Sideways
Two college roommates. One trip to the wine country. Lots of fun. Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is about to be married and his college roommate, Miles (Paul Giamatti), a wine expert, failed novelist, and recent divorcee, offers to take him to wine country for a bachelor party. While Jack wants to have fun in the traditional sense of a bachelor party, Miles wishes it to be a little more civilized. In any case, Jack succeeds in getting dates for each of them; he has his eye toward a pour girl Stephanie (Sandra Oh) while he sets Miles up with a waitress, Maya (Virginia Madsen), whom Miles has noticed before but has always been shy towards. His personal depression comes to the forefront of their conversations as Miles questions the direction he wants to take in life.

Sideways has everything you could ever want in a film, unless you're out looking for explosions. In that department, you only get the verbal kind, not the ones involving C4. Its comedic scenes are sensational, highlighted by Miles' blowup at the winery after finding out his latest effort as a novelist has been rejected. But more than its comedy, it's a great character study of two middle-aged guys looking for completeness in their lives. Jack is simple for us; he just wants to sleep around before he gets married. However, Miles is a bit more complicated. What ended his first marriage was his own love for wine. Now, it's wine that possibly brings him back since that is his life and his dialogue tells us that. His scenes with Madsen produce some of the most emotional scenes you'll see all year. Director Alexander Payne has a knack for making memorable characters in memorable movies, and the four characters of Sideways certainly fit the description. 3.5 stars