SIDEWAYS

Director: Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt, Citizen Ruth)
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

Paul Giamatti and (of all people) Thomas Hayden Church give two superb performances as middle-aged buddies gone wine tasting. I can see both receiving Oscar nods for their portrayals. Giamatti is a junior high english teacher with a novel that won't get published. He's divorced and depressed and knows failure more clearly than he knows anything else in his life. Church is (comically) a small time actor with some past roles in recurring TV series and commercial work. He is also terrified of his impending wedding at the end of the week. For whatever reason he must also chase women. It's who he is. These two hop around southern California's wine country until they find some girls. Prior to this point the film is rather drab and uninteresting, but when the relationships between the two couples begins to break down, we see the genius of the writer. It takes great skill and great confidence to write drably simply to set mood and pacing, and in many ways that's just what the author does up to this point. Then we see that all of these lows were very much by design and we can then achieve even higher highs. The changes in atmosphere aside, this is an incredibly unique film throughout. We learn much about the particulars of wine. Much more importantly, we learn much about the particulars of these people. There are emotional realities in this film that I've never seen so well done before. There is also a great deal of humor, and loss and love, and sadness and joy. An intentionally small, but excellent film. It may not live on as a classic, but it might just. It's that good. Regardless, it's one of the best movies of the year without a doubt.

Standouts: Tremendously good script. Two characters never before seen on film.
Blowouts: Not much to note. This was an excellent film. One of the best, if not the best film of 2004.

Grade: A+