Sideways

Sideways (2004) sends two middle aged friends into California wine country a week before one of them gets married. Miles is a teacher carrying an unpublished novel who has never got over his divorce; Jack wants one last week of fun. The film takes apart the stories each man tells himself. The source is Rex Pickett's novel. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor adapted it and won the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay from five nominations. Its strangest effect happened outside cinema. Miles's contempt for Merlot and his love of Pinot Noir genuinely moved the market. After the American release in October 2004, Merlot sales in the western United States fell two percent while Pinot Noir sales rose sixteen. A 2009 Sonoma State University study confirmed it. What followed is ironic. A 2022 study in the Journal of Wine Economics found that to meet the new Pinot Noir demand, California growers planted it on unsuitable land and blended those grapes with fruit from good areas. A film that celebrated quality helped erode it. It cost 16 million dollars and made 109.7 million. It runs 127 minutes. Good for: character comedy, midlife crisis stories, and wine. Less good for: Miles is unpleasant and the film does not try to redeem him, which some viewers find unbearable. Jack's behaviour is treated lightly, and the women exist to serve the men's journey.