Written by DAVID KEYES

February 21, 2005

While browsing through a few Oscar columns over at MovieCityNews.com, I couldn't help but feel a slight painful twinge come over me every time I heard the word "Sideways" uttered in a positive manner. Nearly every professional film reviewer/analyst marks it somewhere amongst the year's biggest potential achievements at next week's awards. Comments like these come in hordes:

Virginia Madsen should win for "Sideways"
Thomas Hayden Church should win for "Sideways"
Paul Giamatti should have been nominated for "Sideways"
"Sideways" should win Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay
Anyone who likes a good movie should see "Sideways"
"Sideways" cures cancer

It's tiring, it's obnoxious. And frankly it is absolutely baffling as to why this rather bland vehicle, about four people who spend their time tasting wines and practicing the fine art of engaging in boring dialogue exchanges, is getting such heaps in so many circles.

What movie were these people seeing, anyway? Certainly not the same one I had the displeasure of sitting through last month, I'll tell you that much. With the possible exception of the penis jokes, in fact, "Sideways" is basically a long and overstretched in-joke crying for a new punchline. The acting is sub-par, the writing is stagnant, and the characterizations are so banal that I couldn't care less as to what happened to any one of them.

An acquaintance in the Rotten Tomatoes journal community made an interesting point concerning Alexander Payne's endeavor: that critics probably liked it because it's easy for them to relate to shallow and petty people on celluloid. Whether that's a valid point is anyone's guess (including mine), but the sentiment is on target. What was the appeal? Would they have liked the film less if it involved characters who were more... shall we say... legitimate? Good questions.

In any case, here's hoping that Oscar forgets entirely about Payne's overrated comedy next week and actually gives its awards to films that truly deserve the recognition.