Oh, my God. Everyone should go see "Sideways" RIGHT NOW if you're lucky enough to have it play nearby. What a weird, funny, lovely, wise little film. It's sort of a spiritual cousin to Curtis Hanson's "Wonder Boys" (which I love), with more acute an ache in its center. I walked out of the theater with watery eyes, a bad case of over-identification with its sad-sack protagonist, and craving for that perfect bottle of Pinot Noir, nevermind I know next to nothing about wine.

Vonnie, I just saw it 3 hours ago. I liked it, but not as much as I expected to. Though it gave me a wicked jones for wine, and a desperate need to get back out to wine country.

I gotta say, though, I have never ever ever liked Thomas Hayden Church in anything ever ever ever.

I really liked him in this. A whole damn lot.

HUDSON HAWK is just about the most underrated gem ever. I suspect if it had been a huge hit, I might feel very different about it, but becuase it got so much derision, I felt protective.

I must commune with the dolphins. eiyeieieieieyieieeeyeeiieyieiyeyieyeiye!!!!!

Oh! Before I forget again -- Touching the Void the documentary/recreation of a very fateful climbing expedition in the Andes, will be showing on PBS this week. Probably the most suspenseful film you'll see all year, even despite the fact that the two narrators/protagonists lived through it. Both Nutty and I were blown away by the film in the theatre.

In an ideal world, the clues for how to watch should be able to be picked up from the first several minutes of the movie itself.

Yes, this. I enjoyed The Mummy and Army of Darkness is one of my favorite movies. Van Helsing felt like it was trying really hard to be cool and failing.

HUDSON HAWK is just about the most underrated gem ever.

I wouldn't go that far, but I agree that it's definitely a fun movie.

I love Hudson Hawk.

Theo, do you know when exactly Touching the Void is going to be on? I'd really like to see it if possible.

I wouldn't go that far, but I agree that it's definitely a fun movie.

Yeah, I was being a bit hyperbolic, but I was just psyched about finding another HH fan. I know there are a few others around here - MM for one, I'm pretty sure, who, if I recall correctly, is also, a fan of another action movie that didn't do so well at the box office or with the critics, but is just so much more fun than the average bangbang movie: The Long Kiss Goodnight

The Long Kiss Goodnight

That's another good one.

I liked it, but not as much as I expected to. Though it gave me a wicked jones for wine, and a desperate need to get back out to wine country.

The jones for wine was so bad that I actually went out to eat lunch in an Italian restaurant next to the theater afterward and had a glass of Pinot Noir with my meal. Unfortunately, it fell rather short of "sublime".

I think the movie hit me so hard because I've been having a similar sort of "I've already lived half of my life, and all I have to show is this lousy T-shirt" type of brooding episodes (albeit without the near-suicidal depression.) And there were a couple of scenes in the movie that felt almost transcendental in quiet loveliness and heartbreak--the first being the conversation about wine and life Miles and Maya have on Stephanie's porch (for all his loser-y behaviors, you can see how someone could fall for Miles right there. And Oh, my God, Virginia Madsen's Maya was just incandescent in that scene), and the second was the scene at the wedding when Miles runs across his ex-wife and her new husband. Gah, the look on his face when he hears the news about the baby? Fucking broke my heart to pieces. Then I bawled like a baby through the entirety of Maya's phone message. Oh, man.

I also liked the soft jazz soundtrack. May have to get the CD.

Sideways is easily the best film I've seen this year. Like, by about a zillion points. Not quite at the level of Lost in Translation, but it hit me in almost all the same places.

(What cracks me up is how I can tell who's seen it and who hasn't by how they react when the wine list arrives in a restaurant. Especially if the house red is a merlot...)

Vonnie, the scene that broke my heart was immediately after the second one you described -- Miles at the diner, having skipped the reception (and I kept thinking "He can't skip the reception -- he's the best man! He has to give a toast!"), still in his tuxedo, eating a burger and onion rings, finally drinking his kickass 1961 vintage wine, but secretively.