Film Review-ish: Uncorked
‘Uncorked’ - a beautiful, simple and mediocre film. Calling a film ‘mediocre’ isn’t always seen as the biggest compliment, however, in this case it is.
If you’re reading this, then you either haven’t watched this film and looking to see if its worth watching, or you’re too scared to share your thoughts (so I’m doing it for you), or you’re just interested to hear what I have to say. Now, I’m not going to ruin the film for you just incase you haven’t seen it yet, but I will briefly breakdown why I think it did it’s job!
When I say this film is mediocre, I don’t mean to say that it’s bad or has no substance, but more that it does what its meant to do with the story. The main character ‘Elijah’ (Mamoudou Athie) is a mediocre and regular black man, he’s not a character raised by the hardship of street life, he’s not a black man overwhelmed with hate, loss and a grief stricken story, nor is he an overachieving black man who comes from nothing to become a billionaire - he is just a regular man, that has a passion for wine and is trying to pursuit a career in it. I love to see it and it will never get bored exploring other types of black characters and their stories.
A few things I liked
One of the things I like about this film, is how Elijah is explored through his choices to pursuit a career as a sommelier (I didn’t know anything about it either!). Not a typical career path many would go down, but Elijah’s determination to make his passion a career is beautifully shown through his internal battle to challenge his father’s expectations, taking over his father’s restaurant or pursuing a passion into a career. What I love about his journey is that there is no one overriding moment where he succeeds all the odds, it’s just a journey into success and that accurate reflection of reality is what makes it relatable.
Another thing I loved was the father-son relationship Elijah had with has dad ‘Louis’ (Courtney B Vance). Now it wasn’t on the best of terms, but exploring a dynamic that is so heavily important and heavily lacked within the black community, is so wonderful to see play out in this story. I’m sure you’re familiar with being challenged by your parents expectations of you, Elijah had the exact same battle. Even though he wasn’t as forthcoming with his choices at the beginning, it was nice to see how both roles grew into themselves and evolved.
Elijah’s mother ‘Sylvie’ (Niecy Nash) has got to be my most favoured character amongst them all. A breath of fresh air and resemblance of a black women being hilarious, beautiful and wise at the same time. Her characters role may have been secondary, but he contribution into Elijah’s story was a beautiful, sad and necessary agent - she brought joy, balance and support. I love it, I love her!
A couple things I wasn’t feeling
Elijah’s love interest (Sasha Compère) was fickle. It seemed like the creators had a few blanks in the narrative and filled it up with a quick fix love interest. Now I love her character, if anything I felt as though their relationships needed their own narrative or her character just needed more substance, especially as it seemed her only purpose in the film was to motivate Elijah (in a boring repetitive way) to pursuit his career. This could easily be done with more substance, regardless of her purpose, she deserved more and better!
The important of his wine career often felt flat at times, for a career that requires a specific level of studying, knowledge and skill, it wasn’t very clear how much of a journey it was for someone to succeed in this selective field. I’m not saying the film lacked this entirely, there were just moments that felt as though it needed to emphasised. Elijah travelling to France is probably the most important part in his education journey, but there were barely any major scenes that emphasised its importance (and it’s pretty important to be in France as a sommelier according to google).
In a nutshell, this film was a beautiful mediocre story - not everything black has to be excellent, in fact, it just being a simple story is successful enough. This film did exactly what it needed to do; it educated me on what in the world a sommelier is, it explored black love in many settings, emphasised the importance of a strong family unit, but more importantly, it highlight the understanding of what success really means. It was a consistent journey for Elijah and that’s exactly what success is, a journey of complete and incomplete processes to bring forth a new path or destination. Life is a journey and that’s what makes this film so relatable.