1989 SUNDANCE AUDIENCE AWARD (DRAMATIC) WINNER - "sex, lies and videotape" directed by Steven Soderbergh
Your 90's-ologist often runs into music, film, art, etc. that either reminds her of the 90's, should have been released in the 90's or was a portent of things to come in the 90's. Therefore, I am happy to reveal a new Damn The Man feature: "Officially 90's Honorable Mention," where just such things can be placed for your reading pleasure.
I struggled with "sex, lies and videotape" for much of the 90's. I knew it was a very influential film on the indie scene and Soderbergh was a big name even at that early point in his career, but I just could not get into what I felt was a soporific slog through some guy's basest desires.
Now that the bloom has fallen off my flower, so to speak, I understand this film a bit more and have come to appreciate it for what it is: a worthy precursor to 1990's dialogue-heavy, relationship-oriented films like "Bodies, Rest and Motion" (1993), "Watch It" (1993), "In The Company of Men" (1997) and "Your Friends and Neighbors" (1998), the last two of which were directed by Neil LaBute, who actually makes an appearance on the commentary track of the 1998 DVD reissue of the film.
Firstly, can we talk about James Spader? This fine actor has done it for me since he was Molly Ringwald's arch enemy Steff in John Hughes's 1986 classic teen film "Pretty In Pink." Why Andie (Ringwald) never hate-f&*ks the hell out of Steff, I'll never know. James Spader was hot, hot, hot, and he worked his creepy/sexy magic to great effect in "sex, lies and videotape" as the college roommate who randomly shows back up in lawyer Peter Gallagher's life, ensnaring his wife (Andie MacDowell) and her sister (Laura San Giacomo) in his odd past-time of videotaping women talking about their past sexual experiences. So much so that he fools you into thinking there's alot of raunchiness going on in a film with virtually no real sex whatsoever. Pretty skilled.
Speaking of which, the film is an amazing show of restraint and minimalist technique on the part of Soderbergh, a director I feel is given to bouts of unevenness and splashy, superficial glossiness in too many of his films after "sex, lies...," and, after watching this again, I wish he would revert back to some of this yummy simplicity and depth that's on display here. This film is a very nice character study that not only holds up after all these years, but is worth showing to students and baby filmmakers to show how to draw in an audience not just through a catchy premise, but through nuances of story.
Plus, the actress Laura San Giacomo was lovely, and even Peter Gallagher and 90's model/actress Andie MacDowell manage to bring a little sumthin' sumthin' to this classic film.
Please enjoy clips from the 20th Anniversary celebration of this film (which you can read more about at Defamer) at the Sundance Film Festival 2009 and the film itself:
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