NOTHING QUITE SAYS “piece of crap” to me like a rave review from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. No other reviewer has done nearly as much to celebrate the whole class of overrated art house nullities.

But the new movie Sideways, from director Alexander Payne (best known for Election and About Schmidt), is so good it’s made a truth-teller of Travers, whose review gets it right: “Sideways is inarguably a special occasion. Doubters may hedge about calling it a classic and might insist on checking back in a few years to see how it’s aged. Fair enough. But it’s not too early to call it pure movie bliss.”

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