Oscar Rant No. 1: Dude, 'Sideways' is so totally overrated


The Oregonian asked me to help kick off a series of deliberately provocative "Oscar Rants" by various writers. And so:




I enjoyed "Sideways," Alexander Payne's adult-contemporary indictment of the modern American snob's refusal to engage life. It was a solid film about the perils of hiding in cushy prisons of "good taste," with three great anchoring performances by Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and especially Academy-snubbed Paul Giamatti.

But come on: Best Picture?

A.O. Scott put it beautifully in The New York Times: "The near-unanimous praise of ['Sideways'] reveals something about the psychology of critics." Because so many of us in the crit trade see ourselves in Giamatti's sedentary snob, Scott argues, "the critical praise is out of proportion to the quality of the film."

I couldn't agree more.

Imagine if Woody Allen filmed the "Sideways" script circa 1980. Woody plays Giamatti's role; Tony Roberts plays Church's; Mia Farrow, Madsen's. Though the intellectual sex-satire vibe would still work, Woody's "Sideways" would be considered a middling entry (at best) in his miraculous streak of '70s and '80s films -- many of them Oscar nominees or serious loci of critical fawning.

(They'd also rip "Sideway"'s lite-FM soundtrack to shreds -- which, I swear to God, sounds like the underscore from an '80s straight-to-video sex comedy.)

I'd also wager that, in another context, many critics would also see that whole "pinot noir is life!" exchange that Giamatti and Madsen have on the back porch for what it is: well-delivered but baldly over-symbolic stage-play dialogue. (Giamatti's character loves pinot because it's high-maintenance and totally dependent on an understanding, smart woman -- er, vintner? Shocker!)

Has cinema fallen so far that critics and Academy members must fawn all over a film of such modest rewards?

Oscar Rant: Slipping 'Sideways' toward an Oscar (The Oregonian, Jan. 29, 2005)


Posted: Sun - January 30, 2005 at 10:30 PM        

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