Jessica Hecht | Through the Shattered Lens

I’ve never really gotten the obsession that some people have with wine.

Some of that may be because I hardly ever drink. I’m not quite a teetotaler but I seem to be getting closer with each passing year. But, beyond that, I just don’t get the whole culture that’s sprung up around wine snobbery. I don’t get the people who sit around and say, “Oh, this is an amazing Australian wine and, someday, my great-great grandchilden will get to open it when they’re 90 and on their deathbeds.” Everything that I’ve seen about wine tastings annoys me, from the overdramatic sniffing to the big bowls of spit-out wine. (I’m not a big fan of spitting in general.)

The 2004 film Sideways is a film that’s all about wine snobs. It follows two friends as they take a week-long vacation in the Santa Barbara wine country. Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a depressed English teacher who loves wine and who has never gotten over his divorce. He’s also a writer, though a remarkably unsuccessful one. He’s waiting to hear back on his latest manuscript, an autobiographical novel that he fears might not be commercial enough. Jack (Thomas Haden Church) was Miles’s college roommate and they’ve remained friends, despite Miles feeling that they have nothing in common. Jack is a former semi-successful actor who now works as a voice over artist. Jack knows little about wine. He’s just looking for a chance to indulge in some meaningless, commitment-free sex before getting married.

Miles attempts to teach Jack to appreciate wine. Jack attempts to get Miles to actually enjoy life for once. Together …. THEY SOLVE CRIMES!

Actually, they don’t solve crimes. That’s not the type of film that Sideways is. This is an Alexander Payne film, which means that it’s essentially a road film in which two different characters consider their own mortality and question whether or not there’s more to life than just what they see around them. The difference between the two characters is that Miles obsesses on the meaning of it all while Jack doesn’t exactly ignore Miles’s concerns but he’s much better at shrugging them off and blithely moving from one experience to another. Miles wears his neurosis on his sleeve while Jack is slightly better at hiding them.

During their week-long excursion into wine country, Miles and Jack fall for two women who undoubtedly deserve better. Maya (Virginia Madsen) is a waitress who is working on her master’s degree in horticulture. Maya shares Miles’s love of wine and is one of the few people to show any genuine interest in Miles’s book. Stephanie (Sandra Oh) is as much of a free spirit as Jack and, after spending two days with her and her daughter, Jack starts talking about canceling (or, at the very least, delaying) his upcoming wedding. Miles, meanwhile, is falling in love with Maya but there’s a problem. Jack lied to Maya and told her that Miles’s book is about to be published and Jack has failed to tell Stephanie that he’s engaged….

And really, it would be very easy to be dismissive of both Miles and Jack if they were played by anyone other than Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. If you ever need a movie to cite as an example of how perfect casting can inspire you to forgive characters who do rotten things and make stupid mistakes, Sideways would be a good film to go with. Thomas Haden Church brings an unexpected sincerity to the role of Jack, one that keeps him from coming across as being malicious but instead suggests that he just can’t help himself. If nothing else, Haden Church’s concern for Miles comes across being genuine. (“I guess because you were wearing your seat belt.”) Meanwhile, in the role of Miles, Paul Giamatti again proves that he’s one of those rare actors who can take a rather annoying character and somehow make him totally sympathetic. It help that Giamatti brings a lot of self-awareness to the role. Yes, Miles can be whiny and self-absorbed but at least he knows that he’s whiny and self-absorbed and he’s just as annoyed with himself as we often are.

The actors even manage to make all of the wine talk palpable for non-wine people like me. During Virginia Madsen’s lengthy monologue about why she loves wine, I found myself thinking, “That’s why I love movies.” Just as wine tastes different depending on who is drinking it and when they opened the bottle, how one experiences a movie can change from time to time and depending on each individual viewing experience. Just as the best wine was cultivated over time, the same can be said of movies, many of which are not recognized for their greatness until years after they were first produced. Just as Maya thinks about all the people who played a part in creating the perfect bottle of wine, I think about all the people who played a part in creating the movies that I love. You don’t have to love wine to enjoy Sideways. You just have to love something.

Sideways was nominated for Best Picture but it lost to Million Dollar Baby. Amazingly, Paul Giamatti was not nominated for Best Actor.

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_rwcbZA0ds

If, last night, you were up at 11:45 then … well, you were probably like most people. To be honest, I don’t know if The Winning Season, which aired on Cinemax last night, really counts as an insomnia file. Being up at midnight probably doesn’t qualify as insomnia.

That said, The Winning Season is an extremely sweet and likable movie that, until I came across it last night, I had previously heard nothing about. Even if it wasn’t directly inspired by insomnia, this was a film that I was happy to discover and I’m going to recommend that, if you haven’t seen it, you discover it too.

Of course, I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked that I loved this film because it stars Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors. It’s not just that he’s talented and that he frequently takes risks and chooses interesting projects, though all of that is certainly true. There’s a sincerity to Sam Rockwell’s performances. He’s one of those actors who, when you watch him, you feel as if he’s literally opening up his heart and soul to you. There are few actors who can make me cry quite as effectively as Sam Rockwell. That he didn’t win an Oscar for Moon (and has, in fact, never even been nominated) remains one of the most glaring mistakes in the history of the Academy Awards.

Sam Rockwell is at the center of The Winning Season and it’s hard to imagine the film working with anyone other than him in the leading role. Sam plays Bill, a former high school basketball star who is now a divorced alcoholic with a 16 year-old daughter that he struggles to communicate with. Like many of Rockwell’s character, Bill is irresponsible but he means well. Bill spends most of his time drinking and working as a busboy at a restaurant.

One night, Bill is approached by his former teammate, Terry (Rob Corddry). Terry is now a high school principal and he has an offer for Bill. Terry needs a new coach for the Girls’ Basketball Team. Even though Bill doesn’t consider Girls’ Basketball to be a real sport, he accepts the position.

And you can guess what happens. When Bill is first hired, no one takes the team seriously. There’s only six players on the team and none of them — not even the ones played by Emma Roberts and Rooney Mara — believe that they have a chance at a winning season. In fact, their best player breaks her ankle before the season even begins. After a rough start, Bill and the girls bond and soon, they start to win games.

Again, it’s not surprising but it is incredibly sweet. And, as predictable as it may be, the film still throws in a few unexpected twists. One thing that I liked is that, even after they started to get good, the team still struggled and lost the occasional game. They didn’t all magically become the best basketball players ever and, for that matter, Sam didn’t magically become the best coach in the world. This is an unapologetic crowd pleaser that still keeps one foot in reality. Everyone, in the film, fully commits to their roles. In particular, Margo Martindale is great in the role of Bill’s assistant. It’s always a pleasure to watch two good actors play off of each other and Martindale’s scenes with Sam Rockwell are fun to watch.

But really, the entire film belongs to Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell can take the most predictable dialogue imaginable and make it sound like poetry. About halfway through the film, Bill loses his driver’s licence and is reduced to showing up at the games on bicycle. There’s little that is more adorable than Sam Rockwell pedaling across the screen.

The Winning Season is an incredibly sweet and likable movie. I’m glad that I discovered it.