BY MIKEY MIGO
Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, and Jim Burke make great movies. I’ve been a huge fan of “Sideways” since I first saw it. I’ll still occasionally watch it with the commentary on absorbing its experience and their experience in general. Payne makes smart movies. It’s not even fair to say “movie”. They make art house films that are accessible and connectable as any other form of artistic expression. The buzz and hype for this movie started months ago. I wanted to see it. The cast sounded awesome. I was still a big put off. See, I’ve never been a huge fan of George Clooney. Something about the guy just rubs me the wrong way. I’m sure he’s a good guy and I can’t deny he’s talented, but I just don’t want to watch him. I feel like he plays the same person in everything. It’s nothing more than “how would George Clooney react in THIS situation”. Most of the time it’s boring political thriller stuff, stuff with him in a stuffy suit saying witty things, or just what I’ve been dubbing lately “martini humor”. That said I’ve loved some of the movie’s he’s not only been in, but starred in. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this movie mainly because I didn’t really want to sit through a serious martini drama. What I’m saying is that George Clooney’s involvement made me stand offish with this movie. Still, I manned up and finally got to watch this movie. Off the bat, I’ll say it; Clooney was good. This is one of those movies that I’ll have to like despite him… again. The problem I have is that for some reason I can’t find a way to connect to anything Clooney does. He still did well carrying the movie. If you’re a fan of his, this movie will be a blessing. Even once we get past that, this movie was beautiful. The story, the pacing, the characters, the casting, and just the overflowing pour of emotion was done so well that this movie should have its own ride at my made up Indie Film amusement park. The two young actresses that played his daughters were both great. I hope to see them continue to be involved with awesome projects because they can both definitely hang in there with the best of them. The rest of the supporting cast was strong too. Matthew Lillard stepped it up and made me see his acting chops in a whole new light. His small, but critical work should not go unnoticed. Same for Judy Greer. I’ve seen her take on good roles in good projects before, but it’s still always cool to see her in something that’s as successful and acclaimed as this. The story has been talked about a lot. It’s a guy who finds out his wife cheated on him right before he’s to pull the plug on her life support. He’s left with two daughters and a short period of time to let everyone know that she’s passing away, meanwhile dealing with everything and staying strong for the girls. It’s a screwed up situation for sure. Jim Rash and Nat Faxon did a great job with the script. The locations are all in Hawaii, so of course it looks beautiful. The movie is being slowly poisoned with emotion. Lots of emotion and drama, but the characters and story make you want to finish and see it out. You want a happy ending, but you end up having to settle on being happy that it’s ending because it means the characters get to move on. The dryness of the tone is one thing I liked a lot. Some things don’t need to be thrown at you. With him it feels like whatever you need from a scene is experienced firsthand. This movie deserves the love it’s getting. A-
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