in their conversation, comparing their lives to wine. The beauty of the film is that it's not about wine--it could have been about coffee, really-but about how people view themselves and relate to each other. Maya and Miles' conversation about why they like wine is as much a dialogue about the grape as it is about their own relationships.
And that's the charm of Sideways. Faced with major life changes, Jack and Miles take that one week to utterly regress. Maybe they don't quite take a step back because they've stumbled backwards so far already, but they certainly move sideways: in their lives, in their careers, in their relationships. Ultimately, the movie ends on a high note, although perhaps bittersweet.
Any man who has struggled with marriage and adulthood will thoroughly enjoy this movie. Any author that battles to get his book published (guilty as charged!) will sympathize with Miles' struggle. And yes, wine aficionados will probably enjoy it too.
posted by talien | 5:37 PM
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