From the maker of Election, Sideways is at times, like its predecessor, extremely clever and at other times very ugly. To avoid uncomfortable moments, you may not want to bring your children or your first date to this movie. Unless vulgar language—there’s no other way to describe it—and lots of nudity, is something you enjoy sharing with your family or date.

The story is of a downtrodden writer Miles Raymond, played by Paul Giamatti and his second rate actor best friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church) setting out on a road trip to commemorate the soon-to-be married Jack’s last week of “freedom” - which apparently allows sleeping with other women. While Jack is clearly a bit of a scoundrel, Raymond is, at first, more dislikeable as he seems to be a bit self-indulgent in his depression such that it becomes more important than helping his friend to celebrate. Along the way, we and Raymond find out together that his still beloved ex-wife has found a new husband. The trip then focuses on him as his despair overtakes him.

Meanwhile, Jack has found a couple of women for them to date. In order to do so, he has indicated to his date Stephanie (Sandra Oh) that he is not nearly-married; and he has told Mile's date Maya (Virginia Madsen) that Miles is, in fact, about to be a published author. Jack and and Stephanie quickly discover some nakedness in common, while Miles and Sandra take their time discussing wine.

Things, of course, go haywire when the existence of Jack’s plans to get married become apparent to the group. Both women are angry that they weren’t told. Jack, who takes a nose-breaking beating from his former-date in the process, then becomes obsessed to a humorous degree with trying to figure out a cover-up story to explain to his fiancé for what happened to his face. Meanwhile, Miles has noticed that he actually quite likes his former date and so he sets about trying to make things up to her.

The performances in this movie are certainly excellent. I was impressed with Paul Giamatti (normally cast as the cute and cuddly sidekick character) who managed to change his character from pathetic to somehow likeable in a very gradual way that actually made sense. Thomas Haden Church has been nominated for an Oscar for his role. Additionally, the dialogue is clever and the story takes some very funny turns. Although the movie has been nominated for five Academy Awards and has won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, the movie was too gratuitously naked and crude for me to thoroughly enjoy. But don’t take my word for it - most of the people around me thought it was delightful, so if you’re not a prude you might like it too.