Miles & Jack in Sideways are basically Mark & Jez from Peep Show

[Lapsedcat]

The same energy, I mean. The same insecurities and motivations - the bookish, insular, sensible one who likes a sense of order and very occasionally lets his hair down vs the brash, impulsive, outgoing one who just wants to get his end away - but they both need each other. I posit that you could remake Sideways as a British film and Mitchell & Webb would slot in perfectly.

Thoughts?

[Twilkes]

I don't know enough about Peep Show to be able to address the premise, but Sideways is so entwined in wine, California, and Californian wine that I don't think you could do a British remake. Possibly set it on the Scottish distillery trail but it would be necessarily grim, unless they got lucky with the weather.

I don't think Miles and Jack need each other at all though, they were college buddies and it seemed like they weren't as close as they used to be (lived in San Diego and LA I think?), but trading on past glories, and in the commentary I think Paul Giamatti reckoned the wedding would be the last time they even see each other, Miles was done at that point. That's also the difference between a movie and TV series though I guess, movies (ideally) should be a one-shot thing, whereas TV shows necessarily need to keep the relationships going.

[neveragain]

I don't think Miles and Jack need each other at all though, they were college buddies and it seemed like they weren't as close as they used to be...

That's actually the same as Mark and Jez. They'd probably be better off apart.

[dead-ced-dead]

I don't think Miles and Jack need each other at all though, they were college buddies and it seemed like they weren't as close as they used to be (lived in San Diego and LA I think?), but trading on past glories, and in the commentary I think Paul Giamatti reckoned the wedding would be the last time they even see each other, Miles was done at that point. That's also the difference between a movie and TV series though I guess, movies (ideally) should be a one-shot thing, whereas TV shows necessarily need to keep the relationships going.

That's a good observation from Giamatti. There's a line in the second act of Sideways when Miles has absolutely had enough that is so well played by Giamatti.

"Can't we just play some golf, drink some wine and then go home?"

The sense of frustration from Miles is so palpable.

[Twilkes]

That's a good observation from Giamatti. There's a line in the second act of Sideways when Miles has absolutely had enough that is so well played by Giamatti.

"Can't we just play some golf, drink some wine and then go home?"

The sense of frustration from Miles is so palpable.

There's so much to admire in that film, like how Miles is shit at golf but plays because Jack's his buddy but Jack is blissfully unaware of why Miles is having a shit time.

It was my favourite film for a long time, until I watched it just before I got married and found it all a bit grubby. :) Soundtrack and landscape is incredible though.

[thenoise]

If Mark got another bonus I'm sure he could fork out for a wine-tasting trip through Bordeaux for then both (after Sophie/Dobbie/whoever cancels at the last minute)

[Oosp]

I'm not drinking any FUCKIN' MERLOT!!!!

[Virgo76]

There's so much to admire in that film, like how Miles is shit at golf but plays because Jack's his buddy but Jack is blissfully unaware of why Miles is having a shit time.

It was my favourite film for a long time, until I watched it just before I got married and found it all a bit grubby. :) Soundtrack and landscape is incredible though.

I was the same!
Anyone else read the original novel by Rex Pickett?
A good comparison.
Miles seems less tied down to a conventional life than Mark. And more prone to alcoholism. Hard to imagine Mark robbing his mother?

[chip]

"Obviously it's not really delicious, like hot chocolate or coke, but for wine... brilliant."

[Mobius]

Is sideways good then? I was only 17 when it came it and didn't bother

[Twilkes]

Is sideways good then? I was only 17 when it came it and didn't bother

It was initially marketed as a rip-roaring road trip comedy, and it's really not, it's a very very funny drama with a great script and great acting, and a fair amount of tragicness going on. Well worth a watch still, have a bottle of something on hand.

In many ways the DVD commentary by Giamatti and Haden-Church is funnier than the film itself, great chemistry and some fine turns of phrase - from memory, Haden-Church describing his up-and-down intercourse bottom as 'like two duelling pillowcases full of milk'.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's quite a while (20 years - bloody hell!) since I saw Sideways, but I'm not sure the character dynamics are all that distinct. Odd couple friendships are a comedy staple.

[dissolute ocelot]

Cory and Shaun in Boy Meets World, William Ragsdale and Hank Azaria in Herman's Head, Gandhi and JFK in the original Clone High, even to an extent Chandler and Joey in Friends, are the neurotic shy guy and the brash womaniser. Even Rodney and Del or Rodney Bewes and James Bolam in ...Likely Lads have something of that dynamic.

As for Sideways, I enjoyed it but have been put off it by its status as much cited favourite of the middle-class white male likes of Peter Bradshaw who mainly like films about middle-class middle-aged white dudes having white middle-aged first-world man problems. Plus there's nothing wrong with Merlot.

[kalowski]

Is sideways good then? I was only 17 when it came it and didn't bother

I bloody love it. There are some magic moments in it.

[gotmilk]

Haven't seen the film in years, but I remember watching it in about 2008 and having the same thought. This was right after the execrable Magicians, and Sideways struck me as exactly the sort of movie that they should have been making instead.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I reckon you'd struggle to make this film in the UK because it has a very casual attitude to drink driving.