The Bottom Line: sex, lies, & videotape is a cinematic debut masterpiece from Steven Soderbergh w/ great performances from Spader, MacDowell, Gallagher, & Giacomo.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
When the 1970s ended the era of young auteurs who were more about art than making money, many wondered what was going to happen for films that told real stories and actually mattered to people. Sure, there's a lot of films that people remember about the 80s like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Scarface, or Top Gun. With the exception of Scarface and to a lesser extent, The Breakfast Club, many of these films seem to be dated and don't feature any kind of reality that would appeal to an audience that was disenfranchised by the excessive decadence and sleek look that is 1980s American cinema. While European, Asian, and Latin America cinema were continuing on their trek in making great art films, in America, it was rarely seen except in the underground.
While independent films had been around for many years, it wasn't until the 80s is when there was really a new crop of young filmmakers who were making films that had something a small group of people can relate to that either can feature any kind of political or social commentary. While there were a notable few independent films in the 80s that did score commercial success, it was only for a brief period. Directors like Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, John Sayles, Joel & Ethan Coen, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant were making little films that relied on any kind of realism, even if it was offbeat and entertaining. Throughout that decade, there was the U.S. Film Festival that showed many of these new films and up-and-coming filmmakers and then, in 1989, everything changed all because of one little low-budget film that wouldn't just surprise the independent film world but would mark the new independent film revolution of the 1990s. That film was 1989's sex, lies, and videotape by Steven Soderbergh.
Born in Atlanta, GA in 1963, Soderbergh was just an up-and-coming filmmaker who made short films and did work on a concert film for the British prog-rock band Yes. Soderbergh was also crafting scripts for himself while trying to find money to fund his debut film, sex, lies, & videotape. The film was an exploration on sex as an impotent man visits an old college buddy, who is secretly having an affair with his wife's sister while his wife doesn't seem interested in sex at all. Set in the rural South, Soderbergh chooses a low-key world that is a complete contrast to what many films were looking like at the time. Starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, and Laura San Giacomo, sex, lies, & videotape is a true landmark film that would break American independent cinema to the mainstream.
For the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based housewife Ann (Andie MacDowell), sex was never interesting for her while she doesn't like her husband John (Peter Gallagher) touching her in bed though recently, he hasn't. Talking to her therapist (Ron Vawter), Ann talks about her lack of interest towards sex and how she found the whole thing to be absurd. She is more bothered now that John as asked a former college buddy named Graham (James Spader) to come visit without her consent. On the day Graham arrives, Ann lets him in as she is intrigued by his soft-spoken, introverted character, something that has irked the more brash John.
Graham is searching for a new home to live as he stays with John and Ann for a few days. Meanwhile, John is having an affair with Ann's younger, arty sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo). John finds more sexual fulfillment in the extroverted, outspoken Cynthia as opposed to the more uptight, strict Ann. Ann helps Graham search for a house where the two talk about Graham's impotence and how he isn’t interested in the physical side of sex but talking about it is more interesting. When Ann visits Graham one day in his new house, she sees a box of tapes where she learns that Graham is making a project about women talking to him about sex.
Ann is freaked out by the whole thing as she talks to Cynthia, who is very interested in what's going on despite John and Ann's separate pleas about him being weird. Cynthia chose to take a shot in visiting Graham unexpectedly. Graham decides to shoot her with his video camera where they talked about sex and for Cynthia, the result gives her newfound, emotional and sexual pleasure. She talks to Ann about it, who is even more freaked out while John is wondering what's up with Cynthia's newfound attitude as their affair begins to fizzle. With the increasing frustration about Cynthia's extroverted attitude, Ann wonders what’s going on as she confronts John if he had an affair which he denies.
While John continues to pursue his tryst with Cynthia, Ann has had enough as she lets her uptight persona go down where she talks to Graham and becomes his subject. When John finds out, all hell breaks loose in not what Ann has revealed but what Graham reveals as well where everything falls apart for everyone involved.
While the movie is a sex film, it's an unconventional sex film since the film features no nudity but suggests the idea of nudity. The genius of the film is Steven Soderbergh who chooses to explore sex through characters who are often alienated by it or those who live it. In many ways, this film at that time shows an awareness of how in the era of AIDS, talking about sex has become more interesting than actually doing it. It's a very provocative piece as Soderbergh plays voyeur in exposing the lives of its central characters where their development shows how sex changes them. With a script that he wrote in two weeks, Soderbergh reveals the damage and openness of what sex does by giving the late 20-something and 30-year olds something that they can identify with. Another genius idea in Soderbergh's script is the dialogue which can come off as frank and humorous but the stuff that comes is very real and shows how awkward people can be when it comes to sex.
