Review of sex, lies, and videotape (1989) by Jeffrey M — 01 Jan 2010

I first saw "sex, lies and videotape" in 1990 and initially I thought it was boring and dull. It's funny how you dislike something when you're younger that years later when you're older you wind up liking or vice versa.

For instance, I used to love the show "ALF" when I was a kid. Today, I couldn't sit through 5 minutes of an "ALF" episode, let alone an entire episode of it. Steven Soderbergh directed "sex, lies and videotape" before he started making lots of movies with George Clooney.

The four actors in "sex, lies and videotape" (Spader, MacDowell, Gallagher and San Giacomo) are brilliant. The best performance in the film is Spader's and I think James Spader is one of the best actors in the business.

I thought he would have been great as Riddler in the "Batman" film had Tim Burton stayed on as director in the early 1990s. But Spader can play villains and shy, sensitive men like Graham in "sex, lies and videotape" with equal effectiveness.

Laura San Giacomo's character, Cynthia, is one of the sexiest in films. After watching the film recently, I thought she might have been an even better Clarice Starling in "Silence of the Lambs" although Jodie Foster was great in it.

Sadly, she is mostly known today for "Just Shoot Me" and even though that was a successful tv show, San Giacomo is such an amazing dramatic actress. Peter Gallagher I first saw in "The Idolmaker" in 1980 and he sang in addition to acting and was very good and convincing as a singer.

He has went on to have a long career and his Michael character in "sex, lies and videotape" is one you love to hate or hate to love. Andie MacDowell hasn't done a successful film in a few years, but I'm convinced that she's never going to get rid of her southern drawl.

LOL. I think that her performance as Anne in this film is her best ever. It is a real tour-de-force by the cast and crew and I highly recommend it. Although it is one of those films you might have to watch a second time because you will discover things you might have missed the first time seeing it.