Sideways

Sideways, which thus far has garnered the lion's share of best film accolades from critics groups, has received virtually unanimous praise from critics individually. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times writes that the emergence of [director Alexander] Payne into the front ranks of American filmmakers isn't just cause for celebration; it's a reason for hope. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times uses the term lovable to describe the film and writes that Payne, who also co-wrote the screenplay from a novel by Rex Pickett, finds plots that service his characters, instead of limiting them. The characters are played not by the first actors you would think of casting, but by actors who will prevent you from ever being able to imagine anyone else in their roles. Philip Wuntch of the Dallas Morning News comments: Any way you look at Sideways, it's a winner. As character study, as exercise in American ambience or simply as an entertaining movie, Sideways triumphs. And Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times finds the film completely satisfying ... consistently amusing ... something to be cherished like the delicate Santa Ynez Valley wines that are the story's vivid backdrop. [The Los Angeles Times on Monday took the unusual step of offering an Op Ed review of the movie by maverick L.A. writer Burt Prelutsky, who remarked that the movie is the most over-hyped commodity since Enron. He concludes: I do have a theory as to why the critics all went gaga over this thing. One, I think it's a natural reaction to a movie that isn't filled with a hundred million dollars' worth of special effects; two, they wish to be seen as encouraging a writer-director who is more interested in depicting people than he is in exploding cars; three, they didn't want to admit that the best movie of the year -- once again -- was an animated feature, The Incredibles.]