Happy Prohibition Repeal Day! One year from now will be the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which lifted the ban on manufacturing, distributing and selling alcohol in the United States. Always a fan of pre-gaming, I've decided to start celebrating early with a look at some favorite movies that celebrate wine, beer and liquor.

Certainly I am no fan of alcoholism, and I encourage all Americans to drink responsibly. That is why most of these movies (not all, though) are about the appreciation of the taste of alcoholic beverages rather than about getting drunk. Also, I'm sorry to disappoint fans of Strange Brew, but that hilarious brewery-set comedy was shot in Canada and so it doesn't seem to fit the focus of this list.


Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)

Imagine what California's wine country would be like if Prohibition were still around. Whatever would be there in place of vineyards would sure be a waste. Just ask Miles (Paul Giamatti), everyone's favorite wine expert snob character. The movie didn't exactly allow me to have a great appreciation of fine wines -- I can't afford to -- and it didn't make me tolerate people like Miles any better, but it was interesting to see a story set in that world, which could only exist thanks to the 21st Amendment.

I like Christmas movies as much as the next guy, but when they're bad, they're really bad, as in Christmas with the Kranks or Deck the Halls. Most times I prefer a different kind of experience. Sometimes a movie simply set during the holiday season can weave Christmas into its storyline without making an overt holiday statement, and these can evoke a warmth and nostalgia -- or sometimes the opposite -- of their own.

1. The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)
Lubitsch rarely balanced comedy and pathos so beautifully as in this movie about a busy Hungarian department store during the month before Christmas. Hardly anyone mentions the holiday until the final scenes, but the hope and despair that the season can bring hovers everywhere. Jimmy Stewart plays a clerk having an anonymous pen-pal love affair with a girl (Margaret Sullavan) -- who happens to be working right next to him in the shop, unbeknownst to either of them. The entire cast is remarkable, from Frank Morgan as the shop's owner to William Tracy as the delivery boy. Unhappily, Nora Ephron remade this in 1998 as You've Got Mail.