In the New York Post today, the day that the film will be honored by the New York Film Critics Circle, Barbara Hoffman looks at some who are underwhelmed by "Sideways":
"Seriously overrated," "plodding" and "mundane" are just a few of the charges they've leveled against Alexander Payne's paean to middle-age friendship and pinot noir.Granted, the naysayers are outnumbered - by 157 to 5, according to the movie-review site rottentomatoes.com.
But those hardy few who dissed "Sideways" and weren't afraid to say so are a defiant, unrepentant lot.
"It sounds cavalier, but if I'm going to be cowed, I have no business being a critic," declares Salon's Charles Taylor, whose review compared sitting through "Sideways" to "[being] trapped at dinner with a wiseass who's trying to convince you what a sensitive guy he is."
