With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti makes regret and self-loathing sympathetic, almost sweet. From the director of Election and About Schmidt. --Bret Fetzer

Miles and Jack, reaching middle-age and disappointed at the state of their lives, travel together through wine country a week before Jack is to be married in search of adventure and meaning in their lives.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-FEB-2007
Media Type: DVD

Sideways was a 2004 sleeper comedy hit by director Alexander Payne that really deserved its plaudits. He previously made the funny Reese Witherspoon comedy Election and the so-so Jack Nicholson film About Schmidt. The film's title comes from the proper way to store a bottle of wine, as well the angle a drunk sees the world from when he's recovering from passing out on the floor. While not a particularly deep film, and at two hours and four minutes in length it is about a half an hour too long, the film nonetheless does provide some insights into male insecurities and mid-life crises, as it celebrates human foibles in an intelligent manner. It was adapted by Payne and Jim Taylor from an unpublished novel by a writer named Rex Pickett, and won a well deserved Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film follows in a long tradition of buddy comedies, from the silent era, wherein one guy is a good fellow, and the other is his ne'er do well pal. Basically, a week before the bad pal, his ex-college roommate, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a failed actor, is to get married, his good pal, Miles (Paul Giamatti), a divorced school teacher of English, and an aspiring novelist, plans to take him on a week's getaway to the California wine country, to relax and play golf.... the film is a ray of hope for viewers who want intelligent films, especially comedies, from someone not named Woody Allen. Payne was quoted as saying, in an online interview: `I want Sideways, which has no movie stars in it, and a movie for which I had final cut, to make money, not just for my own career but for other film makers so that film makers and studios can point, if I didn't have stars to make money, Sideways didn't have a gun or a chase even though that made money, we have to be changing our cinema, little by little and have more human films. But the only way it's going to happen is there are examples they can point to, where they made money. It was just like that in the late 60s and 70s. Look, Easy Rider made money, The Graduate made money, Midnight Cowboy made money, and we should make more movies like those. That's what we need.'
He's right, of course. Here's hoping that he has a long career of such hits as Sideways, but that he only gets better with each succeeding film.

Sideways is a buddy movie about two flawed buddies who go off on a wine-tasting adventure in lieu of a bachelor party. The story is more melancholic than comic as the buddies each bump up against their disappointments and failures.
There are lots of reasons to watch this film. The acting is masterful, Sandra Oh is delectable and the scenery is-for most of us-a delight.What sets this movie up for a special place in my heart is one great wine joke.

There's a scene in the beginning where Miles (Paul Giamatti) carries on at some length about Merlot and his dislike of it. It's a rant that I've seen imitated a few times. At the very end of the movie, Miles decides to drink the one great bottle of wine that he's been saving for ' a special occasion'. He's depressed at the time (Miles is depressed a lot) and so he takes it to a fast food joint and drinks it with a Wiftyburger or whatever they call 'em. As he pulls the wine out of the bag, we get a quick peek at the label. It's a fabled Bordeaux called Cheval Blanc. You won't find this information on the label, but wine insiders know that one of the dominant grapes in that wine is.....yup, Merlot.

Lynn Hoffman author ofThe New Short Course in Wine

What a marvelous film. The latest, brilliant work from director Alexander Payne, who once again finds the empty, lonely heart at the center of so much American life. I have watched it many times, and still find wonderful things in the performances of Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh (Mrs Payne at the time the film was made).

All the characters in Payne films share the prospect of being trapped in shallow roles and jobs they have accepted in suburban American life. They yearn to, if only for a second, or a weekend, escape from or rise above the tedium of their existence. It's no accident of course that his most memorable protagonists have included middle school teachers (Election and Sideways) and an insurance company drone (About Schmidt).

To the reviewer who wrote:

"I felt such raw hate for it that I had to buy it - 1) because it elicited such strong disgust and abject hatred and 2) because I am happy to have found a movie that perfectly exemplifies just how terrible, inferior, and worthless a movie can possibly be."

All I can say is: you sound just like a character in a Alexander Payne movie!

The movie started out slow. It seemed to be about a couple of jerks, one a manipulator/liar and the other a "friend" who covers for the manipulator/liar. They are spending a week in the California wine country before one of them marries, but this groom lacks a certain fidelity. Both men seemed self-centered, boorish. At first I thought "Who cares?" But the film picked up and turned into a powerful portrait of the costs of friendship and the nature of hope. I think the two friends and the women they encounter are types of people that we all know. It captures the angst generated by failure and the resultant rejection. "Nobody wants you when you're down and out." There's an effective blend of pathos and humor. At first rather flat, it turned into a heady brew.

The acting in this film is incredible. This film is not for anyone who thinks special effects, chase scenes, sex, or well known movie stars make a great movie. These people are very real, they don't do anything spectacular, like real people they have moments where they are doing just what they want to do, without any sense of how its affecting someone else, and other moments when they need to be everything they are, but just can't quite get there. It's filled with amazing dialogue and alot of really funny moments. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes substance and realism without the overblown characterisms and plots usually found in Hollywood films.