Soderbergh shows not just his strength in the writing but also in his unconventional style of directing. While there are the traditional zoom shots and camera angles, his approach is more to capture the emotions and trouble of the characters, especially a great zooming close-up of Laura San Giacomo having an orgasm after her meeting with Graham. Using the limits of $1.8 million budget that he had, Soderbergh doesn't give the film not just a nice, low budget feel but his approach of using real places, real office and locations gives the film a sense of freedom by shooting it in Louisiana instead of somewhere like Los Angeles.
Soderbergh's direction is complemented by the wonderfully grainy cinematography of Walt Lloyd who chooses to give the film a natural, grainy look of Baton Rouge suburbia without any sense of gloss or flashy lighting schemes. Even the look of the interior scenes from art director Joanne Schmidt and James Spader's then-wife/set designer Victoria Spader gives many of the film's interior look some nice, arty paintings for San Giacomo's characters and an array of plants. That look with James Ryder's costumes gives the film a very realistic feel. With Soderbergh doing the editing himself, he makes sure the film is nicely paced without being too slow in its 100-minute presentation. Giving the film a moody feel is former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez who presents a haunting score to convey the isolation that surrounds both Ann and Graham.
With some nice small performances from Ron Vawter as Ann’s therapist and Steven Brill as the comical barfly in the bar that Cynthia works, the film really focuses on its four main characters. Then-newcomer Laura San Giacomo gives an amazing, outgoing performance as Cynthia with her in-your-face attitude and frank talk about sex as Giacomo makes more than just a sexy young woman. Giacomo gives her intelligence and depth where she can stand up to the more introverted MacDowell while her character later develops into a woman who understands more about the pleasure of not just sex itself but talking about it. Peter Gallagher is the more traditional character as the self-centered, egomaniacal, yuppie lawyer. Gallagher shows his sexual frustration that can be understandable but doesn't make his character sympathetic by making John a guy who is really a jerk. When he sees the tape of Ann/Graham, we see Gallagher’s character fall apart as what he was in the beginning begins to crumble in a masterfully, executed performance.
While Andie MacDowell is not everyone's favorite actress, it's her performance in this film that shows why she's still working. MacDowell gives a naturally innocent performance early on in the film as this shy, timid woman with no interest for sex but as the character develops, we see more. MacDowell gives probably her best performance yet by making this woman confront her own ideas and thoughts on sex and marriage while seeing all the lies that she's surrounded by as she just goes out there.
The film's best performance easily goes to James Spader in what is probably at the time, his most complex and troubling performance to date. Prior to this film, Spader has been known as either a jerk in films like Endless Love, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero. or a yuppie in Mannequin or Wall Street. Here, Spader gives out his real breakthrough as Graham with his quiet, sensitive portrayal of a troubled man trying to discover himself through women talking about sex. Spader brings in great restraint and compassion as he carries great chemistry with MacDowell. In comparison to his other landmark indie-sex film characters like the sex-destruction obsessed James Ballard in David Cronenberg's Crash and the cold, compulsive E. Edward Grey in Steven Shainberg's Secretary, Graham is more interesting since he's trying to find an outlet for his sexual impotence from a human and emotional standpoint away from the lies that he lived in the past.
When the film premiered in the U.S. Film Festival in 1989 (which later became Sundance), sex, lies, & videotape was a hit as it won the Audience Prize that year while months later at the Cannes Film Festival, the film pulled an upset as it won the prestigious Palme D'or that year with Spader picking up Best Actor. In a very hectic year of blockbusters, sex, lies, & videotape found an audience through word of mouth and critical buzz as it helped win several Independent Spirit awards and other critical awards as Steven Soderbergh becoming the new hot director. While the actors of the film went on to do bigger and better things, Soderbergh had a tough time trying to follow-up his debut film until 1998 when he scored big with Out of Sight and would become a prominent, established director.
Almost more than 15 years since its release, sex, lies, & videotape still haunts its audience with its frank dialogue and unconventional take on sex films thanks to the genius of Steven Soderbergh. With a great cast and crew around him, the film still stands as a landmark for American independent cinema by showing what you can do outside of the studios. Even if sex remains taboo to some, it proves that those who are uncomfortable with it are still not alone. It's a remarkable masterpiece that serves as a great discussion for those who want to play safe sex.
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