Another Boomer Movie
We rented Sideways. It's OK, but I'm not sure what the critics are raving about. My suspicion is that it's just more flattery of the boomers.
I guess director Alexander Payne--born in 1961--is a shade too young to be a boomer. On the other hand, he's presumably spent his career pitching ideas to the boomers. Here it's: let's face it: you're 40, either divorced or sliding into that kind of singlehood that's kind of pathetic, your dreams for yourself haven't come true. Even worse, you're a nastier person than you'd like to admit--in fact, you have something in common with the people who do you dirt. Let's not be judgmental, let's smoke some pot and sleep around, trying not to hurt each other too much, blah blah. 40 in 2004 is obviously too young to be a boomer--but the boomers like to see stories about people a shade younger (and sexier) than themselves, and this middle aged ambiguity/anxiety stuff seems to be inexhaustible these days. (I guess the other big movie idea now is aging boomer, 60ish, with almost unbelievably young sexy woman. My God! How did he get her?)
We rented the movie partly because Sandra Oh is very good in Grey's Anatomy on TV (otherwise not a great show); she also stands out in the movie. I think the best performance is by Thomas Haden Church. He was on a show back in 1995 with Debra Messing (now famous for Will and Grace) called Ned and Stacey. Now that was a funny show--I gather, just about impossible to see now.
We see Church first as the true 40ish California guy--handsome, still able to make a little money as an actor (although he's switching, pathetically, to voice-overs), shirts never tucked in, always open for fun, and to a great extent a fun guy to be with. Then of course his sort of mechanical, grating selfishness and hedonism shows itself, as well as the panic about aging. He has fully intended to show up and get married on Saturday all along--it's the best chance he's got left--but he spends the week trying to kid himself about that.
UPDATE: The main protagonist is MIles, played by Paul Giamatti. In the end, even though wild man Jack (played by Church) has pretty well screwed up his love life, Mile seems to have started something wonderful with a beautiful blond, Maya (played by Virginia Madsen). This of course is the kind of fantasy I object to.
But it gets worse. Miles and Maya both really know their wines. With Maya it goes either deeper or to more of a divine gift: she has a great palate, not like that bullshitting SOB she used to be married to. So Maya and Miles are both deep somehow. I've never really gotten the whole "wine is deep" thing--I guess I'm not a connoisseur of anything. I can see appreciating meals and food as a whole--but there's hardly a reference to food in this movie, and I think Miles finally drinks his best, long-saved bottle at some greasy take-out place. Putting wine before food? I don't get it.
Worse: Miles has a manuscript. A novel. He's been flogging it unsuccessfully. For most of the movie he's waiting to hear from one publisher. No dice again. He's so deep, and the world is so uncaring. Surely he can't be stuck teaching middle school for the rest of his life? Oh. My. God.
Worse: When Maya hears there is a book, she asks to read it. Probably being polite. As they say good-bye after a slightly awkward date, he brings it up--not her. Do you still want to read it? Ah, sure. He reaches to the back of his car, and gives her one box. She's obviously a bit daunted, thanks, etc. He reaches back again: another box.
In the last few minutes of the movie, she has read it all, and she has some intelligent and encouraging comments. Don't give up writing, MIles. You have real talent.
Is it just me? It strikes me that in the real world he'd be more likely to meet a beautiful blond who would say "you have a nice ass" (and, er, she'd be lying) than to meet one who would read this whole bloody manuscript and comment on it with love, intelligence, and consideration. Both boxes. This is like the fairy godmother, an ideal thesis supervisor, the hard-nosed agent who will work for you for nothing, a sibling and a lover, all rolled into one. But they're deep, baby. They're so, so deep. Not like those vulgar people.
This is the boomers. They have an artistic side that makes them deeper than their parents. It's just that they're having, er, a little trouble getting published. They need to relate to people who understand.
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