MONDOVINO

In some respects, this film essay about contemporary winemaking, is an antidote to Sideways. There's no sunset casting golden light over a sublime pinot gris; instead, director Jonathan Nossiter presents a vintage rich in the bitterness of competition, the weight of family and the phony babble of marketing and globalization. Casting his lens over three continents and two dozen winemakers, Nossiter lets his interviewees meditate on the fading past -- small family farms run on tradition -- and the burgeoning future (jet-setting consultants, "micro-oxygenation" and Napa Valley's take-over kings, the Mondavis). The film's loose style grew on me, and at the film's conclusion, I realized how little I know about such a visible, omnipresent product. Wine is a big, and often ugly business, yet Nossiter, himself a sommelier, reminds us too that a good wine is also surely part magic. The 7 p.m. Mon., June 20, screening will include a wine-tasting and a discussion hosted by Grainne Trainor of the Mighty Oak Barrel, and Philip Real, of the Renaissance Hotel's Prelude wine bar ($10, 21-and-over). In English and various languages, with subtitles. Starts Fri., June 17. Oaks (AH)