Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Domestic comedy

Some people just don’t like Sideways (dir. Alexander Payne, 2004):

“Wait ’til you’re older. Then you might like it.”

“I am older.”

“Even older. Older still!”
On an international note: Sideways has been remade as a Japanese film (dir. Cellin Gluck, 2009). Sideways, according to the trailer. Saidoweizu, according to IMDB.

How old do you have to be to like Sideways? At least forty, I’d say.

Related reading and viewing
All “domestic comedy” posts
2009 Sideways trailer (YouTube)

comments: 4

macon d said...

Hmm. I laughed when I saw it. But then I realized that it uses its women characters, instead of respecting them, in a fantasy concocted specifically for a certain sector of aggrieved white male viewers. It's nice to see films made in the U.S. for adults instead of teenagers, but still, I don't think this one asks its male viewers to be all that mature about their hopes and dreams. About themselves, that is, and how they regard the selfhood of their intimate partners in relation to themselves.

Thanks for the tip on the Japanese version, hadn't heard of it!

macon d said...

PS -- I'm not sure about this, but I think Payne's Election might be better in this regard.

Michael Leddy said...

I think Sideways is about what Julius Lester calls “freedom from” — the idea of freedom as freedom from responsibility, rather than freedom as the ability to act in meaningful ways. But I think the movie invites its viewer to see the male protagonists as rather pathetic. Miles though does begin to grow up at the end.

Michael Leddy said...

I like Election too, a lot.