sex, lies, and videotape

Composite Score: 83.73

Starring: James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo, Ron Vawter, and Steven Brill

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Writer: Steven Soderbergh

Genres: Drama, Romance

MPAA Rating: R

Box Office: $24.74 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Sex, lies, and videotape is Steven Soderbergh’s feature film debut about four people struggling with sex and romance and young adulthood. The film stars Andie MacDowell as Ann, the repressed wife of Peter Gallagher’s John, who meets John’s friend from college, Graham, played by James Spader, and becomes fascinated (and perhaps infatuated) with him and his contrast to her husband, who happens to be carrying on an affair with her sister Cynthia, played by Laura San Giacomo. The messiness of relationships and sexuality plays out on screen as the foursome learn about each other and themselves in Soderbergh’s Oscar-nominated film. Soderbergh’s writing earned him a nomination for original screenplay, and it’s hard to make an argument that he didn’t deserve it, particularly with the help of MacDowell’s and Spader’s line deliveries throughout.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Sex, lies, and videotape is a fairly wordy affair (no pun intended) for its hour and forty minute runtime, forcing the audience to pay close attention without all of the heist explanations that we’ve often come to expect from Soderbergh’s more recent works. If you zone out, you might miss some important thematic or expository bit of dialogue, greatly reducing the film’s impact. On the one hand, this makes sex, lies, and videotape a prime example of how important writing is to a film. On the other, it doesn’t make the film nearly as rewatchable as some of his more popular films like Ocean’s Eleven, Magic Mike, or Logan Lucky. If you’re in the mood for a thinker that you have to pay attention to, though, it’s hard to go wrong with his first feature.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Sex, lies, and videotape is a masterclass in the art of dramatic irony and subtext. Even though so much of what occurs on screen is dialogue-based, so much of what makes the film truly great occurs outside of the dialogue. The implications of conversations and the tension created when one character says something to another keep the film moving and help it feel beautifully paced. Whether it’s Ann doubting the fidelity of her husband in the midst of her own deeper psychoses or it’s Graham revealing his impotency at a casual lunch outing or it’s Cynthia inviting Robert over and then rejecting his advances when he actually gets there, those scenes and everything in between somehow manage to feel equally mundane and weighty thanks to Soderbergh’s writing.

                Aiding the film’s excellent screenplay are the performances from MacDowell and Spader. Both performers have hit-and-miss records across their long careers, but they were firing on all cylinders for sex, lies, and videotape. MacDowell’s southern charm and airy way of approaching things make her the perfect casting choice for the reserved and sometimes judge-y Ann, the film’s complex protagonist who finally learns to trust her own judgements over the course of the film. It’s hard to imagine anyone but James Spader playing the off-putting but somehow irresistible Graham in this film. His eerie but genuine conversationality makes him the ideal mystery man to come to town and throw everything about Ann’s relationship with her husband and her sister out of whack just in time for her to begin course-correcting for the better.

                Soderbergh’s excellent writing, paired with the great casting choices of Andie MacDowell as Ann and James Spader as Graham (and even Peter Gallagher’s typecasting as the cheating husband) help to make sex, lies, and videotape one of the Greatest Films of All Time. Its dialogue-centric narrative might make it difficult for casual viewers to follow, but dedicated watchers should find themselves rewarded with a fascinating watch on the nature of love, sex, and relationships in young adulthood. If you’d like to stream it, it’s currently only available for purchase on most streaming services.