SOMM opens at the SIFF Film Center tomorrow night (tickets here). It pulls off that oft-attempted but seldom-achieved goal of many documentaries: It introduces viewers to an obscure and exclusive subject with an inclusive and entertaining storyteller’s touch.
Director Jason Wise’s debut feature offers a window into the secretive world of Master Sommeliers. Boiled down to the basics, Master Somms are wine stewards par excellence, with palates and noses so well-honed they can ascertain a wine’s composition, its region of origin, and all of its distinctive characteristics in seconds. In the forty years since the Court of Master Sommeliers formed, scores of candidates have endured a gauntlet of training, tastings, and memorization in the hopes of passing the once-yearly Master Sommelier exam. Only 200 people, however, have earned the wine world’s equivalent of a Black Belt — the Master Sommelier’s diploma.
A barrage of information about vintages, tannins, geography, and grapes wouldn’t likely make for a riveting feature by itself, so Wise hooks viewers on an emotional level, following four buddies — reserved New Yorker Dustin Wilson, cocksure and charismatic DLynn Proctor, down-to-Earth cutup Brian McClintic, and obsessive de facto elder statesman Ian Cauble — as they train for the Master Somm exam. Each guy in the circle registers as a distinctive, compelling personality, and SOMM runs along its course with the verve of the most inspirational sports movie.
Wise chatted with me shortly before SOMM’s Seattle International Film Festival premiere earlier this month, talking about the highfalutin’ field of Master Sommeliers (and his adventures filming them) with a sensibility that was equal parts boyishly energetic, intelligent, and down-to-Earth. His healthy pinch of levelheadedness made sense: After all, to quote one of the movie’s protagonists, it’s only fermented grape juice.
This is your feature film debut, but you’ve done some directorial work on TV, correct?
Yeah. I directed a PBS travel show for about a year, so I’ve had a little bit of experience, but nothing prepares you for something like this…
What was the impetus for untertaking SOMM? I read that you started out as friends with one of the prospective Master Somms.
I bartended out of film school, and a friend of mine introduced me to Brian [McClintic], and then Brian and I became friends. Brian was going through the Master Somm exam…There were four levels, and he was in the very, very early stages. I desperately wanted to make a feature, and I had several projects floating around. Then Brian said I should come watch their blind tasting. I didn’t know him as a great sommelier, I knew him as a total goofball [laughs]. I mean, he’s my friend, you know? What blew me away was the group of people he was studying with. They were so fascinating, and so passionate, and so insane.
How quickly did the concept of the film gel into this buddy-bonding, sports-competition scenario?
I realized right away that I was trying to do this monumental thing of actually making a film, which is so much harder than people realize. Not to dismiss people who can do it, but for me making a movie about wine is not as interesting as people think it is, on its own. The best bottles I’ve had weren’t great because they were great wines, they were great because I had them with amazing people, because it was funny, or we went late into the night and talked about great stuff, or “I met my wife,” or that kind of thing. It’s the experience and the people you have it with. Those are the things that make wine great.
One of the most impressive things about the movie is that it’s the kind of movie you can watch even if you don’t know Boone’s Farm from Chateau Margeaux…It very much draws you into these characters.
I really hope so. One of the greatest compliments I’ve gotten on the movie from [someone] who’d seen it is, “I don’t drink wine. I don’t hate it, but I don’t drink it. And I love this movie.”
How did your perception of this cast of characters change as shooting progressed?
It was very difficult at first with Brian, because I’m friends with him. So to make a film with him and to try to be objective about him, it was just impossible. So instead, I talked to Brian very differently. I just talked to him as a friend. And that’s why he kind of takes on the role almost of a narrator in the film. He and I were friends, and I realized that there’s no reason to lie to the audience and say I don’t know this guy: I know him, and by the end of shooting this, I was friends with every one of these guys. My wife, who produced the film, had a very birds-eye view of the whole thing. And she really did a great job of making sure the characters were at the front.
There was a little bit of a kerfuffle about the fact that none of your leading subjects in the movie are women.
Yeah. Man, if you want to talk about something that would be a really bad idea, it’s to try to cast a documentary’s perspective, unless your documentary’s about that perspective. If you say, “I’m gonna try to make a movie about chefs, but I want a woman, a Mexican man, an African-American guy….” Wow. What an awful, corporate idea of how to make a film. That never occurred to us, because there are women in the film, Master Somms, winemakers…. What set the guys apart is that they were all studying at the same time, together, and we just sort of followed them. If it were [a group of] girl somms, I would’ve followed them. I never went out, looking for a black guy — DLynn is just in the film. But I would much rather have someone say, “Why are there no women?” than, “Man, that film sucked.” I’ll take that, any day.
I’d love to see this from a female point of view, if the story was worth it. If you had four candidates that were women, I’d love to see that. That’d be a great movie.
What were the spouses of these guys like? They display some boundless patience sometimes, but were there ever times when they were ready to put someone’s head through a wall?
I loved interviewing the wives: They were great. I think they were probably less happy than I showed them in the film, though [laughs]. The point at which I realized we really had a real, full-circle film is when we woke up the morning after the tasting session…it looked like Dodgers Stadium after a game in that room. It was just filled with crap everywhere: Spit buckets, glasses, bottles everywhere. My first thought was, “Who the hell’s gonna clean all this up?” I knew these guys had to work, so that’s when I was like, we’ve got to interview the wives. And when they started talking about it, it was like, you never think about the damn spit cups. It’s like, “Yeah, I should be more respectful.” That goes for guys and girls — it would’ve been husbands cleaning it up if it was women. It’s just the way it goes.
What are some of the biggest challenges of directing documentaries for you?
I think the biggest hurdle with a doc is money. It’s so damned hard to get money for documentaries, because [investors] don’t make any money off of it. If they do it, they can make a lot, but a lot of the subjects are controversial, or they’re political, or this or that. Coming up with ideas is a challenge, too. Narrative or doc, there’s so much recycled stuff out there. I really struck it lucky with SOMM.
Are you concerned about being pigeonholed as a documentary filmmaker?
Nah. I could care less. I never started out as a documentarian. All my shorts and early stuff were narrative. Working with actors is something I love. Ultimately, that won’t be up to me to decide but, no, I’m not worried. I definitely have a few narratives I have to make if I’m gonna be able to die happy. Regardless, I’m gonna make ‘em. If I have to make ‘em with my iPhone, I’m gonna make ‘em.
