lies sex and videotape Movie Review
No question about it, sex, lies and videotape is an impressive first feature for writer/director Steven Soderbergh, then 26. The movie was lionized at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two major awards. I can't help feeling, though, that there was an “Oh, those funny Americans” factor about its lavish reception. Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, a far more threatening view of American society, was virtually ignored by the same festival. James Spader as Graham illustrates what ruthless seducers have known forever: that if a man tells a potential conquest he's normally impotent around women and then shows her that he isn't around her, he's practically assured of another notch on his belt. And this is late-breaking news? Meanwhile, across town, Peter Gallagher as John learns another astonishing lesson: that if a man fools around with his wife's sister, he's going to lose them both. Soderbergh is so wrapped up in these two urgent social statements that he ignores minor details. For example, Spader has a car and a place to live and an extensive video collection of assorted women discussing their sex lives on camera. At one point, he says that he supports himself with money under the mattress. One helpful sentence about where he gets his grocery money would have dissolved the notion that he might be a blackmailing slime instead of the film's only candidate for a romantic prince. The movie gets off to a slow start with an endless sequence between Andie MacDowell as Ann and her therapist. (Surprise: the therapist is a dope!) The rest of the film consists of sequences between Ann and husband John, Ann and sympathetic Graham, Ann and sister Cynthia, Cynthia and brother-in-law John, Cynthia and sympathetic Graham, and finally, dishonest John and honest Graham. The movie was made in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on $1.2 million, which included the salary of my favorite actress in the film: Laura San Giacomo as Cynthia. When San Giacomo snarls “You are scum” to John and then hops into bed with him, she gives an understanding to these contradictory acts that isn't in the script. Despite his best actor award, Spader basically has three expressions: asleep, constipated, and adorable. sex, lies and videotape leaves unanswered the burning question of why it takes some men forever to realize what burns out many women long before they finish high school.
1989 (R) 101m/C James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo, Ron Vawter, Steven Brill; D: Steven Soderbergh; W: Steven Soderbergh; C: Walt Lloyd; M: Cliff Martinez. Cannes Film Festival ‘89: Best Actor (Spader), Best Film; Independent Spirit Awards ‘90: Best Actress (MacDowell), Best Director (Soderbergh), Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (San Giacomo); Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘89: Best Actress (MacDowell); Sundance Film Festival ‘89: Audience Award; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘89: Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV, Letterbox, Closed Caption, DVD