They are Going SIDEWAYS

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming home on Digital and Sideways 4K is now available for the first time at digital retailers (Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango) from writer/director Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor and Searchlight Pictures based on the book by Rex Pickett is the story of going SIDEWAYS.

Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a depressed English teacher living in San Diego who is trying to write a book and loves wine. He decides to take best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on a road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley to go wine tasting before he gets married. On their way, Miles decides to go visit his mother but its not really to visit, its to get in and get out before he is caught – in more ways than one.

All Miles wants to do is golf, eat and drink wine but bestie Jack wants to have one more fling before he says ‘I do’! Finally making it to wine country and stop for a bite to eat, Jack notices Maya (Virginia Madsen) who happens to notice Miles. Jack also manages to send Miles on a drunk when he lets slip that the ex has remarried and is coming to the wedding. Jack hooks up with Stephanie (Sandra Oh) and decides maybe he doesn’t want to get married after all.

As Miles is centered on his depression, Jack has decided he is going to have as many flings as possible even if there is an angry husband waiting in the wings. Back in San Diego, Miles receives an unexpected call and it sends him knocking on a door!

Giamatti as Miles is just stellar but I would expect nothing less. I have followed his career since he first caught my attention in the 1998 film THE NEGOTIATOR in the role of Rudy. I knew then that he was somebody to keep my eye on. Giamatti has the uncanny ability to take any role and make it memorable – comedy, drama, historical, good guy, bad guy, sad guy, you name it. In SIDEWAYS he once again gives us the role of a man who just can’t find his happy.

Church as Jack also has the same role qualities as Giamatti. He can play so many roles, and some of them caught me unexpectedly, yet I love when I see he in a new film. In SIDEWAYS he is the guy who wants the world and is going to do everything he can to do what he wants when he wants. Trying to keep his buddy’s spirits up led me to laughing a lot. Putting Church with Giamatti is a stroke of genius which is the reason the film holds up today.

Madsen as Maya is sweet, charming and seems to have a real interest in Miles. He doesn’t see it because he has spent to long in his closed off little world. He does manage to enjoy her company and it is in those moments that Madsen is just delightful to watch. Oh as Stephanie gets a chance to hook up with Jack but, as often happens in life, its just too good to be true. I loved her in THE RED VIOLIN and UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN and it becomes clear why she is a force to be reckoned with still today.

Other cast includes Marylouise Burke as Mrs. Raymond, Jessica Hecht as Victoria Cortland, Lee Brooks as Ken Cortland, Missy Doty as Cammi, MC Gainey as Cammi’s husband, Alysia Reiner as Christine Erganian, Stephanie Faracy as Ginny, and Natalie Carter as Siena.

Searchlight Pictures is responsible for such films as SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, THE SHAPE OF WATER and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI. They have an extensive film library as well as documentaries, scripted series, and limited series. For more information, please visit www.searchlightpictures.com.

Bonus Features include Commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, 8 Deleted Scenes and Making of Featurette.

SIDEWAYS is a film that is so memorable and it won Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) for Jim Taylor at the 2005 Academy Awards. Other awards include the Bost Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film, Best Supporting Actor for Church, Best Ensemble Cast, Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Paul Giamatti. Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne won a BAFTA for Best Screenplay, Critics Choice Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Church, Best Supporting Actress for Madsen and Best Acting Ensemble and the list of winnings goes on and on.

The ensemble cast is nothing short of fantastic and deserves to be recognized again and again. Giamatti and Church brought us into the story while Madsen and Oh kept us happy with a large glass of wine! They give us a story that is so memorable and relatable in the sense of heart ache and sometimes the recklessness we all deal in (maybe not so far as Jack!) when it comes to matters of the heart. Payne gets to direct us where he wants us to go and we go willingly, especially when it comes to watching and experiencing a film like SIDEWAYS.

In the end – wine can change their world!

 

HBO Series DIVORCE: The Complete First Season is an Event on Bluray

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray from HBO from creator Sharon Horgan and director Jesse Peretz is the fantastic first season of the HBO series DIVORCE: The Complete First Season.

Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) and husband Robert (Thomas Haden Church) are silently heading to the birthday party of friend Diane (Molly Shannon). A speech by Diane’s husband Nick (Tracy Letts) makes it clear that their marriage isn’t a happy one either. A gun goes off, Robert is freaked out, Frances calls an ambulance and Nick is on the floor.

When Robert discovers that Frances has been having an affair and gal pal Dallas (Talia Balsam) knew as well, he isn’t going to make her life easy. Their kids Lila (Sterling Jerins) and Tom (Charlie Kilgore) are oblivious to what’s going on. But a dog always manages to pave the way into a conversation that needs to be had.

Robert is starting to annoy everyone from his workers to the bed ridden Nick who has finally woken up. Being told to shut up, Robert can not understand why Diane and Nick would ever want to stay together.

