Has anyone seen this movie? The gf and I will probably check it out this week, but not yet. It's getting Cititzen Kane-like reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sideways/ , and I heard the character lives in Pacific Beac (where I live). Anyone?
The g/f and I were hoping to see it last weekend, too, but we didn't end up having enough energy. I've liked his other moves well enough, and "Election" was brilliant and wonderful. My hopes are probably too high for this one.
Well, I don't know about the "Citizen Kane" comparisons but "Sideways" is a very entertaining little comedy. The wife and I saw it two weeks ago and both of us liked it. Good acting and well written. If a movie like "As Good as it Gets" can garner so many accolades, than "Sideways" is certainly deserving.
Despite the glowing reviews I went in skeptical, and came out converted. It's a great film. I like Payne's films but never loved them -- the main charcters are always a little too flawed to be totally comfortable to watch, and the secondary characters are usually just for comic relief. His M.O. is to start with a really small, simple plot, and just build the lead around it. He does the same here but with a much better supporting cast. Other than Sandra Oh's Stephanie, the other three main characters are all much more real and well-rounded than you ever see in a typical Hollywood film.
Great film. Paul Giamatti is a real prospect for Oscar consideration. Virginia Madsen seemed the weak link, to me.
Maybe I'm biased since I could watch Virginia Madsen read the phone book, but I found Maya to be a much more complete character than Stephanie. Neither is on the level of Miles or Jack.
This has been a "weak" year for movies...there is nothing that is running away with it and no huge pictures fighting for everything (Mysitc River and ROTK last year). Right now, Depp seems to be getting a lot of buzz for Finding Neverland (which I haven't seen yet), and as he could have won a few times by now, he might get it. Edit: Bill Murray should also be thrown in there, but as his movie isn't even out yet, I forgot about him briefly.
I disagree. "The Return" (Russian) and "Before Sunset," as I've mentioned a gajillion times on this board, are two of the most amazing movies I've ever seen, and although "Vera Drake" wasn't in the end a great movie (it was just a good one), the performances were fantastic (not so much Imelda Staunton in the lead, which was a little thick with Method, but Richard Graham as the husband and the folks who rounded out the family). I'd happily sit through a year's worth of crap movies to catch something as visionary as "The Return." (I'm suddenly reminded of last year's Oscar run-up, when people around here were making the ridiculous claim that the alluring Scarlett Johansson was actually a good enough actress to have been "robbed" of a nomination.)
That is why I said "weak"...the person who only sees what is playing at the local national chain will think it has been fairly weak, those of us who follow things closer will know differently.
I agree about characterization, but I felt Madsen's performance was weak. Oh's performance, while playing a thinner character altogether, was stronger than Madsen's.
I just saw it and really enjoyed it. I think it's Alexander Payne's best film yet and Paul Giamatti and the rest of the cast were great. There's nothing cheesier than the hollywood ending but this ending sent me home feeling hopeful for Miles despite all of his failings. Did anybody see We Don't Live Here Anymore? A darker film that explores some of the same territory; also excellent.
I liked Sideways quite a bit, but it wasn't the best movie of the year, or even the best American movie of the year, let alone the best Payne has ever made. One of the most interesting and moving things about his last two movies is the unreliability of the narrator, which is of a type that I don't think I've seen before: the narrators are not dishonest except to themselves, and their ability to comment on their own circumstances is compromised by their own naivte and the limitedness of their surroundings. The distance between the dramas they think they're having and the dramas of the human condition that they're actually experiencing is a moving irony. "About Schmidt" was certainly a flawed movie (it took potshots at some easy targets), but the redemtion at its end was more earned than the redemtion at the end of "Sideways."
I saw it this weekend and enjoyed it. I don't see enough movies during a year to have a top movie list but I don't remember enjoying a movie more this year than I did with Sideways.
I love the big multiplex close to my place because it gets all of the smaller art-house type movies and people who wouldn't normally consider watching these movies will pay the money to see them then leave 20 minutes in because they're idiots who were expecting Road Trip 2. Currently it has Kinsey, Sideways and Finding Neverland. I saw Sideways yesterday and 3 people left after about 25 minutes. That alone tells me it was a good movie. Actually I liked it alot and I thought the ending was quite well done.