Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Sideways's G-spot [great spot]

It was below zero out there. Wind blew hard sometimes, due to the geographical location of the city that is in the edge of a harbor. I half-ran to the car, opened the door, put on the seat-belt, closed the door. The car was started, driven, was cutting through the frozen night. And there, inside, was I, sitting back, not saying anything, very unlikely.

"So what you're thinking?", finally he asked the question to break the ice. "Amm.. I'm just thinking.. what if someday, I met someone, and she asked me about how did I get into movies, or what kind of movies I like, or what is my favorite movie. And then I tell her, the way Miles tell Maya about why he likes Pinot. It's even personal." I ended it with a smile. "Na, und?"

"And then she looked at me, the way Maya looked at Miles. I knew I will lose even my strongest shield. You think I will experience that?" The car drove right. "Well, to tell you the truth, you always talk about everything in a way of Miles told Maya about Pinot. And you will always have someone to look at you like Maya looked at Miles. Even when you're not talking bout movies. So, you're ready to think over your bloody resolution?"

"No way. It's not gonna be that hard. Ah well, it was just one helluva brill scene. And it's not about my resolution."



It is so easy to love or hate Sideways. It is felt so real, seen so real, heard real. For me, some of the scenes are a bit too filmical though. Ah well. The heroes, Miles and Jack, can be found directly in every corner of every street. Miles is a typical guy who nearly obsessed about something. Movies, or baseballs, or jazz, or tennis, or grooming, or books, or in this case, wine. Miles is not a wine expert. He’s just an afficionado. Just like me and movies.

Now Jack is an actor. But again, you can find this ‘aspiring’ actor in every corner of every street. Well, not the street of every town, perhaps. Jack is supposed to be hot, easily get laid, can get any girl that he want. He’ll get marry in a week. And he wants that the last week of his bachelordom to be spent by having fun with his best man, Miles. The idea of having fun in Miles’s head is of course touring the wineries, checking out wine tasting, discovering new products [OK, I suck at wine-talks]. While Jack thinks about bonking the whole week.

Miles and JackDue to their duo dynamicity, each gets what they want. But of course, Miles did not always get what he wants when he aims for the bigger thing: his cure for his failed marriage. But things will look bright for the heroes, don't you think?

You can love Sideways eventhough you’re not a wine-consumer. Some of the wine-related conversations are indeed too hard to get by without saying, “Really?” But you will be there, every minute of it, trying to get what they were talking about, and don’t worry, you have Miles to walk you through, and maybe you can be another Maya looking at Miles.

Now you can hate Sideways when you are trusting yourself that it is an impeccable, perfectly made movie, solely relying on its dialogs and characters to be excellent and entertaining. For Sideways using some comical and -as I call it- filmical situations those are also hard to get by without saying, “Really?” But borrowing Michael’s [he’s a friend of mine, not a character in the movie] words, “These things do happen.” [Oh, you have to see how Michael said it] And why can’t they happen in the last bachelor week of Jack’s? You can hate it as well when you can't laugh at any wine jokes (if there's any) just because you don't understand them. That's what happened to me.

For me, I enjoyed it a lot. First, I like simple movies. I always be in front of the line to not like colossal movies. Second, I learned quite a bit about wine, well a lot, perhaps. Third, it is the first very good movie that doesn’t make me cry or want to cry because I was so amazed at it. And last, just because somehow, I see myself in Miles. Just go back to the beginning of the post if you don’t understand what I mean.

Another 'Way to go!' Mr. Payne!

2 comments:

Mike said...

Well, I rather have this movie to win the Best Picture which is slightly impossible.

Bie said...

you mean slightly possible, or greatly impossible? because I have the feeling that you meant this way..