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Review: Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

At this point, director, Steven Soderbergh, is a well-worn name in the industry and he has had a long career making successful and highly acclaimed films through a variety of genres. However, in 1989, Soderbergh was just another aspiring unknown, and one who was about to surprise the world with his directorial debut, Sex, Lies, and Videotape. The film would go on to jump-start the independent film movement prominent through the 1990's. It would also cement Soderbergh as a true, young talent; the film itself won Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or in '89, as well, it netted Soderbergh multiple award nominations for the film's script.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape is an intricate and mature film about the inter-relations of four individuals and their sexual lives - desires, repressions and liasons. The film centres upon one married couple, the wife's younger sister and a friend of the husband who has recently returned to town. The catalyst of the film is the friend, Graham, played by James Spader, who we learn has a habit of videotaping women and interviewing them, rather intimately, about their sexual lives. His return leads to a series of developments that impact the state of the couple's marriage as well as the relations with the sister. The couple and the sister are respectively played by Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo. This type of chracter-focused story would not work without strong performances, and, in that, all four are excellent throughout the film. The characters and the developments that occur are written with depth, realism and complexity, which again a
dds to the incredulity that Soderbergh was only twenty-six at the time of writing, as well, that he wrote the entire script on a yellow legal pad over the span of eight days while driving across the country.
This film has an important legacy for its impact on independent film as well, for its successful introduction to the now-prominent, Steven Soderbergh. For those that enjoy a tense, sexually-charged character drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape would be well worth your time to watch.
9/10
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