Film
Somm
Four friends spend years drilling blind tastings, geography flashcards and service drills for the Court of Master Sommeliers exam, one of the hardest tests in the world. It's part underdog sports movie, part strange subculture exposé, following obsessive, funny, slightly terrifying people who can identify a wine's vintage by smell. Great for anyone who likes watching expertise pushed to its absolute, faintly absurd limit.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love watching people chase mastery of a craft that looks impossible from the outside, and you enjoy the tension of a high-stakes test whose rules are half-mysterious.
Skip it if you have no patience for wine jargon or want a film digging into the industry's business side, since this one stays close to a handful of candidates.
What it asks of you: Roughly ninety minutes, brisk and conversational, with the tension building through repeated tests; you need to stay alert to tasting talk and little else.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Jiro Dreams of Sushi2011
An 85-year-old sushi master's decades of relentless refinement make Somm's four-year cram session look almost casual. Same reverence for a craft most people never think twice about.
But Quieter and more meditative than Somm — there's no exam, no ticking clock, just discipline stretched across a lifetime.
Spellbound2002
Kids obsessing over words instead of wine, but the same tunnel-vision intensity and gut-punch stakes. You'll root for total strangers harder than you expect.
But The subjects are children, which changes the emotional register — less bro-ish camaraderie, more parental pressure and nerves.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters2007
Obsessive amateurs chasing an absurdly niche title, complete with rivalries, villains and genuine heartbreak. It's Somm's competitive tension with a joystick instead of a corkscrew.
But Leans harder into comedy and melodrama — some of it feels staged, which cuts against the documentary's credibility.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Somm
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Red Shoes1948
Same theme as Somm — total devotion to a craft that demands sacrifice — but told sixty-five years earlier, as ravishing fiction instead of talking-head documentary.
A ballerina torn between artistic perfection and everything else in her life, shot in gorgeous, feverish Technicolor. It's the oldest, grandest version of Somm's question: what does mastery actually cost you?
But It's a tragic melodrama, not a documentary — no camaraderie, no laughs, just beauty curdling into obsession.
More like this (8)
Sour Grapes2016
Stays in the wine world but flips to fraud and ego among collectors, showing the darker, moneyed side of the obsession Somm treats so lovingly.
But Less warmth, more true-crime paranoia — you may miss the underdog charm of the sommeliers-in-training.
Wordplay2006
Crossword devotees instead of wine geeks, but the same delight in watching people find genuine joy in a skill nobody outside their tribe understands.
But Much gentler and more whimsical — don't expect the exam-day dread that gives Somm its pulse.
Mondovino2004
Pulls back from personal obsession to the global wine industry itself — money, terroir, politics — giving useful context for the world Somm's characters are trying to enter.
But Sprawling, essayistic and occasionally meandering; it's an argument as much as a story, with far less narrative momentum.
Undefeated2011
Swap wine glasses for football pads and you get the same structure: dedicated people, brutal odds, and a shot at something that matters enormously to a small world.
But Heavier emotionally, dealing with poverty and institutional neglect — a rawer, less playful kind of stakes.
Step2017
A dance team's push toward a make-or-break competition, full of the same nervy training montages and quiet, private moments of doubt.
But Younger cast and a more overtly inspirational arc — less irony, less booze-soaked camaraderie.
Chef's Table2015
Each episode is a portrait of someone as fanatically devoted to their craft as Somm's tasters, if you want more of that specific obsessive-genius high.
But No competitive tension or exam-day dread — it's admiration rather than suspense, episode after episode.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress2011
Trades Somm's competitive urgency for pure creative obsession, showing the same fanatical refinement of taste and technique in a different register — foreign language, unhurried, nearly silent.
A hushed, patient look inside Ferran Adrià's legendary kitchen as his team invents new techniques through sheer relentless trial and error. It's the quiet, obsessive flip side of Somm's exam-day adrenaline.
But Almost no narration or plot — it's slow, contemplative and in Spanish, closer to meditation than sports doc.
The Great British Bake Off2010
Same core drama — expertise performed live under expert judgment — reimagined as gentle, mass-appeal comfort television instead of tense insider documentary.
Amateurs sweating over soufflés under a judge's unblinking gaze — cozy, funny, and surprisingly tense in exactly the way Somm's exam scenes are.
But Deliberately soft-edged and comforting; the stakes are tiny compared to a career-defining exam, and it never pretends otherwise.
People
Cast
Bo BarrettSelf- Shayn BjornholmSelf
- Dave CaubleSelf
- Ian CaubleSelf
- Andrea CecciSelf
- Fred DameSelf
- Elizabeth DowtySelf
- Whitney FisherSelf
- Jay FletcherSelf
Directing
- Jason WiseDirector
Writing
- Jason WiseScreenplay