Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.
In Sideways, Payne has created four of the most lived-in, indelible characters in recent American movies. This deliciously bittersweet movie makes magic out of the quotidian.
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Peter Rainer
Sweetest, funniest, most humane movie I've seen all year.
100
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
It's an intoxicating feeling when a movie excites and enlivens us like this -- and there's a particular giddiness to be had in thinking about what movies can (but don't often) do for one's soul after imbibing such a fine vintage.
90
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A beautifully observed, small-scale study of personal foibles, romantic uncertainty and two sides of the sadly predictable male animal.