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List Price: $9.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 6637
Released: October 7, 1998 |
| Our Price: $4.21 |
| Used Price: $0.94 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
WHEN A LONG LOST COLLEGE FRIEND WORKING ON A VERY PERSONAL PROJECT MOVES BACK TO TOWN, THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN A PHILANDERING HUSBAND, HIS WIFE AND HIS WIFE'S SISTER ARE FOREVER TRANSFORMED IN THIS SMART AND SEDUCTIVE COMIC ORIGINAL.
Description of sex, lies, and videotape:
Winner of the Palm d'Or and Best Actor awards at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, sex, lies, and videotape transformed the independent film industry and turned writer-director Steven Soderbergh into the envy of aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Sly, seductive, and coolly intelligent, the movie explores the sexual shenanigans and personal preoccupations of its four central characters, revolving around a selfish lawyer (Peter Gallagher) who responds to his wife by having an affair with her free-spirited sister (Laura San Giacomo). But when the lawyer's college roommate (James Spader) arrives for an unexpectedly extended visit, the neglected wife (Andie MacDowell) is surprisingly responsive to his seductive hobby of videotaping women as they describe their sexual fantasies. It's his way of compensating for impotence, but the curious wife considers this a sexual challenge, and Soderbergh turns sex, lies, and videotape into a fascinating chamber piece that puts a decidedly different spin on the consequences of infidelity. Balanced on a risky and finely tuned performance by Spader, the film delivers frisky passion and emotional intrigue, and yet much of its allure is found in the exchange of secrets and the hidden mysteries of sexual desire. --Jeff Shannon
sex, lies, and videotape Reviews:
no longer ground-breaking 
2009-10-13 - In 1989, this movie might've been way ahead of its time, but in 2009. the film hardly stands out among movies dealing with relationship crisis. The movie has good. solid performances from the cast, particularly Andie MacDowell, but no one performance is extraordinary.
Provocative and intense film about intimacy 
2009-07-20 - This is not really a film about sex. It's about intimacy, which can be physically sexual or not. It's about the possibility of connection, of making contact, and of taking responsibility for the impact of one's life upon another. Mere "sex" becomes a surrogate for intimacy, what we search for when we are unable to be honest with ourselves and our significant others and acknowledge that our self is bound up with these others. Mere "sex" - as in the "casual" fling John carries on with his wife Ann's sister - is then a lie, in a double sense: it has him cheating on his wife, and it manifests his refusal to admit the manifest truth that his desires, his needs, are bound up with those of others.
Graham (in a brilliant performance by James Spader), has organized his life precisely to avoid the lie that John embraces. He is brutally honest with others, but to avoid any hint of deception he also refuses to be intimate with anyone. He uses the video camera as a distancing technique, creating an objective filter between himself and the women in his life - pitting them as objects of study rather than subjects in a dynamic relationship, whose parameters he could not ultimately control. Of course, his little experiment doesn't work out as he plans, and everyone in his life is affected. The story is simple and direct, the dialogue pitch perfect, the acting top notch, and the direction quite appropriate. One of my favorite films, and certainly deserving of its status as one of the most important American independent films. I also found the commentary track, in which Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men) interviews director Steven Soderbergh, to be quite fascinating. Highly recommended.
Brief yet thought-provoking story 
2009-07-19 - The running time isn't too long on this, yet it conveys a great deal of material involving two men and two women--specifically, one married couple, the wife's sister (who is having an affair with her brother in law), and the man's friend who comes around for a visit and decides to stay. His presence becomes disruptive, even though he is not aggressive. His hobby is making tapes of women talking about sex and related issues and then watching the tapes.
The mousy wife becomes more aggressive herself when she turns the tables on the tape-maker and forces him to face himself and his motivations. She also discovers more about herself and her husband and sister in the process.
This is a quiet film with a lot of talking, so it will not appeal to those looking for a sex romp or lots of action. This is more of a thought-provoking film.
I just wondered at the end if the wife confronted her sister, and if the husband would continue to spiral down.
Strangely Curious
2009-04-24 - I was glad to finally see this film (on HDNet), but like most everyone I found it very strange. Yes it's about sex, but more the psychogical diversity each of us has when it comes to sex. Some want it more than others, some have to have it in certain circumstances, some don't really care for it, and some achieve it in perverted ways.
The storyline is not too abstarct so it's easy to follow, but throughout the movie I was constantly trying to re-figure each character. My perception of each changed as the movie went along, paricualry Graham, who seemed less creepy as the movie went along as we begin to understand the underlying reasons for his problem.
There is certainly a dark under-tone to this movie and much suspense, so it was rather engaging. However, I did find the ending to be abrupt, but I guess we're meant to be left to figure out what exactly happned between Ann and Graham. I figure there ending is happier than that of John's, who seems to get everything he deserves for his infidelity.
Overall this was a very good film, however I don't think it's worth adding to my "elite" collection ;-)
2.5 stars out of 4
2009-02-03 - The Bottom Line:
Spader's lethargy robs the film of any momentum and the conclusion seems a bit pat: it might have been the film that launched independant cinema and put Sundance on the map, but it's a mediocre film that's only occasionally interesting and too often slow.
