media consumption

Sideways

I love Paul Giamatti. Uh, except, what's he been in? Oh yeah, he was Bob Zmuda/Tony Clifton in Man on the Moon and the weasly ape in Planet of the Apes and, um, an officer Saving Private Ryan whose main role was to whine about how bad his ankles were bothering him, plus a lot of other stuff I haven't seen.

So anyway, his role in Sideways was great. You start off thinking what a pathetic, pompous, wine-swilling loser he is, then you start actually seeing the passionate, conflicted, decent guy inside, then all of a sudden he's a drunken mess again, but then... Well, you'll just have to see it.

Sideways is about two old college buddies, now in their forties, who are setting out for one last wild week before one of them gets married the next weekend. Except the two chums seem to have different ideas of what that wild week is supposed to entail. The movie is about the depth and shallowness of friendships, falling in love, losing love, losing oneself, finding oneself, and more.

The movie is ribald and sad and raucous and touching. It's hard getting a handle on the movie, to the point where after the first half hour, I wasn't sure if we should get up and walk out. But we stayed. And I'm glad we did.

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