Let's get this out of the way up front: the movie was much better than the book. Objectively, Sideways deserves only two stars, and that's really pushing it. I mean, this is a book that contains this sentence: "Maudlin classic rock for the 70's saccharined [sic] the emptiness with its plangent strains, further sickening me." Seriously, come on. However, for completely subjective reasons that really have nothing to do with the book, I'm giving it three stars. I'm just that kind of reviewer.Sideways is a book about wine grown in Santa Barbara county, on the central coast of California. I spent five years of my life in Santa Barbara, attending social events that involved copious amounts of wine. But, lest you think I was swilling the finest pinot, let me disclose the fact that social events at UCSB (an acronym, I am told, for "u can study buzzed") looked something like this: Also, again in the spirit of full disclosure, our wine looked a little something like this: Serious wine geeks will tell you that wines really deserve varietal specific stemware. As something of a connoisseur, I do recommend a red solo cup for two buck chuck. It really brings out the cloying, unbalanced sweetness of the White Zinfandel like nothing else.Alright, so reason number 1 for giving Sideways more stars than it deserves: the Santa Barbara connection. Reason number 2, perhaps unsurprisingly, is pinot noir.At this point in my adult life I'm something of a snob. Not a wine snob in particular, just a snob in general. I do like wine, though. A lot. Given that I have a lot more taste than money, I mostly explore as many different grapes and regions as possible. This means I'm happy trying out the "quality red wines" from Hungary that I can score at my local Eastern European Mexican grocer. However, if given the option, I'm gonna splurge on Pinot Noir.Side note: yeah, there are some fantastic pinots coming out of central California, no question about that. However, in terms of new world wine, I'm really partial to the Willamette Valley pinots: I seem to be able to get a more complex wine at similar price points with wines coming out of Oregon, and they also seem to have more of a sense of place than those coming out of California (I try not to use the word terroir because it's hard to pronounce and makes me sound like an asshole). Although, when I have my hands on some serious cash money, I'm definitely getting a straight up Burgundy, because, I mean, come on.Actually, with money to burn, I'm probably going to buy a nice single-vineyard Willamette pinot for about $40, then I'm going to buy a bunch of ducks because duck pairs perfectly with pinot AND it's my favorite thing to eat in the entire world. Then I'm gonna buy some Champagne, because hey, pinot noir is pretty common in Champagne and in this strange world where I can buy whatever I want I think it makes sense to keep everything pinot themed.So yeah, I like pinot.The third, and final, reason that I'm arbitrarily boosting the rating on this book: merlot. That's right: thanks to Sideways, people think that if they proclaim a hatred of merlot, they can trick other people into thinking that they possess an infinite font of wine wisdom. That means that decent merlot is a seriously good value. Have fun with your Yellow Tail Pinot Noir, winetards. I'll be sippin' on a single vineyard Napa Merlot and eating a medium rare rib-eye with my home-prepared horseradish butter, feeling quietly smug.
When "Sideways" came out a few years ago, I remembered promising myself to read the book; given that I thought the movie was generally pretty interesting, and that it (rather, Alexander Payne) won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, I figured it would be worth taking a look at the source material.Ummmm...no. I wouldn't say that Rex Pickett's oenophilic buddy novel was terrible or anything, but I really don't see how Alexander Payne saw the kernel of a great story in this vapid, moribund homage to wine (as channeled through, say, Laurel and Hardy) and turned it into a pretty interesting and funny movie. The idea is fascinating (to me, anyway): Jack, a well-off actor wants to have a last fling before getting married in Paso Robles, California, and recruits his best friend Miles, a not-yet-published writer (and Pinot Noir afficionado) to take a week-long road trip through the Santa Ynez valley (the poor man's Napa, as it's described), culminating in a Pinot Festival at Fess Parker's Vineyard outside of Buellton. The biggest problem with this novel was our two protagonists, Jack and Miles: Jack, the stereotypical man of privilege, had one thing in mind while on their wine tour (getting laid), and his whole character (a one-dimensional cutout, exhibiting zero wit and charm as he channels every bad-boy actor ever in trying to get some action before his wedding)...and has a proclivity for punctuating every comment to friend Miles with the word homes (as in "What the f*** are you doing, homes?" like he was some sort of gansta from the hood...an annoying affectation when read once becomes insufferable after about 50 instances of it). And then there's his friend Miles (our narrator) who just can't stop whining long enough to care about his Gourmet-magazine-esque descriptions of the wines they sampled on their tour ("full-bodied, with undernotes of butterscotch, cardamom and raspberries")...coupled with him kvetching and puling about never getting published and watching his friend Jack try to boink the entire female population of Buellton. It's tedious in the extreme, and it's certainly a testament to Mr. Payne (and the tremendous acting jobs of Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti, who breathed life and humor into the roles of Jack and Miles) to turn this whiny-wine fest into something worth watching on the big screen.
What do You think about Sideways (2004)?
Granted, I hated this movie before reading the book. In fact, as I can attest alongside other females in my friend group - we all hated it. The men? Loved it. Of course, I was never one to cheer for a douchebag protagonist that can't keep his fly zippered. That was until I encountered the book. Here, Rex's text makes sense - creating a fuller life of Miles and That Other Asshole that the movie could not do justice. Far from being a douchey wino's primer on what wines to drink (ahem... the Merlot comment still makes me throw up in my mouth a little) and something that I still overhear winey winer drinkers quote when I eat at the Hitching Post (Ugh), this book is a fine view into the life of the maladjusted 40 year old modern male. One that can be a great friend - but also his own worse enemy. A wine snob trying to have one last hurrah with a friend - but one that also realizes that it's a funeral for his former life. In short, the book made me not hate the movie anymore. So, read the book.
—Kimberly
Yeah, it's slightly misogynistic, which bothered me as well. I think they removed most of that (esp from Miles) in the movie, which is good. I liked the book overall, but the misogyny really holds it back.
—Valerie
The plot here is well known. A shallow yet charming and handsome soon to be married actor travels to wine country for a week pre-wedding getaway to Santa Barbara's wine country with a depressed, alcoholic, want-to-be author friend. The problems that ensue all relate back to the characters internal flaws. I saw the movie before reading the book which is usually the preferred order for me. Here, I think it really didn't matter since (unlike other reviewers) I found that the book did not give the characters much greater depth than the movie. In fact, the female characters were even less developed and understandable than the movie version. In my mind, this book most reads like a Michael Crichton novel, simply substituting pretentious science terminology for pretentious wine drinking terminology. The characters move through a series of events that are easy to picture and provide entertainment, but do not really teach you much along the way.
—Greg Branch
