Uncorked 2020 Movie is . . . fantastic actually. 🍷

I finished watching Uncorked about a month ago. Like the main character, Elijah, I wasn’t yet cemented on what I thought of it. I was incredibly wishy-washy.

Me: I think I liked it, but the ending . . .

Also Me: I loved it, and yet why didn’t it just . . . GIVE ME WHAT I WANTED FOR ELIJAH!

::Proceeds to Ugly Cry::

Uncorked is a family drama about Elijah (played by up-and-coming actor, Mamoudou Athie) , a Memphis-born and bred young man, who is pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming a master sommelier.

The above meme is hilarious. Since I am actually a girly-girl, I do love and appreciate the fancy things. One of my brother’s friends is a sommelier and it’s such a treat to pick his brain about his olfactory “superpowers”, if  you will. Oh, and of course there’s their taste buds. As a little person, I considered sommelier as a profession. I also considered being a mortician in high school, but we can’t be everything!

I do so love a good glass of wine. I also adore the pretty bottles! And the prettier the bottle the better! Once they’re emptied of their Bacchus-blessed contents, I place them on the top of my bookcases or use them as decorations along a windowsill. Que Nice!

Uncorked is written by Prentice Penny (I love that name — kyaaaaa!) who happens to be a Black man. He’s also the film’s director and the love he poured into this film shows in every bit of dialogue, every scene, every moment. Even the sighs and silence hold great gravitas. I laughed. I cried. I bobbed my head to the music. The soundtrack is another sparkling facet of this jewel of a film!

The last five minutes of the movie had me firmly glued to the screen. I couldn’t look away. I needed to know what would become of Elijah. Did he? Or didn’t he? The rest of this review does not contain spoilers, but I will say that one of the most traumatic moments in the movie irritated me so much that perhaps I should have drank a glass of wine. 🍷

Now, when I mention trauma I’m not speaking about the trite and stereotypical manner that “the media” often handles it while dealing with the Black experience. No, no, no. And that’s one of the main things I love about this wonderful movie. The movie focuses on an every day family dealing with every day things that happens every day. It’s glorious in its mundane approach and both the setting and plot devices are more common than most people realize. People — yes ESPECIALLY Black people are MORE than their trauma!

Now, what brought me to finally accepting this movie — especially its ending?

Well, I can empathize and learn from Elijah’s story.

I submitted some more short stories and poems for publication about two weeks ago, (I may share the feedback I received in future posts and I may call it “Laugh at My Tears” — no? “Learn from My Tears”? lol) and I received some . . . rejections. That’s the way it goes sometimes.

The question is what do we choose to do about it?