Sex, Lies, and Videotape
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Movie Reviews of Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Movie Review: Soderbergh makes a brilliant debut
Summary: 5 Stars
sex, lies and videotape is Steven Soderbergh's directing debut and he has crafted a stunning film about relationships.
This film is about a married couple John (Peter Gallagher) and Ann (Andie MacDowell) whose lives are changed when John's college roommate Graham (James Spader) moves to town. Add to this a wild card, Ann's sister Cynthia (Laura San Giancomo) who happens to be having an affair with John.
Graham has intimacy issues and gets around them by videotaping women talking about sex lives and fantasies. Cynthia is a free spirit and wants all men to desire her. She comes on strong to Graham who takes advantage and adds her videotape to his collection. To Graham, the prize is the prim and proper Ann. Like Graham, Ann is also emotionally repressed. But after a while she opens up and creates a videotape of her own.
This experience not only changes her life but Graham's too.
Soderbergh has created a fine film that explores the human soul with stunning performance all around. Spader was better known as part of the Brat Pack and totally redefined his persona with this film - unfortunately he has never been given a chance to show his abilities again. Andie MacDowell also gave a beautifully textured performance.
DVD EXTRAS: Commentary interview by Soderbergh and interviewer director Neil LaButte
Movie Review: Learning to live and love again
Summary: 5 Stars
A strange, but very rewarding movie. It opens with Ann (Andie MacDowell) talking to her therapist; sex doesn't mean much to her, she's repressed about it, etc. It just so happens that her husband John (Peter Gallagher) is having an affair with her sister Cynthia (Laura Giacomo). Along comes an old friend of John's, Graham (James Spader). He tells Ann that he's impotent, that he gets off by watching videos he's made of women talking about sex. Ann is repulsed and attracted to him at the same time, while hot-to-trot Cynthia goes right after him and makes a tape with him. Ann is shocked, then discovers the affair her husband is having, and decides to go to Graham, too - and makes her own video. Actually she makes a video of him: she gets him to confess that he does what he does because he is a liar about his impotence. She gets him to make love to her, she leaves sleezeball John, and the movie ends with Ann and Graham together. At first I didn't like the major scene with Ann and Graham, but after a second viewing I found it to be much more coherent and interesting. Graham has a neat little secret that has caused him to arrange his life so he'd never have to feel again. Ann changes all that, and it was great seeing them together at the end of the movie. An intelligent, well-acted picture; definitely worth a watch.Movie Review: Dont forget the soundtrack!
Summary: 5 Stars
I also found this movie highly entertaining, and one of my personal favorites. Plenty of others have gone over the story line, but I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the soundtrack, which is at least as responsible as the images for the feeling imparted by the film. I have been a soundtrack buff for years, and this one doesn't disappoint. Some parts are haunting, such as when Ann looks upon Graham sleeping. She doesn't wake him, but goes back to bed, and you see that Graham wasn't sleeping, but was aware of Ann's visit. Other parts are not subtle at all, such as the strong organ licks during Cynthia and Johns get together after Cynthia's video taping episode, where she became so worked up she had to have John over right away (get those balls in the air and get your butt over here!). You know during that encounter that she wishes it were Graham, probably the first guy she has met that hasn't hit on her. You get the feeling that she doesn't understand why he has such an affect on her.
The music during Ann's visit, and eventual taping session, is also perfect for the part, filling the gaps but not intruding on the film.
All in all, the music is a perfect mating with the visuals in this film, and worth noting
Movie Review: Great film
Summary: 5 Stars
Late in the movie, a character asks:
"What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to recount all the points in my life leading up to this moment, and then hope that it's coherent; that it makes some sort of sense to you. It doesn't make any sense to me. You know, I was there. And I don't have the slightest idea who I am. And I'm supposed to be able to explain it to you..."
The film believes that open, sincere discussion can make us aware of the solutions to most of our lives' problems. But it's not necessarily something a therapist or even a husband and wife can always accomplish. Effective discussion probes into the depths of our minds. Effective discussion finds a way underneath the surface of our routine, everyday thoughts; reaches deep into our memories; and illuminates those choices/values that matter most, that best define who we are.
The topic the film talks most about is sex, as you probably guessed. But it goes deeper than that, too, into how we define ourselves, how we live our lives.
The film is enormously ambitious, and succeeds beautifully.
I will watch this one many more times.
Movie Review: Finished by the graceful touch of God
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't talk much about the synopsis, you can find it anywhere. I see SLV as an exceptionally intimate exploration of human sexuality, honesty and morality. Four leading characters divided into two groups reproduce an unforgettable confrontation of "the soulful" versus "the physical". Amazing screenplay and directing by the (then) 26 years old writer-director Steven Soderbergh proves and makes one wonder about how much a young artist can accomplish. The last couple of seconds of the film (an exterior scene) was improvised by Andie MacDowell and James Spader as a gentle rain started landing on the stage. Hence the altogether casual and graceful sentences "I think it will rain.." and "It IS raining" poured from the lips of Andie MacDowell and James Spader. On the commentary audio track Steven Soderbergh says about these last moments that "Everybody thinks that means something, but it doesn't", but I don't subscribe to that point of view. SLV has the most beautiful ending I have seen to date, and it has happened by itself. But it was deserved, wasn't it?