Apologies for being preemptively defensive, but I thought about this for a while and I think it’s okay to log screenplays I read since it’s, like, released by a publisher and, while it doesn’t take up as much space on a page as fiction, it takes up about as much space as poetry and obviously we log poetry. Apologies, also, if everyone is like, “This is fine. Why are you defending this?”
Anyway, great screenplay. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor do some creative things with action lines to keep things moving. Some lines were cut from the finished film. They were all good cuts.
They do a really good job of leading the reader when necessary, giving slight insights into Miles (Paul Giamatti)‘s thinking. It’s beautifully done. Also there are a number of scenes in the movie where the screenplay really describes exactly the sound design and editing. I always wonder when you see people talking and music is playing over it, “Was that scripted?” In Sideways, whenever something like that happens, the script describes the action and notes that the conversation is “improvised.”
Wonderful screenplay of a fantastic movie. Very subtle, thoughtful, moving, and funny. Watched the film relatively recently, but reading this made me want to go back and watch it again.