Raise your glasses to a vintage American comedy that gets damn near everything right you can wait around and hope, but you won't have a better time at the movies this year than you will at Sideways. This baby has it all: inspired direction by Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt), who fuses bracing wit and emotional gravity into something funny, touching and vital; a nuanced script by Payne and Jim Taylor, from Rex Pickett's novel, that serves as a model of screen adaptation…

Writer/director Alexander Payne's fourth effort, Sideways--a film about two friends who go on a wild wine-tasting trip of self discovery together--is definitely his most bittersweet, romantic human tale to date.

Story

The misadventures begin when amateur wine enthusiast Miles (Paul Giamatti) decides he's going to take his old college buddy, the charming Jack (Thomas Haden Church), on a relaxing trip to the vineyards of California's Santa Ynez Valley the week before Jack's impending nuptials. It…