Saturday, December 18, 2004
"Sideways" w/ Paul Giamatti, Both a Middle Age Slob, and Oscar Contender
The ANNOTICO Report

Paul Giamatti has long been considered one of Hollywood's most interesting character actors, almost exemplifying an 'everyman' quality.

That sense of ordinariness that we often associate with Giamatti' s characters, is put to the test most effectively in "Sideways", a film that is garnering more attention for the actor than any of its predecessors.

In "Sideways", Giamatti plays Miles Faymond, a divorced middle school teacher and failed novelist, who, with his altar-bound friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) take a wine-tasting trip in California, pondering questions about their directions in life.

Almost forty films and 14 years after Giamatti's debut in the 1990 TV film "She'll Take Romance", Giamatti, whose recent credits include the likes of 'Paycheck", "Thunderpants" [a very odd British kid's film that is amongst his favourites' and of course "American Splendor", Giamatti may be discovered all over again thanks to
his road trip comedy/drama "Sideways",

After years of being the supporting character, no wonder he was genuinely shocked when director Alexander Payne asked him to do the film. "I still don't know why he cast me, I really don't and for a while, I thought everybody was f----ing with me," Giamatti laughingly recalls. "I seriously thought this is some vast practical joke that everybody is pulling on me.

His next film, "Cinderella Man", directed by Ron Howard and stars Russell Crowe.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/sideways.php

Paul's father, for those of you who may hve forgotten was Angelo Bartlett "Bart" Giamatti was President of Yale University from 1977 to 1986, and commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1989.

Bart Giamatti grew up near Mount Holyoke College, where his father, Valentine Giamatti, was a professor of Italian language and literature and a collector of translations of Dante's Divine Comedy. His paternal grandfather, Angelo Giammattei (so spelled) emigrated from Italy about 1900. Bart attended Andover and Yale. He was a member of Scroll and Key, and graduated magna cum laude.

Bart stayed in New Haven to receive his doctorate in 1964. He became a professor of English, specializing in Rennaissance literature, and later became master of Ezra Stiles College at Yale. When his tenure as Stiles master ended in 1972, he was so popular that his students wanted to honor him with a present. Giamatti told them he wanted a joke gift and they got him a moosehead (from a yard sale), which was ceremoniously hung in the dining hall. As the new master took over, Giamatti told him in a serious tone, "I have only one solemn duty I have to convey to you. Take care of my moose."

Giamatti was a life-long Boston Red Sox fan. He became president of the National League in 1986. Giamatti was chosen unanimously as the seventh commissioner of baseball in September 1988. While at his vacation home, Bart Giamatti died rather suddenly of a massive heart attack at the age of only 51. Giamatti had only been the commissioner for 154 days.Bart had two sons, Paul and Marcus, that have become actors; their third child is Elena.< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Bartlett_Giamatti >

There follows (1) A New York Times Article (2) A Los Angeles Times Article (3)
A number of unanimously rave reviews.

"SIDEWAYS" AND " AVIATOR" LEAD GOLDEN GLOBES (Excerpts)

New York Times
By Sharon Waxman
December 14, 2004

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 13 - The movie awards season picked up steam on Monday, as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave seven Golden Globe nominations to "Sideways", the comedy directed by Alexander Payne, and six to "The Aviator".

The strong showing by "Sideways" - Fox Searchlight's modestly budgeted film about a failed, middle-aged writer searching for redemption in California wine country - came on the heels of being named best picture of the year by critics' groups in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.

But the Academy Award nominations remain a month away, and no film has established itself as a leading contender in the Oscar race.The Golden Globe Awards are an uncertain predictor of Academy Awards...

Golden Globe nominees and winners are chosen by the foreign press association's 83 active members: full-time and freelance writers, and are courted energetically by the Hollywood studios.

Oscar voters include nearly 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In the drama category - which included six rather than five films because of a tie - the other Golden Globe nominees were "Closer"; "Hotel Rwanda";"Finding Neverland"; Kinsey; and Million Dollar Baby...

In the comedy and musical category, "Sideways" was joined by the computer-animated hit incredibles; "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"; Ray; and "The Phantom of the Opera".

