For starters, it’s not about white people. That
alone makes “Uncorked,” which debuts Friday
on Netflix, a rare varietal. Mamoudou Athie stars
as Elijah, a young black man in Memphis who
doesn’t want to take over his father’s barbecue
restaurant. He wants to be a sommelier.
This is far from an expected career path. When
Elijah announces his intentions at dinner, one
family member hears “Somalia” and wonders
why he wants to get involved with pirates. But
his ambition is earnest, even if his father, Louis
(Courtney B. Vance), is skeptical.
Elijah’s passion attracts others. For a young
woman (Sasha Compere) shopping for a bottle,
he supplies a hip-hop analogy, comparing
chardonnay to Jay-Z, pinot grigio to Kanye West
and riesling to Drake. (It remains unclear where
Ol’ Dirty Bastard would fit on this spectrum.)
They begin dating just as Elijah starts prepping
for the master sommelier test (which, in reality, is
so impossibly hard that virtually no one passes)
with a study group of new friends.
Elijah stands out in this world but “Uncorked”
doesn’t overemphasize it. Instead of going for a
broad fish-out-of-water tale, Penny grounds the
movie on the relationship between Elijah and
his father. The actors help considerably. Both
veteran Vance and Athie, a talented newcomer,
imbue the film with a vivid emotional honesty.
And the family scenes are warmly intimate,
including those between Louis and his wife,
Sylvia (Niecy Nash).
Penny, the showrunner for the exceptional
HBO series “Insecure,” has — true to the
genre — penned an easy-pouring tale that
won’t overwhelm anyone by its dramatics.