- What's the title?
- The Day After Yesterday
- Oh, you mean today?

That was a surprisingly disarming moment in Sideways. Sometimes an outsider with a clear head can quickly and easily simplify a big problem you've created for yourself. It's a disarming moment, that typically make my feel like an idiot.

There's a lot going on in Sideways, but the best part was those moments where the characters were taught something new by an outsider. The two main characters are both ultra tragic. Myles acts sort of like a hunch-backed troll, while Jack can't stop perpetually womanizing. Neither has figured out how to be a balanced adult. This is sort of hard to watch, because the movie continually presents these characters with situations where their flaws cause them to make bad choices, and those bad choices cause them pain. It's like watching a horror movie and yelling at the characters for splitting up to cover more ground, but here the pain is more personal since the characters are more real (that's why the violence in Sin City is less obscene then the violence in, say, Reservoir Dogs.)

But the really interesting thing about this movie is seeing the passion and interest that Myles and Maya have for wine. It's more then just a hobby for them, it's a filter they view the world through. An allegory for what they experience in life. It's much the same way that movies and sports are for me. I relate most of my life experience to things I've seen in movies or experienced in sports. Myles and Maya relate their life experiences to their experiences with wine. This really shows in by far the best scenes of the movie when they are telling eachother why they like wines. Myles talks about why he likes Pinot and Maya talks about why she's so into wine. In those times their true selves are exposed, the superficial layers are peeled back. And true to form what they say about those wines is an allegory for how they view their place in the world.

The thing I really disliked about this movie is I never really got the friendship between Jack and Myles. The two are terrible for eachother, and I can imagine them being acquaintances left over from fun college days - but not the close friends they're supposed to be here. Their friendship just didn't jive with me and that kept me from being really engrossed by this movie.

Still, it was excellent with superb writing and acting. But Paul Giomotti deserves special not for so completely becoming Myles it was easy to forget he was acting.

Notes:
1. This was filmed and took place on the central coast of California where I went to school. It was fun to see a lot of familiar sights and terrain.

2. It feels like I've been watching a lot of dark and tragic movies recently. I think I need a feel good movie to brighten my mood, but unfortunately Netflix just sent me Monster. I think for my sanity I'm going to have to hold off watching that one.

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