However, not all is angry...
Jan. 7th, 2005 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanTook a break from the writing and went to see Sideways on the advice of my folks, who rarely steer wrong in such matters. And they didn't this time, either, despite some initial reservations on my part.
Short summary: two middle-aged male friends, one waiting to hear the fate of his novel which has been brought to the editorial board for consideration, the other counting down the week before he gets married, take a road trip to the California wine country.
I'm not sure how to describe this movie -- it's not chickflick, although it has many of the elements (two friends on a road trip; tears, romance and revelations occur). Nor is it a comedy, despite some very very funny moments (I totally cop to the 'no merlot!' exchange, yeah). It's not a deep psychological drama, despite a lot of the insights that the characters share, willingly and otherwise, with the audience. And it's certainly not a movie for everyone, although the audience last night was totally in the right place at the right time (we were all snickering in exactly the right spots).
But if you know/love/are a writer, and know anything at all about wine*, it's painfully funny. If you qualify for the first two conditions, and have ever been in a failed relationship, the pain gets ratcheted up. The funny, too, for that matter, although it's a bleak, bleeding sort of funny.
* if you know a lot about wine, it's painfully hysterical in spots
Short summary: two middle-aged male friends, one waiting to hear the fate of his novel which has been brought to the editorial board for consideration, the other counting down the week before he gets married, take a road trip to the California wine country.
I'm not sure how to describe this movie -- it's not chickflick, although it has many of the elements (two friends on a road trip; tears, romance and revelations occur). Nor is it a comedy, despite some very very funny moments (I totally cop to the 'no merlot!' exchange, yeah). It's not a deep psychological drama, despite a lot of the insights that the characters share, willingly and otherwise, with the audience. And it's certainly not a movie for everyone, although the audience last night was totally in the right place at the right time (we were all snickering in exactly the right spots).
But if you know/love/are a writer, and know anything at all about wine*, it's painfully funny. If you qualify for the first two conditions, and have ever been in a failed relationship, the pain gets ratcheted up. The funny, too, for that matter, although it's a bleak, bleeding sort of funny.
* if you know a lot about wine, it's painfully hysterical in spots
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Date: 2005-01-07 03:36 pm (UTC)Right now the movie I'm flogging to everyone is Shaun of the Dead. And the BBC Mystery series Foyle's War (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310455/).
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Date: 2005-01-08 03:05 am (UTC)Have been very bad in recent years about actually seeing movies in the theater. Trying to remedy that, one bag of popcorn at a time.