Alexander Payne is becoming a magnet for me. I wait for his films. He is an eminently American director that can look in with the incisive eye of an incisive foreigner. Besides all that, he is a poet. In "Election" he gives us an electro shock disguised as a Teen College Comedy. I laughed in horror at the cleverness of the storytelling. In "About Schmid" he forces us to look into one of the darkest corners of our society and find ourselves there. And he does it in the funniest most entertaining way. In "Sideways" he trusts his audience enough to put impossible hurdles for us to love his characters -- Paul Giamatti and his mother's money, for instance -- and yet, we have to admit he's made his point. We are all people. He manages to surprise us with our own capacity for compassion. Vittorio De Sica, Billy Wilder and Mario Monicelli come to mind. Yes Mr. Payne you are the ticket!
Review of Sideways
