Title: Boom Varietal: The Rise of Argentine Malbec
Directed by: Sky Pinnick
Running time: 72 minutes, Unrated
Special Features: Behind the scenes, Music Video: Sounds of Nuthin; Filmmaker Biography; Documentary Trailers
A documentary about the once thought lost varietal Malbec, a wine originally from France that found its way to Argentina and now making an impact on wine lovers in the U.S.
One thing I didn’t understand about this film is they chose to keep cutting back to a manager of a New York restaurant specializing in wines that shares her opinion, tearing down customers that order Malbec. If you want to showcase a specific type of wine, get someone who praises it, not make fun of people who order it because it’s the only varietal they feel confident to pronounce; she even goes so far as to say she “hates” Malbec. The music video in the special features, “Sounds of Nuthin” by Tim Cash was in my opinion, just awful.
Another drawback to this film was that a large portion is in Spanish and French. Subtitles are provided, but since I really wasn’t into the subject matter, it made it worse for me to have to read. Anyone who wants to know this much about Malbec wine is either a true connoisseur (or Wino as I call them) or someone looking for any advice on their own vineyard. I have a cousin who’s a sommelier and a friend who’s a winemaker and they would probably enjoy this documentary, but as a non-wine lover, I would’ve found beer or hard alcohol more interesting.
Total Rating: D-
Reviewed by: JM Willis
