It's a Netflix movie so it's a pretty low bar for me to be entertained (e.g., Bird Box) but three was an underlying subtext of the film that bothered me. Perhaps a Spolier: I feel like the underlying premise (or subtext) of the movie is that Elijah wanted more than his simple black family had to offer and he would not find happiness until he was able to enter the white world of being a sommelier. I mean dude had an opportunity to be the owner of a thriving black restaurant business to chase an opportunity to work in a white restaurant? Why is that the goal? Because one is upscale and the other is downscale?

I must admit. My opinion is shaded by the fact that I think a large part of the wine scene is pretentious as hell. I couldn't make it through Sideways. So I was watching the movie and couldn't get into his struggle to become a sommelier and had not alot of interest in learning what it takes to become one. Throw the racial element on top of that and I was done.

I don't want to knock a black film too much publically but yeah...

I could be reading too much into it so I am curious to see if anyone else had the same takeaway.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I think he had a passion for wine and felt that following the path of his father, and his grandfather would keep him from that. He didn't see a path where he could be both a sommelier and a BBQ restaurant owner.

He was even shocked when his ol' man talked about dreams of wanting to be a teacher. I've heard countless times from my own ol' man that he wanted to be a pilot. Part of the story was about chasing your own dreams.

His dream was to do wine etc regardless if a set in stone profitable biz. The mother had it right.


>It's a Netflix movie so it's a pretty low bar for me to be
>entertained (e.g., Bird Box) but three was an underlying
>subtext of the film that bothered me. Perhaps a Spolier: I
>feel like the underlying premise (or subtext) of the movie is
>that Elijah wanted more than his simple black family had to
>offer and he would not find happiness until he was able to
>enter the white world of being a sommelier. I mean dude had
>an opportunity to be the owner of a thriving black restaurant
>business to chase an opportunity to work in a white
>restaurant? Why is that the goal? Because one is upscale and
>the other is downscale?
>
>I must admit. My opinion is shaded by the fact that I think a
>large part of the wine scene is pretentious as hell. I
>couldn't make it through Sideways. So I was watching the
>movie and couldn't get into his struggle to become a sommelier
>and had not alot of interest in learning what it takes to
>become one. Throw the racial element on top of that and I was
>done.
>
>I don't want to knock a black film too much publically but
>yeah...
>
>I could be reading too much into it so I am curious to see if
>anyone else had the same takeaway.
>
>
>**********
>"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then
>they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
>
>"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

But I didn't extract the race part from it where you did. His desires seemed surface level (he simply liked wine and didn't wanna run a restaurant) ... which is fine, but the movie itself seemed to lack depth past that. It was ok overall

I didnt think it was a great movie. I think it lacked depth and was just overall subpar.

Speaking to what you've brought up regarding him wanting something his family couldn't provide him. I think he was just following his passion. He seemed to have no problem making sacrifices to help his dad out when he was opening the new shop. I feel like if anything he thought that he owed it to his family to make sure the business continues on. Then he can pursue his passion. That said, this character was not very complex and there was only slight development throughout the film.

also take this reply for what it is because i enjoyed sideways, im into wine, but also the wine scene is bullshit by and large.

that it’s “problematic” that he wanted to be a sommelier. The story of a father wanting his son to take over the family business but the son has his own dreams is about as old of a movie trope you’ll find.

I also think they did a good job at hinting that there would be a way for him to do both in the future. The BBQ business was thriving - opening a larger second location. He was very much involved with the business after returning from Paris even when having to go back to school for the test again at the end. The new location even had a bar in it, and when his dad was helping him study they were even discussing wine pairings with different BBQ dishes. So you can see a future in which he isn’t just working at a white upscale restaurant, but maybe he ends up turning that second location into an upscale BBQ location in which he is using his passion for wine.

I thought they did a good job with the father/son dynamic - how it’s easy to see how much they love each other but have trouble talking to each other and expressing their feelings. I also like how it ended with him failing the tasting portion of the test. Throughout the film he was strong at tasting, while his white friend struggled. But when his mom died they had that scene with him struggling with tasting because of the connection of identifying tastes with memories of his mother. On the test the white friend test passed while he didn’t - so I don’t think it was that the test was so hard, but that he was still struggling with memories of his mother. The final scene with him in class, confident about tasting notes showed that he was able to get past this challenge.

The story wasn’t revolutionary at all, like I said it’s an old trope, but I thought it was executed well.