I am sooo excited I got to see Sideways
When you have limited opportunites to go see movies you tend to live on the experience of the one or two movies you have seen this year. This is so different than in my previous life, when I could spend an entire day at the movie theater. My record is four movies in one day---all of which I paid for. It started with Permanent Midnight at like 2 in the afternoon and ended with a midnight showing of Citizen Kane. I think the Opposite of Sex was in there, too, and maybe Men with Guns.
Sideways is a very good movie. Paul Giamatti rocked just as much as I had hoped. You may have seen the clip where he and Thomas Haden Church are arguing outside a restaurant where he says, "If anyone orders Merlot I am out of there. I am NOT drinking any *bleep* Merlot." It is even funnier in the movie than when they show the clip on Letterman. There are a lot of other funny moments, like the golf scene. You can watch that on the webpage for the movie, but what they left out was that just before Giamatti hits the ball to them, the other golfers who are supposed to stay behind them until they finish the hole have practically hit them with their balls out of impatience. Great scene. And then there is this one where Giamatti's character has just learned that his ex-wife got remarried a month ago. This causes him to go nuts, taking a bottle of wine from the car, uncorking it with his mouth, and running and drinking it.
But more than just being a funny movie, this movie delivers some great stories. With just a line or a look, the character's back stories fill in and you grow to know them like people you already know. Giamatti is trying to explain to a very angry Virginia Madsen how he is nothing like the chronically philandering Church. "I'm not like him," he pleads. "I'm just his freshman-year roommate from San Diego State." (Up to this point Church talks about Giamatti as his "main man") The way he pathetically surrenders this fact up to her tells you so much more about these two men and their relationship than any flashbacks or other dialogue between them could ever five you. You can almost see Giamatti's previous 20 years of the lopsided relationship. I mean, in all the years that the Giamatti character has been travelling to Santa Barbara County (he knows every vintner and waitress by name), this was the first time his "best friend" has accompanied him. You know these guys. You may even be one of them. And my favorite non-funny scene of the movie is when Giamatti and Madsen are sharing some wine after dinner and talking about what they love about wine. He is describing to her why he loves Pinot--the vulnerabilities of the grape, the vigilance of the vintner---and it was filmed with such intimacy that I was ready to kiss him :-) (she doesn't at that point).
So if you are able to see this movie, please check out this review if you want to see if you may be offeneded by anything. CS Monitor tends to break down the aspects of the film that gets it a particular rating. The USCCB also reviewed it if you prefer their ratings.
Sideways is a very good movie. Paul Giamatti rocked just as much as I had hoped. You may have seen the clip where he and Thomas Haden Church are arguing outside a restaurant where he says, "If anyone orders Merlot I am out of there. I am NOT drinking any *bleep* Merlot." It is even funnier in the movie than when they show the clip on Letterman. There are a lot of other funny moments, like the golf scene. You can watch that on the webpage for the movie, but what they left out was that just before Giamatti hits the ball to them, the other golfers who are supposed to stay behind them until they finish the hole have practically hit them with their balls out of impatience. Great scene. And then there is this one where Giamatti's character has just learned that his ex-wife got remarried a month ago. This causes him to go nuts, taking a bottle of wine from the car, uncorking it with his mouth, and running and drinking it.
But more than just being a funny movie, this movie delivers some great stories. With just a line or a look, the character's back stories fill in and you grow to know them like people you already know. Giamatti is trying to explain to a very angry Virginia Madsen how he is nothing like the chronically philandering Church. "I'm not like him," he pleads. "I'm just his freshman-year roommate from San Diego State." (Up to this point Church talks about Giamatti as his "main man") The way he pathetically surrenders this fact up to her tells you so much more about these two men and their relationship than any flashbacks or other dialogue between them could ever five you. You can almost see Giamatti's previous 20 years of the lopsided relationship. I mean, in all the years that the Giamatti character has been travelling to Santa Barbara County (he knows every vintner and waitress by name), this was the first time his "best friend" has accompanied him. You know these guys. You may even be one of them. And my favorite non-funny scene of the movie is when Giamatti and Madsen are sharing some wine after dinner and talking about what they love about wine. He is describing to her why he loves Pinot--the vulnerabilities of the grape, the vigilance of the vintner---and it was filmed with such intimacy that I was ready to kiss him :-) (she doesn't at that point).
So if you are able to see this movie, please check out this review if you want to see if you may be offeneded by anything. CS Monitor tends to break down the aspects of the film that gets it a particular rating. The USCCB also reviewed it if you prefer their ratings.
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