God, I need a drink. Anything but the merlot. What a depressing flick this is. Yes, just now seeing it on TV. I heard Jaws is out also, might check that out, yes I am kidding.
Yes, it is kind of depressing, but it’s good.
I took my S to it when he was fifteen. I didn’t realize how graphic some parts were going to be. I told him to stay in his seat until everyone left so that hey didn’t see that I brought my kid to it. B-) But he ended up discussing it with the people behind us, and they were impressed with his insight, lol.
That’s why it’s called Sideways - since there seems to be no going forward. I found it depressing too.
Depressing - and depressingly funny, though I I thought it ended on a hopeful note.
I HATED this movie.
It was good. No question about that. And cheap to make, so it was profitable no doubt. But any movie that creates that amount of “buzz” and WOM deserves some respect. PG was brilliant. As far as I know, he has been nothing but a side character before and since but this was the role he was born to play.
The bits about wine/merlot are hilarious. Most definitely a middle aged persons flick.
I was seriously wondering how they were going to end it. I was surprised the friendship between PG and THC survived. I thought, since THC’s character was the bad guy, that PG would ditch him to make some sort of point about fidelity and morality and/or something but they remained friends to the end. And then PG drives back to knock on the girl’s door. That’s it. It ends right there. A very sideways ending to a very sideways films that made me think and glorifies wine like no other film can ever hope too.
PG is always good. See him in something you’ll enjoy like John Adams and skip the serious downer movies.
Yes, depressingly funny is a great description. For whatever reason, we were talking about this movie the other day (I think it was a Jeopardy answer?) and I asked my (adult) son if he’d ever seen it. Pathetic characters in pathetically awful situations, but so pathetic, you’re laughing and cringing at the same time. Realistic in a lot of ways. I told my son not to bother watching it–but I laughed when I thought about it, because it was so depressingly funny.
Bottle Shock is a more upbeat movie set in the California wine country.
Thanks, I’ll look that up. Never heard of it but there are so many films nowadays. Everyone’s mother either has a spec screenplay or is making a film.
Bottle Chock is fun, no doubt.
I liked the movie a lot.
" (I think it was a Jeopardy answer?)"
Yep, it was.
I remember liking it.
Anyone seen Barney’s Version? I like that movie. (Paul Giamatti also, why I mentioned it)
“there are so many films nowadays”
Sideways is over 10 years old. There is, in point of fact, very little product out there. Production is low and slow.
How do you figure Musica? The studios have slowed production but everyone and their mother has a Indie PC in Hollywood and they aren’t producing stage plays, novels or puppet shows. It seems the studios will only produce derivative work on material they have the intellectual rights to, like Superhero films, Vanity Fair did a good article about it 2 years ago, and sequels endlessly but there are so many other PC’s putting stuff out there it is hard to say there is very little product out there not to mention anyone can watch whatever they want from previous years on Netflix and the like.
Loved the movie! About a month or two after seeing it, was on the same aircraft as Virginia Madsen. Speaking of treats, if you have not gone wine tasting in the region where the movie was shot, and to the north in Paso Robles, I highly recommend it!
^I hope you told her what a great job she did in it! I thought she and Sandra Oh were amazing.
I guess I’m in a minority, but I enjoyed Sideways and think Giamatti did a great job. It was definitely NOT a feel-good movie, but I still liked it. Giamatti Is a talented guy. He won an Emmy for best lead actor in the HBO series about John Adams. A few years ago, he went back to his alma mater to play Hamlet in Yale Rep’s modern version of the Shakespeare classic. His performance got rave reviews. (I only know this because my actor D went to see the play and couldn’t stop telling me about it.)
I liked Bottle Shock too–which was more like a documentary about how Chateau Montelena (California winery) received higher ratings in a blind tasting against French wines. This happened in 1976 and it was the first time a California wine was rated ahead of French wine.