February 8 , 2005

One Of Three

THE CASE FOR SIDEWAYS

Ladies and gentlemen… may it please the voters…

The heart of man is a fragile, mysterious thing. We are led by the organ, physiologically and metaphorically, throughout our lives.

Yet, when it comes to awards season, the heart is suddenly not enough. The sustenance of awards shows must be grander fare than the simple stuff of life. When we crave comfort foods at times of stress, the hamburger springs to mind… to heart… before the Boeuf Bourguignonne.

But Sideways is no average hamburger. Not a $1 job from McDonald's nor a $16 sirloin patty offered by a fancy pants joint. Sideways is made from the aged beef of a life led… by the wins and the losses… of the expectations met and dashed. It is butter tender, but filling in a surprising, permanent way. Like the opposite of the stereotype of a Chinese meal, just when you think you are about to be hungry again, another moment of truth fills the void and gives you the energy to keep thinking…. keep feeling.

Miles has been too easily dismissed as a reflection of a loser by those who wish to detract from this film. Miles' journey in Sideways is one of enlightenment after the shades have been closed a little too long. When is the moment that we stop believing in ourselves… that we give up on what seemed to be the endless possibilities of childhood? What is the mechanism in our hearts that turns cold when our fantasies become disappointments and the reality of our lives no longer is even worth real consideration?

Teaching third graders English is an honorable choice in the world. But for Miles and Jack, it is a misfortune. Jack has rather brilliantly learned to so overcompensate for his disinterest in having his feet on the ground that he is endlessly fun and charming and sexy. But Miles was a little too evolved for his own good, trapped in the space between self-awareness and perceived success. Jack can find pleasure in anything … and does, whether it is with a piece of prime choice like Stephanie or with an overweight small town, big chain waitress like Cammi. (The film makes this judgment, but happily also embraces Cammi's sexuality… which causes some to see the film as unkind, while I tend to believe that the unkindness is in the eye of the audience member who chooses to judge Cammi in a way that Jack never does.) Miles can find pleasure in almost nothing that he doesn't perceive as perfect… which rules himself out completely.

In very much the same way Fight Club reflected American Beauty, Sideways reflects Million Dollar Baby. Both of these films are about a man who isn't seeking self-forgiveness, but who finds it in a completely unexpected way. In Sideways, it is Maya who sees Miles as less than a hero and who is willing to embrace him as a man. She is better than most of us. She is kinder than we are to ourselves. And when arguments are made that she would never go for a guy like Miles, that is our own Miles coming out to destroy our willingness to believe in our own happiness, too scared that our faith will once again be trampled.

Million Dollar Baby is also the story of a young woman who is a bit too good to be true coming into the life of a man who has all but given up, but who shows small signs of still looking for answers. Miles has his novel… his cry in the dark, while Clint Eastwood's Frankie Dunn continues to seek some answer at the church, even as he challenges his priest beyond patience. Both men ultimately forgive themselves as a result of the recovery of faith and one more loss of that faith. Ironically, the final note of both films is all about these leading males and the situation remains ambiguous… and this bothers some viewers of both films.

What is the difference between Sideways and Million Dollar Baby in terms of awards voting? Genre snobbery. It is the nature of this beast to discount what is less punishing.

While Frankie's sidekick is a one-sighted-eyed former boxer and seeming best friend, Scrap, who offers sage advice and tempers Frankie's self-loathing, even though he has so much less on the surface to be happy about than Frankie. Miles has Jack by his side, whose greatest philosophy is about how to get laid, whose interest in others extends only as far as his self-interest, and still, like Scrap, lives life without a whole lot of extraneous macro philosophizing. Both of these men, as different as they are, look carefully at what is right in front of them and offer specific advice about how to move forward with the goal of self-fulfillment by their friends.

Scrap paves the way for Frankie and Maggie just as Jack pave the way for Miles and Maya. Both Frankie and Miles are resistant… but their pals know better. Scrap tries to get Frankie to open his eyes and see what he is about to lose when his fighter isn't talking to another manager and Jack tries to get Miles to keep his drinking to a limit so he doesn't lose Maya's interest. Both Frankie and Miles have their moment of trouble with the new women in their lives when their best friends are not present.

Of course, Jack is a selfish, silly man. And Scrap is a wise old sage. Whose truth is more true?

Getting back to Sideways itself, there are more masterly touches that suggest that a vote for this comedy is more than a reasonable choice… it is clearly the best choice.

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor deliver great comedic moment after great comedic moment that don't just make us laugh, but which ask us to consider the human condition. Even in the earliest, least defined moments, there is a truthfulness - whether it is Miles lying his way out of the early exit he was supposed to make to pick up Jack, or the uncomfortable banter between Miles and Jack's in-laws-to-be or the side trip to Miles' mom's house. We recognize ourselves in these moments and that is why we laugh. What better form of drama is there than that laughter?

At that turn, Jack starts the take over the movie somewhat. If Jack was just a pig, chasing skirts endlessly, he wouldn't be very interesting. But he has a real edge to go with his not-so-smooth charm. His need to get laid before he gets married is a need, not just a wish. His whim about perhaps dropping out of his own wedding is real to him, embracing his impulses as though they are a form of profundity. In Stephanie, he meets his own female doppelganger. She is also funny and charming. Her life took her to parenthood earlier, but she is still, while seeming in control, showing signs of Jack-dom in how she raises her daughter and even in the blitheness with which she gets involved with Jack. No one walks away from Sideways clean, except perhaps Maya.

It's ironic that some critics have chosen to assault Sideways as "overrated." The simple reality is that Sideways is loved and it is exactly the kind of movies that critics always seem to be demanding from the studio system. Give it to them and they throw it back, even if it is the biggest fish in the boat.

Sideways is not a movie for critics who identify with a schlub who gets the pretty girl. That is like saying that The Aviator is a fantasy for critics who want to have sex with Ava Gardner while she refuses expensive gifts. Sideways is a wondrous film about the human condition. And it happens to be funny.

What could be more unique? And what a better way to express your love for what is the rarest of birds in this big movie world… the smart, funny film without movie stars but with the intelligence and insight of one of our best young filmmakers?

READER OF THE DAY: ROCK FLIX writes: "In his missive re: Beautiful Sunshine, C’est Frenchie offers that the screenplay of Beautiful Sunshine may be better than the film: “Yet I can't tell for sure since I've read neither the first draft nor the shooting script (corollary: I can tell a critic doesn't know his job when he blames a movie on his screenplay).”

Even giving the benefit of the doubt, grammatically – changing the corollary to: “I can tell a critic doesn't know his job when he blames a movie on the screenplay).”, I can’t for the life of me conceive what Frenchie’s getting at. A critic has no background or training to analyze writing or story? Studies, reading, interests, avocation and education all suggest the opposite is true; Hell, I even took the McKee course, and if you want to experience the delight of hearing your job spoken only surrounded by a phalanx of obscene gerunds, go to that while working as a film critic.

Not that it matters, but I am curious: I’d like more clarification from C’est Frenchie, so as to get a better sense of in what exact way he’s wrong about his corollary – and what gives him the backing to make a curiously assertive and sweeping statement like that."

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Sundance Wrap-Up
Sundance Preview Part I
Sundance Preview Part 2

January 3, 2005 - Reflections On A New Year
December 31, 2004 - The Ten Best
December 30, 2004 - The Ten Worst
December 29, 2004 - Movies You Should Have Seen, But Didn't