“Every day there is a choice: remain stuck in the false allure of the past or embrace the truth of the present. Who you are today is not the same as the person you were yesterday or the person you will be tomorrow. It is important—no, vital—to drink up.”

—

The Day After Yesterday (Sideways, 2004) by Michelle Said.

This has been a stressful week for a couple of reasons (I’ll get to them at some point), but essays like this are keeping me afloat.

September 9, 2013 Eimear Fallon

Watched: Sideways

After watching this, I can see why this divided people. There are plenty of reasons to love or hate it.
Dealing with the latter, first: while it doesn’t allow its leads to get away with much, the portrayals of women in this … — **Watched:** *Sideways*

After watching this, I can see why this divided people. There are plenty of reasons to love or hate it.

Dealing with the latter, first: while it doesn’t allow its leads to get away with much, the portrayals of women in this film are at their most defined when it makes sense for the development of Paul Giamatti’s character. And while on an isolated level that isn’t a problem - this is, after all, a work of fiction with arguably one dude at the centre of it all - on a more general level, it fits right within a trend of women only really existing to give men meaning.

That said, they’re not paper-thin characterisations - Virginia Madsen’s Maya was someone who I wanted to get to know better, who was stolen away far too early. Again - it made sense according to the plot, but there were still pangs of regret.

And, okay - it’s that feeling that the film turns on, really, which is why I think this is so great - it’s about missed opportunities, and social paralysis, and how sometimes the only way of really dealing with your problems is to move forward.

Both leads (Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, who despite being the largely comic foil does an *excellent* job in this and had me in tears at one point) get to the end of the film on an ambiguous note, because moving forward is an imperfect and sometimes-doomed solution. But sometimes it works. That’s the genius in the ending, I think - the fact that the way it concludes leaves you with a sense of hope, but not something tidy.

Honestly, I loved this. There were some slightly uncomfortable notes, but otherwise it’s a fantastic bouquet. (Geddit? Because it’s about *wine*. Fuck, I’m hilarious.)