The UberHusband and I went to see Sideways yesterday afternoon, putting our Academy Award Best Picture viewing average above 500 (watched Ray Saturday night) for the first time in many years.
Once in a while, for giggles I go read the twits at the IMDB movie message boards and yesterday morning some sort of “Just because you liked Sideways doesn’t mean you’re a better person than me!” smackdown was going on. The only reason I mention that is that I came out of the movie not feeling like an indie flick snob per se, but I will admit that to be enjoyable, I really think you had to use more brainpower than if you were watching…say…Big Momma’s House. There are metaphors and emotional struggles and a valiant attempt at a “triumph of the human spirit” vibe…if you can’t/won’t/don’t feel like looking beneath the surface you’ll miss the wonderful complexity of the film.
Ah…sounds like a fine wine…and the main character, Miles. Go figure.
If you go to see Sideways and are expecting Harold and Kumar Go To Napa or Dude, Where’s My Gerwurtzraminer?, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
It didn’t help that Grandma Siskel and Grandma Ebert were sitting directly behind us with their broken hearing aids (how else could I explain why they had to TALK SO LOUD DURING THE MOVIE), shocked and dismayed and saddened by the liberal use of the F-word, as well as Thomas Haden Church’s bare backside and another rather unfortunate (albeit hilarious) scene of full-frontal male nudity. If you want to avoid these sorts of things ladies, don’t go to see an R-rated movie. Sheesh.
Frick and Frack behind us reminded me of when the UberHusband and I went to see Traffic in the theater and had The County’s Most Sheltered Couple sitting behind us. They tsk-tskd the whole way through and were shocked and dismayed and saddened and…surprised(?) by all of the, ahem, drug activity going on. ::shaking my head in disbelief::
But, I thought Sideways was fantastic. I loved seeing the scenery from the Santa Barbara area, as it reminded me I really need to get back out there now that I can actually afford to go wine-tasting and folks won’t shoo me off their property for being an opportunistic college student just looking for a quick buzz.
The writing was witty, clever and at times sad and poignant. The UberHusband hit the nail on the head when he said the movie’s ending determines whether you’re a glass half-empty or a glass half-full person. That made sense to me, since I thought the same thing about Before Sunset’s ending.
By the way, I’m a glass half-full kind of person. The bottle of 2003 Cambria Pinot Noir we bought after the movie was rather nice, as well.
