Sideways

Sideways is great. Okay, I'm not going to belabor the point too much. I've seen it a bunch of times by now, I already wrote a bit about it in December as one of my favorites of 2004, and if you were at all interested in it you've probably seen it by now.

So, let's do this as quick and clean as possible. To start, here's my feelings on Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's previous two collaborations:

Election - I love this film. From the first five minutes the first time I saw it, I could tell this was the work of intelligent, sharp satirists. What impressed me and a whole generation of film fans, I think, is how Payne and Taylor refuse to pull any punches that would make the characters relatable and likable. There's no one to root for in Election. Everyone is so self-involved and phony. You're almost rooting for the filmmakers while watching it, hoping they'll continue to peel back more and more layers, to make the situation more ugly, and therefore more satisfying.

About Schmidt - I wasn't so crazy about this one. It's still incisive and occasionally cruel. But it's also judgemental and thin. The movie takes easy potshots at dumb rednecks, sad old people and other simplistic Americana stereotypes. The entire time I was watching it, I felt that Taylor and Payne were better than this. Part of the problem was the film's schizo ambition - to elentlessly mock bogus American values while making us sympathize with a main character who expresses these same values. Many felt the combination worked, I felt that it played against itself.



With Sideways, Payne and Taylor give up on their social critiques and turn their attention to the human frailty side of the equation. Their film still feels sharp-tongued and still dissects the mindset of American males carefully and pointedly. But gone are the easy targets, and softened is the venom. Instead, we have a deeply heartfelt and sympathetic portrait of a sad, lonely man.

Miles (the brilliant Paul Giamatti, who with this film, American Splendor and Private Parts can now be considered chronically overlooked for major acting awards) has no life. Sure, he used to have a life. He used to be married, he used to believe that he'd have a real writing career. He used to enjoy wine as a hobby, an interest, something beautiful to share with his wife.

Now he's divorced, he works as a public school teacher and his wife is getting remarried. So, he's become a sadsack, something of a lush, a neurotic loser. And it's during this dark phase in Miles' life that he takes his friend Jack out on a bachelor party/road trip to Santa Barbara County.

Payne and Taylor use the template of the road movie to really get inside these men and their relationship. They meet a couple of alluring females along the way (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), they have a few rowdy adventures (including an argument at a golf course and an unexpectedly harrowing run-in with an angry hillbilly and his unfaithful wife), but mostly they drink wine and talk about themselves.

This is by far the most nuanced, sensitive relationship in any Payne film, ever. He's really crafted two memorable guys here. They are flawed, yes, but not like the hokey "types" of Schmidt or the larger-than-life villains of Election. More like, you know, every person on Earth. Though his situation for me was not relatable (I've never been married, I'm a lot younger than he is, I don't really like wine), I found Miles a terribly relatable character. His fear of failure, his shy excesses, his occasional fits of hopeless despair...this is a guy after my own heart.

I even read a review that complained Sideways was overpraised by critics because they personally found the main character so relatable. He's an overweight balding writer-type whose failure with women has turned him to obsess over an activity considered by most as a mindless hobby. That's half the film critics on Earth right there!

This is an amusing analysis, but it's only half-right. Sure, critics may have more in common with Miles than most people, but if you're not at least somewhat emotionally connected to Miles after experiencing two hours through his eyes, you're just not going to be a person I want to know. You may lack depth, or you may be superficial, or something like that...I'm not sure. But this is one of those Ghost World litmus test type movies. Someone that can't appreciate the casual wit and freewheeling charm of a gem like Sideways probably has no business being my friend.

The film's not entirely without its faults. As much as I like the hillbilly couple sub-plot, it does veer more into broad slapsticky comedy than the rest of the proceedings here. As well, I find the last five minutes or so a bit cloying and unearned, but that's quibbling. This is a great, funny, warm and winning human comedy, and remains one of my favorite films of 2004. If you haven't seen it by now, do yourself a favor...