What You Should Have Seen #16

Blood into Wine

I’ve wanted to see this documentary since I first heard about it last year, but make no mistake: my interest has nothing to do with wine making in Arizona. I like wine, but I love beer. Beer documentaries (Beer Wars, Brew Masters on the Discovery Channel) are what I’ll be interested in. The draw for me with this doc is the inclusion of Maynard James Keenan, front man extraordinaire of Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer.

I think you have to be a fan of Maynard’s music in order to really appreciate the film; you can’t just be a wine lover. His life and background as a musician are factored pretty heavily, and for me that makes this more interesting. I also learned that Milla Jovovich is a vocalist in Puscifer. How did I not know that before? Patton Oswalt also shows up, and that was a real treat, and Bob Odenkirk does a slightly humorous bit as the credits roll at the end.

The film grabbed me right from the humorous beginning. Maynard’s dry wit shows up almost every time he is on camera. Had that been missing from the film, I don’t know if I would have been able to stay with it. I just don’t care enough about wine.

Quick observation: I think Karl Wente snorted a line of coke before his stint on camera. Either that or he REALLY loves his winery. I don’t think he took a breath at all during his little interview.

Also, I thought the segment where he talked about his mother was incredibly touching.

I will not deny that I can be a beer snob. I tend to shy away from the big American breweries, your Anheuser-Busches and your Millers and your Coors. For big American craft brewers, I love Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams, but I also love trying all sorts of new types from all sorts of different breweries, both foreign and domestic. But I’m not so snobby that I get a mouthful of excellent beer, swish it around in my mouth, then spit it out. I don’t understand that, and as soon as I saw that happening with the wine critics, I wanted to punch them. God, I hope I’m not that douchey when I’m trying new beers. Drink it! Enjoy it! I know that has nothing to do with the movie, but I needed to say it.

The best lines from the movie were from a discussion between Maynard and wine critic James Suckling as they are tasting a bottle of Primer Paso from Caduceus.

            “Maybe you’re trying to be…trying too hard.”

            “Not at all. I love this wine. I make what I like.”

Watching this documentary did not make me want to buy or learn about wine any more or less than I already did. I would like to order a bottle of Maynard’s wine at some point, but that’s just for the novelty of buying a bottle of wine made by the lead singer of Tool. The one thing that this documentary DID do was make me want to watch a documentary about Maynard himself. I checked on IMDB, and there doesn’t seem to be one, so could somebody get on that? The recent Foo Fighters documentary was spectacular, so let’s get a Maynard one going.

Wikipedia Entry
IMDB Entry
Official Webpage
Caduceus Wine