Thumbs Down
My review of Sideways:
So here's a movie that's pretty much trying to surprise you into caring about self-absorbed people whose only interests are in wine and golf and, intermittently, sex. I get the whole "look! mediocrity is beautiful in itself!" thing - it's been done to death in suburban coming-of-age stories (American Beauty, Ghost World, etc). Now that I think of it, this was just a suburban coming-of-age story that happens to be about a middle aged dude in wine country. The horny, manipulative best friend, the perils of falling for a girl, the wacky farce that leads up to a happy ending. . . these are all the hallmarks of, say, a Seth Rogen flick - except Seth Rogen is more fun. Only Sandra Oh was entertaining to watch, because she didn't spend the entire movie trying to make us notice how brilliant her acting was. To use a metaphor the characters might appreciate: This movie was trying to come across as some fancy foreign import, but it was just Two Buck Chuck with a nicer label.
So here's a movie that's pretty much trying to surprise you into caring about self-absorbed people whose only interests are in wine and golf and, intermittently, sex. I get the whole "look! mediocrity is beautiful in itself!" thing - it's been done to death in suburban coming-of-age stories (American Beauty, Ghost World, etc). Now that I think of it, this was just a suburban coming-of-age story that happens to be about a middle aged dude in wine country. The horny, manipulative best friend, the perils of falling for a girl, the wacky farce that leads up to a happy ending. . . these are all the hallmarks of, say, a Seth Rogen flick - except Seth Rogen is more fun. Only Sandra Oh was entertaining to watch, because she didn't spend the entire movie trying to make us notice how brilliant her acting was. To use a metaphor the characters might appreciate: This movie was trying to come across as some fancy foreign import, but it was just Two Buck Chuck with a nicer label.