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Sideways
(2004)
Dir: Andrew Payne
I came of age drinking all of the cheapest beer and wine that I could find. Half-gallon jugs of Carlo Rossi wine were, in my youth, insurmountable. Never mind their putrid odors, loveless production and metal screw caps, their ridiculous volume spoke to my reckless spirit. Same went for eighteen-packs of Schaffer’s. Although I have come to enjoy some of the world’s finer beers, wines and liquors, some of my loves of yore still have genuine quality. Black Label beer, for instance, still tastes like more than pure nostalgia. It has a hearty bite indicative of the triumphant red can with its sermonizing strips of gold. Black Label is about cherishing a victory hard-fought, while it slips thought your fingers and down on through the hourglass. It’s not the world’s greatest beer, but given the proper attention, it’s one of the most inspiring.
This take on Black Label is a hard sell. Undoubtedly because the majority of people could give a shit less about the subtleties of an alcoholic beverage. For most, it’s more about getting loose to the point of helping a fellow student off with her shirt, for a video camera--and then going “wooooooo” about it (nothing spells this dissolved-sense-of-decency like Bud Light). Such is the ignorance-at-large of the selfish, impulsive and largely uncaring world that lies at the core of Miles Raymond’s frustration with life. Sideways’ fusspot protagonist, wrought with a staggering level of shlub-grit by the fucking virtuoso Paul Giamatti, spends most of the film in some state of disbelief at his surroundings and circumstance at large. He wants to make passable sense of a world wherein control and understanding are always inching just out of reach, and where a true friend is hard to find. There seems to be a reminder of the futility of his quest around every corner. Miles is a recently-divorced eighth-grade English teacher and struggling novelist who is taking his washed-up, actor friend (Thomas Haden Church--fucking Lowell from the sitcom “Wings”) on an extended bachelor party through California wine country. A loquacious wine enthusiast, Miles has hopes of steeping his friend in a more refined appreciation of the grape, and playing some golf. Church is hell-bent on getting some pre-wedding fucking done, and this curtails Mile’s beatific quest at just about every turn. Both men meet interesting women. For Church, a free-spirited winery employee who likes animal sex. For Miles, a similarly divorced waitress, Maya (Virginia Madsen, par-excellence), who shares his poetic musings on why wine is such a great thing. For Miles, a love of wine is rooted in nostalgia and deep introspection (so deep he seems unawares). Maya seems poised to bring the crucial light into Mile’s life, but there are always obstacles.
The acting here is truly sublime, and there are some absurdly funny moments, but the movie’s greatest strength is in its subtle and believable characters. A story of regular, flawed people going through trying times. Not cutely flawed (J-Lo) or wickedly flawed (J-Lo) people bumbling through harebrained slapstick or sobbing through gut-twisting drama--just believable characters and stirring levels of desperation and confusion. Sideways is far more a place to be visited and revisited than a flit of entertainment, and in that way, it most resembles a chilled case of Black Label.
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