Alumnus Jason Wise’s latest film SOMM gets a great, honest review from the LA Times film critics.

Enjoy part of the review from Kenneth Turan, of the LA Times “Movies Now” section:

As written and directed by Jason Wise, “Somm” follows four individuals as they prepare to take the test that fewer than 200 people have passed in the more than 40 years since it was first given in the U.K.The exam has three parts, all flowing from the basic job of the sommelier, which is to help patrons match the wine they choose to the food they’ve selected. It is, a winemaker says, a bit like being a racetrack tout. Buying any bottle is a wager, and these folks assist people in placing their bets.

Read our other posts about SOMM here!

Section 1 of the test is theory, which mandates all kinds of specialized wine knowledge. Section 2 is service, and it involves figuring how to deal with the most obnoxious customers imaginable. Section 3 is the real killer: a blind tasting where six wines have to be specifically identified by taste and smell alone.

Because the people administering the test are committed to making it as fiendishly difficult as possible, the candidates we see have to be maniacally obsessed with passing it. These self-absorbed folks disappear from the rest of their lives as they try to memorize thousands of flash cards and taste wines without end, throwing out descriptors such as “freshly opened can of tennis balls.”

In broad outline, “Somm” is similar to the excellent Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker documentary “Kings of Pastry,” which focuses on a French competition to be named one of Les Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (the best craftsmen in France), known collectively as MOFs, though wine tasting is by definition less visual than pastry making.”Somm” is also hampered by an intrusive score, but the film’s formula of following these four from three weeks before the start of things right through the competition is a tried and true one that can’t help but have success. We’ve seen these guys torture themselves so much, we inevitably get emotionally involved in the final verdict, and drinking to their success is what we’d all like to do.

Head over to the LA Times blog to read the entire review!