Emotional Pain in Beautiful Places: Sideways & The Descendants

SIDEWAYS (2004, 124 minutes) and THE DESCENDANTS (2011, 115 minutes) follow emotionally adrift characters, struggling to find meaning in midlife, but they are suffering in beautiful locations!

In the first class session, we’ll watch and discuss SIDEWAYS. We’ll explore how Alexander Payne uses wine country in the film, the symbiotic relationship between the two main characters, and focus on how cool Virginia Madsen is in this film.

After wine country, we will journey to Hawaii and George Clooney’s midlife crisis in THE DESCENDANTS. We’ll dig into how Payne uses humor to  interrogate the tension between legacy and colonization. Discussion will highlight how Payne’s themes change (or not) over the course of his films.

Films:

7/14: SIDEWAYS (2004, 124 min)

7/21: THE DESCENDANTS (2011, 115 min)

This class will be taught by Pamela Pierce, Assistant Professor at OHSU, and author of “Livin’ Like Jagger: The Hardcore Life of a Digitizing Librarian” who recently taught a class on Alexander Payne’s CITIZEN RUTH.

Each class will begin with a short lecture, followed by a screening of the film, after which an instructor-led discussion will take place. 

Class size will be limited to 18.

Email us at education@moviemadness.org if you have any questions.