"Sideways" is in "It's Popcorn Time"!!!!!!!!!!! Title : Sideways
Directed by : Alexander Payne
Country : USA
Released in : 2004
Casting : Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Miles (Paul Giamatti), a middle aged damned write brings his old time friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an earthy commercial actor who is getting married in a week , to a wine trip into the California's vineyards. Miles is an enlightened wine amateur who is depressed about a past divorce ; Jack, a total wine noob, just see an good occasion to have fun before goes to the Church. Jack who is fed up about the Miles's bad mood, find in Maya (Virginia Madsen) an attractive restaurant waitress, a way to help his friend to regain some happiness.
Why I like this movie : A sucessful comedy often works on an antonomy of the main characters and that's work perfectly with « Sideways ». Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church make a great duo on the screen. The depression of Miles and the Jack's lies and obsession about sex gives us nice moments of fun.The character of Miles is tainted of melancholia and sadness, so « Sideways » can't be considered as a pure comedy. Of course, the movie talks about wine too and talks about it pretty good. For wine's noob like Jack, « Sideways » is teaching some basis of oenology, a bit surprising from an american movie (from a french point of view of course :P ). Paul Giamatti is very convincing about his wine knowledge and analysis. We have some good views of the beautiful landscapes of the californian's vineyards and the jazzy soundtrack fit well with the atmosphere. The movie was a good suprise of 2004 with a low budget and relative unknown actors, it had a great sucess commercially and with critics.
Anecdotes about « Sideways » : The movie is based one the novel « Sideways » written by Rex Pickett... Virginia Madsen is the younger sister of Micheal Madsen, well-known with his roles in Quentin Tarantino's movies... Sandra Oh was married with the director Alexander Payne during the film-making, they divorced in 2006... Sandra Oh gets her motorcycle driving-licence just for the need of the scenario...The sucess of the movie had consequences on the american wine market. The sales of wines based on Pinot Noir increased while the sales of Merlot dropped (based on Miles's passion about Pinot Noir and his dislike of Merlot)... The movie gets several awards and nominations around the world...
Critics : « Sideways » gets 96% of positive ratings on the website Rotten Tomatoes and a mark of 4/5 from the Press, on the website Allociné (spectators gave a mark of 3,4/5).