Sideways (2004)
Average Rating: 8.5/10
Reviews Counted: 221
Fresh: 213 | Rotten: 8
An emotional and heartfelt comedy.
Average Rating: 8.8/10
Critic Reviews: 48
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 2
An emotional and heartfelt comedy.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 171,256
My Rating
Movie Info
Directed by Alexander Payne, Sideways follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), who is distressed about his lack of success as a novelist, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an equally unsuccessful actor with a rapidly approaching wedding. In a last-ditch effort to sow their wild oats, Jack and Miles take off on a final road trip to California's wine country the week prior to Jack's wedding. Both men have goals for the vacation -- Miles wants to turn Jack on to the art of wine tasting, while Jack is concerned
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Cast
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Paul Giamatti
Miles Raymond -
Thomas Haden Church
Jack Lapate -
Virginia Madsen
Maya -
Sandra Oh
Stephanie -
Marylouise Burke
Miles' Mother -
Jessica Hecht
Victoria -
Missy Doty
Cammi -
M.C. Gainey
Cammi's Husband -
Robert Covarrubias
Mile's Building Manager -
Stephanie Faracy
Stephanie's Mother -
Duke Moosekian
Erganian Mike -
Patrick Gallagher
Gary The Bartender -
Toni Howard
Evelyn Berman-silverman -
Peter Dennis
Leslie Brough -
Robert Trow
Obnoxious Golfer -
Phil Reeves
Vacationing Dr. Walt He... -
Alysia Reiner
Christine Erganian -
Joe Marinelli
Frass Canyon Pourer -
Chris Burroughs
Chris At Sanford -
Rev. Fr. Khoren Babouchia...
Armenian Priest -
Lee Brooks
Ken Cortland -
Alison Herson
Foxen Winery Pourer -
Lacey Rae
Los Olivos Waitress -
Cesar "Cheeser" Ramos
Barista -
Daniel Rogers
Reciting Eighth Grader -
Natalie Carter
Siena -
Simon Kassis
Mini-mart Owner -
Sevag Kendirjian
Armenian Deacon -
Heghine (Helen) Harboyan
Wedding Vocalist -
Gohar Toranyan
Wedding Organist -
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Sideways Trailer & Photos
All Critics (221) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (223) | Rotten (8) | DVD (41)
Payne does know how to capture two kinds of male menopause. But I can't say he ever surprised me.
Top CriticSideways stays resolutely life-size. And that, in this age of hype and hyperventilation, may be the most radical thing about it.
Intelligent, funny and moving.
Payne has made a movie for the same sorts of people, one with body and 'nose' and character that movie lovers will savor long after the credits have rolled.
This isn't the sort of road comedy we're used to seeing. Its humor is more likely to provoke smiles and light chuckles than guffaws.
The film's Cassavetes-style aimlessness (think of it as a West Coast Husbands) gets a jolt when each of the guys pairs up with a willing woman.
Excellent but explicit movie is not for kids.
"Sideways" is about wine aged to perfection sipped by men who've aged to mediocrity - softer, hornier versions of Walter and The Dude. But Miles's brutal honesty is its soul. He's annoyingly, depressingly out there, but never fraudulent.
Giamatti handily raises what could've been a pedestrian road trip romance into the stratosphere of a world-class character study
Sideways is often very charming and funny with some rapid fire clever dialogue, and the central cast handles it with grace.
This wonderfully satisfying study in human nature is funny and sad and profoundly entertaining from start to finish.
Sideways is the first of Payne's films in which we have the chance to really care for the characters; he reins in his harsh satire better than before.
No one does quivering-on-the-edge-of-depression quite like Paul Giamatti.
This one's like to appeal greatly to the 30-40 somethings that are getting more and more into bourgeois sports such as yachting, polo or wine tasting.
The year's second best movie about broken and lonely people (after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
In Payne's overarching triumph, Sideways is a sensitive, to the point of disturbing, expose of love....love that can blossom with that high school hallway sweetness even in the withered garden of midlife.
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Brilliantly observed characters are becoming second nature to Payne and Taylor, and the performances here are uniformly terrific. This is wonderful, original stuff.
A study of friendship, disappointment and self-deception, Sideways, directed by Alexander Payne, has at its centre the most leisurely of bachelor parties: it's a road movie that stops off at vineyards.
...a leisurely paced film about introspection, neurosis and finding tranquility.
Sideways is non-mainstream pretentiousness done right
Audience Reviews for Sideways
Super Reviewer
Jack is about to get married, and decides to spend the week before the wedding living it up in California's wine country. Accompanying him is his neurotic, sad sack teacher/best friend Miles, a real wine snob. The two spend a lot of time enjoying wine, women, and life, and also trying to deal with midlife crises and life choices.
The film, typical of Payne's work, is a nice bittersweet mixture of funny and sad, but it's got an undeniable realness about it, so, despite some uncomfortableness now and then, it works quite well and makes it easier to relate to.
The cast was perfectly picked, and they give some Oscar caliber performances. It's just too bad they all got snubbed. At least this film got a Best Picture nod, even if it too got snubbed.
I suppose this film is the source of annoyance and irritation for people who work at liquor stores and wineries, having to deal with people who go to rip on merlot or pick up some pinot noir, but hey, at least it's a sign this movie was watched and enjoyed by people.
Give this one a shot. It's a touching and nice film that really sings. It's incredibly well written, directed, and acted, and is probably Payne's best film, which is really saying something given his track record.
Super Reviewer
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- Miles Raymond: Quaffable but far from transcending.
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- Jack Lapate: See? rigth there... that's beautiful. A smudge of excrement... I could never write that.
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- Jack Lapate: Youre a bad, bad, girl Stephanie.
- Stephanie: I know and I need to be spanked.
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- Miles Raymond: It tastes like the back of a fucking L.A. school bus. Now they probably didn't de-stem, hoping for some semblance of concentration, crushed it up with leaves and mice, and then wound up with this rancid tar and turpentine bullshit. Fuckin' Raid.
- Jack Lapate: Tastes pretty good to me.
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- Jack Lapate: Listen, man. Cammi gets off in an hour, so I was thinking I'd just hang around and have a drink, and make sure she gets home safe.
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- Jack Lapate: If they want to drink Merlot, we're drinking Merlot.
- Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!
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