A Toast to Bottle Shock

I actually went to the movies today and it wasn't for a tent-pole blockbuster. And Len went along.

We saw Bottle Shock, based on the true story about how the California vineyards blew away the competition in a blind taste-test against French wine in 1976. Alan Rickman is, as always, wonderful. The film has a nice little score, plus a good selection of 1970s music. There are beautiful shots of Napa at sunset. The actor who gets to play young Captain Kirk plays Bill Pullman's son in the film. We really enjoyed it, although it did bother me to see the ways the wine bottles were handled after one of the characters actually says something about how they needed to be transported carefully.

The trailer for Viggo Mortensen's next film, Appaloosa, ran before the film. It's the first trailer I've seen for it. I think it opens in October. There was a big article about the The Road, the other Viggo film schedule for the fall, in today's L.A. Times. That one's going to be a whole lot harder to watch, I think. It appears to be covering some of the same issues as Kevin Costner's The Postman, without the upbeat ending. I've heard the young actor in it is amazing.