With divorce seeming a better idea than marriage counseling, Frances and Robert are being told it’s time to tell the kids. They both also are putting together their finances and Robert realizes he is in the financial outs as well! Now that Nick is lucid, Robert wants to find an investor for a project to get him back on track.

Frances finds out Robert has gotten himself a lawyer and decides to lawyer up with Max Brodkin (Jeffrey DeMunn). During the initial meeting, Frances unloads to make sure there are no secrets that can be used against her. Finally signing on the dotted to get her gallery space, Frances finally gets the chance to do what she’s only dreamed of.

Robert and Nick meet up to talk about the Fun Space but instead Nick tells his friend that its time to think about saving his marriage. Learning who her lawyer is, Robert decides to lawyer up – up with Tony Silvercreek (Dean Winters)! Frances, Dallas and Diane take a night out visiting another gallery meeting Carson Hodges (Frank Whaley).

Agreeing to keep things normal for the kids comes to a screeching argument when the Christmas schedule brings tradition into question. Going to Frances’ parents for Christmas means trying to find a way to avoid the problems with telling the truth about their marriage.

Robert meets up with Kathy, a woman from his past who clearly doesn’t see things as he does. While trying to find his way Robert meets a woman who he feels will somewhat even up the affair-score. Frances gets the shock of her life that Robert has been ruining their financial lives for quite some time.

It is down to the lawyers getting together in a room with Robert and Frances to point fingers. Frances feels as if she is being portrayed as an absentee mother while Robert gets all the props. Noticing her lawyer isn’t cutting it, she changes lawyers while trying to work with Robert on being fair.

Being served in public sets Robert on a destructive path while trying to start his new business Fun Space USA. An accident sends the parents into a nicer state but it is hanging on by a thread with Robert holding the scissors. Frances finally opens her gallery with the support of her friends and family.

When a lawyer move pushes Robert, he pushes back – in the worst way one ever could!

Parker as Frances is brilliant in her role trying to keep it together and stay the doting Mom to the kids. Dodging all the verbal bullets hubby Robert is firing keeps this character on her toes. Knowing that it will take time to decide what is best for their marriage; Parker’s character takes the hits and keeps on believing.

Church as Robert is brutal with his one liners and “purse in the trash” with perhaps a banana retorts. Living under the same roof his tantrums are that of a teenager to my mind yet I get it but still – a teenager. Even their therapy sessions I’m in a bit of shock when he goes off the verbal rails.

Shannon as Diane is hilarious, dangerous and hilarious as that one friend who just has no filter when it comes to anything about her life. Balsam as Dallas wants what’s best for her friend Frances and doesn’t believe its Robert.

Jerins as Lila is such a sweet girl one minute and a pre-teen with all that entails the next minute. Kilgore as Tom isn’t sure exactly what’s happening around him but has other things to do so let’s his parents hash it out on their own.  Jemaine Clement is Julian Renaut loves the fun of an affair but not the commitment.

HBO Home Entertainment has an extensive array of critically-acclaimed and groundbreaking programs found on Bluray, DVD and Digital HD. They have provided viewers with some of the most amazing programs with huge fan bases that include the shows True Blood, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, True Detectives, The Wire, Entourage and Game of Thrones. Launched in 1984, HBO is world wide in viewed entertainment in more than 70 territories around the world! For more of what they have to offer please visit www.hbo.com.

DIVORCE is the perfect series for Parker and Church to show off why they are outstanding at their craft. I have to say the scenes in the therapist office between Parker and Church are stunning and I can not remember a pair more matched than these two.

There isn’t anything about this series that I don’t like. It is a whirlwind of two people trying to cope with what it means to be an adult and be married. Anyone who has gone through a divorce will understand the swamp that a husband and wife go through to come out the other side relatively sane.

Mixed into the harshness between this once loving couple is a twisted comedy that I can’t help but laugh at. With each move they make toward divorce, Frances and Robert are clearly and totally discombobulated with where this is all going to lead them. The finishing line isn’t visible to them at all because of the unresolved issues between them with a final episode that will shock!

Parker was nominated for the Golden Globe Aware for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. The soundtrack of music is completely wonderful and it is definitely one I’d like to own. A mixture of memories that fits

The Bluray includes the episodes Pilot, Next Day, Counseling, Mediation, Gustav, Christmas, Weekend Plans, Church, Another Party and Détente. The Exclusive Special Features are Audio Commentaries with star Sarah Jessica Parker, Executive Producer/Writer Paul Simms and writers Tom Scharpling and Adam Resnick.

In the end – it is for better or worse, or worse!

For your chance to win a copy of the HBO Original Series DIVORCE: The Complete First Season on bluray please visit http://moviemaven.homestead.com to find out how!