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SOMM

...is a film about 4 peoples quest to become the ultimate in wine business. They want to become master sommeliers. In order to achieve this position they will have to go through endless hours of studying and memorize unthinkable facts. The drive themselves to the edge in order to pass a test that only 160 people in the world have ever past. Its about men who come to know the year, region, and type of wine just by smelling it.

SOMM is shot very professionally, with single person interviews over the city of San Francisco, but also recklessly, with scenes of the 4 friends at a dinner table naming wines and taking hits on each other when they get too serious or get something wrong. They make transitions using wine glasses breaking in slow motion that get more violent as the film progresses. I especially liked the scene where all the friends were around a table, with their spit cups and wine glasses. They were trying to study, but everyone was laughing and having fun.

I really thought this film was amazing even though I’m only 13. I related to it a lot as student, and they reminded me of what my friends and I are like. Goofing off sometimes when we’re supposed to be working, but pulling it together in the end and giving it our all to accomplish what we are going for. A team, including me, from the Santa Barbara MIddle school Teen Press went to the reception after the second screening of the film. When we interviewed some of the people that had just saw the movie, we asked them, “If SOMM was a wine, how would you describe it?” One of my favorite answers to this question was, “I would say SOMM would be a graciano, actually, a very difficult wine to grow, fairly obscure, but pulls it off in the end. Lots of challenges along the way, and it's from Spain even though nothing about this film has anything to do with Spain.” I gave SOMM a 5/5 review and I think if you go see it, you will too.