Early in Randall (Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School) Miller’s latest, an American in Paris (Dennis Farina) thrusts his proboscis into a wine snifter, inhales, and pronounces, “I detect bacon fat, laced with honey melon.” Sticking my snooty critic’s nose in the air after a screening of Miller’s take on the true tale of how a small California winery put the USA on the world’s wine map in 1976, I found myself thinking, “I detect corn, laced with cheese.” Bill Pullman plays Jim Barrett, a nearly bankrupt vintner who produces a miraculous Chardonnay that he almost throws out after it turns “the color of shit”; Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier, a down-on-his-luck Paris-based Brit who helps make history when he sees through the supposed sewage and detects a golden opportunity laced with global repercussions. But moviegoers deserve a better vintage — no connoisseur would imbibe a glass of bland vino just because it’s cheap. 110 minutes | Boston Common + Kendall Square + Embassy
