Rate It
|
||||||||||||||||
Rating Averages
My Friends |
Not rated. () |
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
All Flixster |
(7697) |
3883 |
10331 |
Female |
(3351) |
1691 |
4498 |
Male |
(4346) |
2192 |
5833 |
More Like This
If you liked this, then you'll also probably like...
Got another recommendation for someone who liked this movie? Add it to the list!
Got an opinion? Use the buttons to vote on all the suggestions people have added.
If lots of people vote, the best suggestions will rise to the top.
| Crash (75%) |
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Green Card (20%) |
|
|
| Full Frontal (100%) |
|
|
| These Girls (25%) |
|
|
| Secretary (86%) |
|
|
Plot: Steven Soderbergh's provocative debut film concerns a shy loner who uses a video camera to extract intimate confessions from his married friends.
Meet Other Fans
My Friends Said...
sex, lies, and videotape Recent Reviews
Register or sign-in to see your friends' reviews !
Recent Reviews
-
MCT:December 9, 2008There's not much to say about sex, lies, and videotape wihout giving everything away... or perhaps giving everything is the same as giving nothing? Steven Sorderbergh's debut fully grasps the importance of human amibiguities, and thus creates a world full of open possibilities, where currents flow in every direction and with fluctuating intensity. I admire films that manage to craft multidimensional characters, and expose -seemingly effortlessly- how humans are not only one thing, how they can be contradictory, and yet perfect as they are. In sex, lies, and videotape, the four main characters exist in total opposition to our usual custom of labelling people as 'good' or 'bad'. In the lapse of less than 2 hours they manage to make plausible and moving changes that characterize them further as themselves, in all their potential, rather than shift them from 'nice' to 'mean', 'moral' to 'immoral'. That's more than I can say about most films.
If you don't already know the story, I'd hate to ruin it for you, but a little bit of revealing can do no harm... Sex, Lies, and Videotape is about an unhealthy love triangle and a taboo-brekaing figure that comes into the picture to shatter it. James Spader is spot-on as Graham: perfectly mysterious, somewhat self-conscious, perfectly neither-here-nor-there. His performance never gives away too much or too little about this cryptic character that we don't really get to know all that well, but perhaps just enough. Graham is an old college buddy of John, a rising lawyer who's married to the excessively moral Ann and having an affair with her sister Cynthia. Graham comes clean during the first few minutes in which he is onscreen about his impotence, something that Ann finds fascinating, since she is thoroughly uninterested in sex, and gives his husband a virtually non-existent sex life (which he makes up for with Cynthia). From this point on, every character is on its way to a transgression, during which they refrain from becoming heroes or demi-gods, just happier, more conscious, more open people. Soderbergh puts each of them in confrontation with their fears and guides them to their most logical breaking point -and the entire process is wonderful, real, touching, tough, it's deeply involving and captivating.
Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo, Andie MacDowell and James Spader are so fantastic. They act like the people they play (wow), down to every sinlge idiosyncracy, making every line they utter believable and familiar. They are never too classy or too poised or too carefree, they are who they are. Of course, it is greatly thanks to the script, which is intelligent without being witty, engaging without being effectist, and dramatic without going overboard.
sex, lies, and videotape could be said to be about sex (although there is hardly any actual 'action' onscreen), but it's really about many other issues. I think what those issues might have been for me, could be different for somebody else, and so on. There's plenty to think of when the movie is over. And I think it's best just to lose yourself in it. -
MCT:March 31, 2008
Smart, dialogue-driven piece of cinema where it\s actually a lot of fun to watch all these characters cheat on each other. You start to wonder if this movie had an influence on Closer. James Spader delivers an outstanding performance.
-
MCT:February 22, 2008really twists up the whole notion of sex and love...great great movie
-
MCT:October 27, 2007
how does steven soderbergh write these and direct them so well? he is a guru of modern film-making! i was thinking about this one all night after i'd seen it. andie macdowell and peter gallagher are the ones who shine as actors/actresses here if you want my opinion. you probably don't though. it's about peoples attitudes to sex and about them discovering each other for who they are. it's about people not knowing themselves. i can understand that. soderbergh seems to be so perceptive in picking up details about the way people act. he's perceptive in all his movies though. hurrah for the bergh machine
-
MCT:August 16, 2007Got to see this!
-
MCT:December 28, 2008
Amazing story with flawless acting and directing. There are important scenes that are subtle and thought-provoking. The best thing about the film is how different the four leading characters are, and the best and most interesting character is James Spader's Graham, who is very mysterious.
Comments
-
rossjmposted 156 days ago -
