December 2004

Going to the Movies in Guangdong

by James McNally on December 23, 2004

in DVD

Very very funny and inter­esting report about a night out to see a movie in main­land China. The best part was about the loud con­ver­sa­tions going on all over the theatre in Cantonese, espe­cially the guy on his cell­phone. A very dif­ferent exper­i­ence, indeed. The entry on buying pir­ated DVDs is also great. (via boing­boing)

Tagged as: china

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Wine Geek Insecurity

by James McNally on December 23, 2004

in Theatrical Release

Slate’s wine colum­nist Mike Steinberger weighs in on Sideways, per­haps my favourite film of 2004. Though he gen­er­ally likes it, he can’t help but dis­play some typ­ical wine geek insec­urity. He wor­ries that Paul Giamatti’s por­trayal of Miles Raymond, a char­acter who is, in his words, “a bit of a wine asshole” will reflect badly on all wine lovers. He impli­citly wor­ries that people might think the character’s arrog­ance and selfish­ness somehow flow out of his being a wine con­nois­seur. Mike, relax! Miles is a char­acter in a movie. He’s not rep­res­enting everyone who loves wine. He’s not rep­res­enting all middle-aged men. And no, Mike, he’s not rep­res­enting you.

Although I do con­sider myself a wine lover, I’m not obsessive, and the thing I liked most about the film is that it’s not par­tic­u­larly about wine at all. It’s about life, with all its dis­ap­point­ments and its pleas­ures. And it’s about the crazy broken people who live it.

UPDATE: About an equal number of people get it and don’t get it on the eGullet Forums. When someone says the movie isn’t believ­able because a “true wine geek wouldn’t…”, I just had to roll my eyes.

Tagged as: wine

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