Film marketers value the Golden Globes as a tool to sell smaller films that often find an audience through awards recognition. "This is a big, big thing for a movie this small," said Michael London, the producer of "Sideways." "The Globes are hugely important from a marketing, commercial standpoint."

"Sideways," which cost just $16 million, stars a balding, paunchy Paul Giamatti, who was nominated in the best actor, comedy category. Mr. Payne was nominated for best director, and Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen were nominated in performing categories; the movie also received nominations for its screenplay and its musical score.... http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/movies/14glob.html

'SIDEWAYS'

Standout acting and precise directing make Alexander Payne's latest film worth more than a glance.

Los Angeles Times
By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer
Oct 22 2004

To be honest about Miles and Jack, something they never are about themselves, you'd have to admit they're morally sketchy characters. Feckless and self-absorbed, they're fraudulent even to their best friends, i.e. each other. Spending a week in their intimate company sounds like a chore, or worse.

It is the counterintuitive triumph of "Sideways," the wonderful new film by Alexander Payne, to turn seven days with these scoundrels into a completely satisfying movie that quietly, gently blows you away. Exactly written, directed with a surgeon's precision and transcendently acted, "Sideways" brings emotional reality to a consistently amusing character comedy, making it something to be cherished like the delicate Santa Ynez Valley wines that are the story's vivid backdrop.

Doing achingly true-to-life films about out-of-control situations ("Election," "About Schmidt") has become second nature to Payne and his longtime writing partner, Jim Taylor. Here they once again mix unmixables, combining humor, pathos and genuine feelings in a way that's warm, insightful and nonjudgmental.

But "Sideways," based on a novel by Rex Pickett, also takes this team's accomplishments to another level. After a raucous start with 1996's "Citizen Ruth," their films have gotten progressively more subtle, their comedy deeper, their themes more adult. With "Sideways," their first grown-up relationship movie, they have increased the maturity content and explored the notion of the value and difficulty of intimacy without losing any of the playfulness that has been their trademark.

In this examination of individuals who, better late than never, arrive all unawares at turning points in their lives, the filmmakers have been helped beyond measure by their quartet of key cast members. While all four — Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as Miles and Jack, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh as Maya and Stephanie, the women who enter their lives — are actors with careers and reputations, none of them, and that includes "American Splendor" star Giamatti,
has given the kind of rich, enduring performance they all do here.

"Sideways" opens with Miles, an eighth-grade English teacher and would-be novelist complete with worn corduroy jacket, doing what he does best: messing things up and avoiding the blame. Roused from bed because his battered red Saab convertible is blocking a driveway, he makes a frantic call to the person he's supposed to meet, apologizes for being already late, and then proceeds to dawdle like the King of Siam, royally taking his time and baldly lying that traffic held him up.

The person he's meeting is Jack, Miles' best friend and former college roommate. An actor reduced to Spray 'n Wash voice-overs after a career that peaked playing a dashing doctor on an afternoon soap, Jack is getting married in exactly one week. Miles, the future best man, is taking his pal on a trip to the area just north of Santa Barbara, intent on helping Jack spend his "last week of freedom" indulging in fine dining, great scenery, unforgettable golf. And wine. Lots and lots of wine.

For wine is Miles' consuming passion, the great enthusiasm of his life. Listening to him talk wine is an education in itself, and he caresses grapes on the vine as if they were his true best friends. The kind of connoisseur who means it when he says "if anyone orders merlot, we're leaving," Miles can make judgments like "quaffable but far from transcendent" sound perfectly reasonable. And here he is paired up with Jack, who has to be told not to chew gum while tasting and thinks nothing of opening a warm bottle of expensive champagne if he's in a celebratory mood.

As we discover on the drive, there is this opposites-attract, Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside quality to the Miles-Jack relationship that makes their friendship plausible. While pessimistic Miles holds back, reluctant, for instance, to even discuss his years-in-the-making 750-page manuscript that's slowly making the rounds in Manhattan, Jack tells everyone who'll listen that it's about to be published.

Miles, fighting divorce-induced depression and used to approaching things sideways rather than head on, is frustrated by but also envies Jack's wholehearted embracing of life. The actor, meanwhile, knows he could use some of his friend's gravitas. These are men who often know what is best for each other, never for themselves.

