From 2000 comes Our Song, written and directed by Jim McKay. He's not the Wide World of Sports Jim McKay, he's the film director Jim McKay. This movie may have fallen through the cracks for you, but it's worth a search. It garnered many accolades for its realistic depiction of what it's like to be a teenage girl in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. As it turns out, it's a lot like being a teenage girl anywhere in America.
McKay was told by everyone he talked to, that following up his previous young girl film with another one was career suicide. It wasn't. He has worked a lot since then, largely in television.
The perfect pairing for Our Song has to be a wine from the McBride Sisters Wine Company. They were the first black sisters to start a wine business. Their mantra has this film written all over it: "Go where you don't belong. Someday you will." They have a rosé, a Riesling and a red blend for $15 each. Their California sparkler is $25.
1959's Blue Denim comes from a time in America when parents worried that their kids were sneaking into a pair of jeans on the way to school. Or worse, letting someone sneak into theirs on the way home. Blue denim trousers were the mark of troubled youth back then, only exceeded by black slacks and a ducktail. Heathens.
Nothing says "coming of age" quite like an unplanned teenage pregnancy. Adults are made, not born. Throw in some talk of abortion and you have a genuine late-'50s potboiler.
Denim by Beaubois is a good pairing here. From the Costieres de Nimes region of the Southern Rhône Valley, where the denim fabric was born, so they say. And who am I to argue? This Syrah/Grenache/Mourvèdre blend comes complete with a blue denim label for about $25. You can't get a good pair of jeans for that price.
Bleak obsession drives the 1970 British-West German collaboration, Deep End. It's funny how bleakness seems to have popped up more in movies which required an international effort to produce. Unfortunately, that's about all that's funny here. The film's main setting is a bath house where swimming and less innocent things happen. The main character is a 15-year-old dropout who develops a crush on an older woman with whom he works. Right, he quickly gets in over his head.
Nelson Hill Winery has a line of Anderson Valley Pinot Noir which they call the Deep End, after the vineyard where the grapes are grown. They say the wine is more beauty than brawn, which sets it apart from most other California Pinot Noirs. It sells for about $45.
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