Sideways
Cancelled
This wine-tour buddy comedy has a full body and lots of subtle overtones.
Miles (Paul Giamatti) is hardly a leading man. He’s a critic and a know-it-all. He’s not quite pudgy, but he is a sort of shapeless blob. He’s a little whiny (with an ‘h’) about his lack of success as a writer. You might think he’s a lovable loser, but then he steals money from his mother’s underwear drawer, so he’s not even that.
As his bachelor-party gift to Jack (Thomas Haden Church), Miles drives them on a tour through California wine country. Jack wants them both to get laid — himself as a last fling before marriage, and Miles as an overdue rebound from his divorce two years ago. They find two eligible women at different stops — Stephanie (Sandra Oh) is the adventurous match for Jack, and Maya (Virginia Madsen) is the oenophile whose nose and palate just might be a match for Miles’.
There are some problems with the film, but nevertheless it works. At times it works beautifully.
There is a scene of a commercial winery; the establishing shot shows a fire hose spilling a burgundy into a tanker truck. This winery makes money by selling shirts and hats and an “experience,” instead of appealing to the individual palate. It is here that Miles gets yet another rejection from a publishing house. We don’t actually know whether Miles’ book is any good, but his publicist tells him it fails because it can’t be easily marketed.
The metaphor extends to Sideways itself. Payne has made an unconventional movie where the sidekick is the hero and vice-versa. And although the marketing team has pegged the film as a wine-country buddy-comedy road movie, its real appeal is more subtle and personal than a simple marketing slogan can capture. (M. Mapes, Movie Habit)
Sideways
Cancelled:
The studio has cancelled our confirmation. Please come see Election instead.
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
International Film Series
(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
C.U. Film Program
(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.