Sideways (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | Sideways |
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| Director: | Alexander Payne |
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| Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack’s insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)—and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn’t let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti makes regret and self-loathing sympathetic, almost sweet. From the director of Election and About Schmidt. —Bret Fetzer
Barnes and Noble
Would-be author Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) is in a rut. He’s divorced, just north of 40, eking out life as a junior high school English teacher—and every publisher in the business has turned down his novel. Wine is his real passion—the Pinot Noir varietals in particular—although his oenophilic aspirations have lately devolved into excess. His best friend, Jack (Thomas Hayden Church), a small-time actor who is now lucky to get cast in the odd commercial, is considering going to work for his fiancée’s father. Before the impending nuptials, Miles takes Jack on a weeklong tour of California’s Santa Ynez valley wineries. Miles is in search of the perfect Pinot; Jack is just looking for a last fling. When they meet two women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), things get considerably more complicated. This is the setup for the warm and funny Sideways, a combination buddy comedy and road film that never travels the obvious path. The most critically acclaimed film of 2004, Sideways lives up to the hype, just as Lost in Translation, winner of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, did the year before. Director Alexander Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor have crafted a near-perfect little movie that doesn’t aim to be big or important. These characters could easily have been portrayed as pathetic losers, but thanks to a sparkling screenplay (based on Rex Picket’s novel) and nimble performances by Giamatti and Church, Miles and Jack are likable despite their deep flaws. It helps, too, that Madsen and Oh make such perfect foils for the wayward duo. As in their earlier gems, Election and About Schmidt, Payne and Taylor juggle the hilarious and the tragic deftly—arguably to the greatest effect in their young careers. For anyone who has ever found themselves somewhat adrift in life, Sideways will resonate even more deeply. Bill Pearis
Related works
Sideways: Original Score
Writer-director Alexander Payne’s critically acclaimed, multi-Academy Award nominated mid-life-crisis/road trip comedy fuses the sensibilities of 50’s/60’s Italian farce with the edgier, character-driven ethos of 70’s American films. The director admits the film’s musical score was largely inspired by the former’s Neapolitan jazz sensibilities (and the work of Piero Umiliani in particular), as skillfully evoked by composer Rolfe Kent, Payne’s previous collaborator on About Schmidt and Election. Some instrumental choices and rhythmic quirks are…
Sideways: A Novel
Sideways is the story of two friends-Miles and Jack-going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles—who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career and has lost his passion for living-the trip is a weeklong opportunity to evaluate his past, his future and himself. A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships.
