Rivenrock Gardens Cactus Blog

   Sideways is a different kind of movie. It won high awards and acclaim from many major movie critics and independent film reviews.
    But locally it is very popular due to the fact that the majority of the filming was done in Santa Barbara County in the Buellton/Lompoc area. It also features wineries quite prominently, and the beauty of the local wineries and the scenery of the miles of vineyards in the area cannot be beat.
    The main character of the movie talks throughout the movie of his love of a particular wine grape and the resulting wine; a locally-grown grave vine called Pinot Noir. I am no wine aficionado, yet I found it interesting to hear the ‘Wine talk’ in this movie. I felt like I learned a lot about wine, but what’s the use since I don’t really go for wine? (I’ll take a good stout brew over a wine any day).
    An interesting thing about this Pinot Noir wine grape that I learned from the movie, is the fact that it is a thin skinned grape, and as such it responds more quickly to environmental changes. The warm days (for months the daytime temps have been in the mid eighties, and the cool nights on the Central Coast (in the mid fifties, even down to the high forties here in the canyon). This quick reversal of temperatures causes the grape to fill to bursting with rich juices, making for a richer full-bodied wine.
    That is what is explained in the movie, and it’s a good lesson. But there is another side to this movie. It is a story about ‘Jack’ (played by Thomas Haden Church) who is getting married in a week, and desires to spend a last week with wine aficionado ‘Miles’ (played by Paul Giamatti) who is an aspiring writer. These two unsavory characters careen along on a wild orgy of wine tasting and partying with the ’soon-to-be-married’ man on the prowl to find women with whom to spend his last days of ‘freedom’. This bothers the hero of the story, but why I don’t know. He already had proven himself to be a low-life by stealing money from his little-old-lady mom while stopping by to say hello on his way to peruse the wineries of the Santa Ynez area.

    If one is easily offended do not watch this movie. It has a fair amount of cursing and some lewd and raunchy behavior with the occasional foray into criminal misadventure. But when one watches the whole movie one sees that this is not a paean to an immoral lifestyle, for both protagonists suffer damage as a direct result of their actions.

    But the highlight of the movie was the scenes of businesses I have been in, roads I have driven. To watch the evening haze coming in from the Pacific as the sun sets is a marvelous sight. But to see the same scene on television and knowing that what you see every day millions across the world can now see, that is an exciting prospect. The people here all know of the special scenery we have that we drive through daily, but when one passes beauty daily it can become commonplace. It is nice to see that beauty out there for all others to admire.

    All-in-all I enjoyed the movie immensely (mostly due to the local scenes). But young children might perhaps be better off when shielded from this language and behavior.