Inevitably, romantic complications insinuate themselves into this jaunt. Jack, always the creature of impulse, is immediately attracted to the vivacious Stephanie, a tart-tongued pourer at a tasting room. And Miles, with insistent prodding from Jack, realizes that Maya, a waitress he's thought of as only a pal, is more attractive and more potentially interested in him than he'd allowed himself to notice. With the players set and enough wine flowing to make everyone as close to merry as they ever get, the games are free to begin in earnest.

It's in its willingness to be insightful as well as evenhanded with its characters, to completely understand but never whitewash behavior, that "Sideways" is especially potent. The film reveals vulnerabilities, insecurities, not-so-occasional miscalculations, but it also makes us care about its people while recognizing that they, like the rest of us, are nothing if not flawed.

Grounded in this kind of reality, "Sideways" works beautifully on any number of levels, from the at-times bawdily comedic to the genuinely heartbreaking. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael has given it a bright look, Rolfe Kent has provided an inviting jazz score, and even the smallest characters are expertly cast thanks to casting director John Jackson. But again and again it is the four leads whose performances make all the difference.

As the self-doubting Miles, a man for whom every night is the dark night of the soul, Giamatti makes the best use of his querulous persona, investing an unerring comic touch in a character who is genuinely anguished. When Miles says, in one of the film's best moments, that "only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest expression," he's obviously talking about himself.

Haden Church, best known for his TV work ("Ned and Stacey," "Wings"), brings unexpected empathy and a gift for deadpan double takes and open-mouthed befuddlement to Jack, a bluff Lothario increasingly gone to seed. He is beautifully matched by Oh (Payne's wife), who brings a captivating mixture of sensuality and directness to the woman who's the focus of Jack's attention.

Though the women in "Sideways" are not given as much screen time as the men, they're written with equal skill and are essential to the film's success....

'Sideways
MPAA rating: R for language, some strong sexual content and nudity
Times guidelines: Graphic sexual situations, full frontal male nudity

Paul Giamatti...Miles
Thomas Haden Church...Jack
Virginia Madsen...Maya
Sandra Oh...Stephanie

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/turan/cl-et-sideways22oct22,2,5562683.htmlstory

NATIONWIDE CRITICS:
atured CriticCream of the Cro7%
Avg. Rating: 8.7/10

"Alexander Payne's heart-piercing new film about a writer on the verge of disappointment is a reason to maintain hope in the film industry."
--- Manohla Dargis---THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Emerges as a full-fledged film, with a brilliant use of cinematic language and pacing, but also has a novelistic breadth without spilling much over the two-hour mark"
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

"Wise, entertaining and often very funny."
-- William Arnold, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

"The film's Cassavetes-style aimlessness (think of it as a West Coast Husbands) gets a jolt when each of the guys pairs up with a willing woman."
-- Joe Baltake, SACRAMENTO BEE

"Sideways may fetch Paul Giamatti that best actor Oscar of which he was robbed (or so many thought) for American Splendor."
-- John Anderson, NEWSDAY

"I thus heartily recommend the movie to all men between the ages of 30 and 55 -- if they can take it. Sideways offers few consolations besides the bitter, healing laughter of the morning after."
-- Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE

"This is a building-block movie: Its stand-out excellence becomes apparent only gradually. -- Mike Clark, USA TODAY

"By far the year's best American movie." -- Richard Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE

"It's clear that the filmmakers -- Alexander Payne, the director and screenwriter, and Jim Taylor, his co-writer -- know what they are up to."
-- David Denby, NEW YORKER

"Sideways is neither effete nor snooty. It's a knowing, often-tender comedy about the plight of middle-aged men who aren't exactly living fast-track lives."
-- Robert Denerstein, DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"At the end of the movie we feel like seeing it again."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"The acting is superb, from the free-spirited Oh to the compassionate Madsen to the irresponsible Church. The standout is Giamatti."
-- Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

"Although lacking the complexities of Election -- still Payne's best work -- the picture does exude an intelligent craftsmanship that's hard to resist."
-- Rick Groen, GLOBE AND MAIL