Alexander Payne's Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Sideways
It'll always be the best film Alexander Payne has ever made. How a trip through wine country for a crap actor and a failed novelist became a meditation on dissatisfaction and the idiocy of a mid-life crisis, we'll never know.
When Payne wrote Sideways, there was nothing left to the imagination in the representation of these characters, because they were everything that real people are, crass, pompous, sometimes deceptive, and capable of real feeling. It's hard to think of two actors more suited for the job than Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden-Church, themselves underrated actors with tremendous comedic talents.
So few films have ever got the mischief of two men so right, both of whom are struggling with self-identity, and both bonded by a close friendship that means that the other will back them up no matter the consequences.
Just remembering the brilliance of Paul Giamatti crawling through a house trying to steal back his friend's wallet whilst being chased by two people having sex is enough to elicit a chuckle. It's a film that few would disagree was downright phenomenal in every frame.