Sideways DVD
I had wanted to see Sideways for a while now, and I wonder if it was some kind of precognition that prevented me from ultimately buying it. SD and I rented it on Saturday night and we watched it after dinner
Unfortunately, it is one of those movies where the marketing trailer suggests a movie QUITE DIFFERENT from the actual movie. In other words, I was expecting a comedy, what I got instead was that new term cinema afficionados like to put forth: dramedy
In other words, it was at best spotty in being amusing, but was more a movie that focused on the ordinary and mundane aspects of two friends' vacation to the wine county. This is a movie where it is very hard to like the two main characters, in fact, I found it hard to like any of the four characters that got most of the time.
I suppose the effectiveness of dramas is based on the ability to make characters or situations compelling ... and in that rare convergence, to have both. Neither of the male leads are likable characters, one is depressed moody and self-involved; the other is selfish, shallow and callous. The women are underplayed, the only one that has a character worth exploring is not given much to work with. The characters are shallow, and yes, I do not believe them to be somehow subtle or remarkably understated
I think it was because the film when you watch it can be deep or shallow.
On its face the film is very shallow and linear, however, I suppose if you were into something, like say wines and the mundanity of human experience, you may consider it to be deep, complex, textured, ... oh who am I kidding, the movie is self-indulgent and PLODS ... or in commonspeak, drags on and on
I looked at the clock and noticed we were close to an hour in ... at an hour in in this movie, that means an hour more to go. Usually I feel sucked into movies because they have qualities that entertain me by going beyond the ordinary. This movie was just ordinary, and I did not perceive some of the things that the vast majority of critics were raving about
If this is what critics like, well ... I can't say that I appreciate such a film. I will call the genre depressing for no apparent reason, purpose, concept, whatever