Review of sex, lies, and videotape (1989) by Linus G — 18 Sep 2008

Hard to believe it's almost 20 years since this first came out. In the way of Classics, it's a film I haven't seen much over the years, but it's one that has never been far from mind. If you ask me to name the main cast and director, even at my most distracted I'll reel them off without thinking twice, and I recall the storyline, even two decades down the line, almost without a slip.

Back in 1989 this was a blast of honest air in an age of overpuffed and by-the-numbers films. What made it so fresh then makes it feel a bit yesterly now: it moves at a languid pace and avoids the heroic shots and grim-eye acting that we're so used to these days, and though it's loaded with humor it is never snappy.

But then, honesty never is snappy. Soderbergh is reaching far here, trying to name the unnameable and put together interior pieces that drift beyond the reach of peppy patter.

The four leads are all rampant exaggerations, but they play true, and what is technically a pretty hokey Act IV role-reversal between Ann and Graham is put together so skillfully that it feels natural and strong. There's a Hollywood ending to the picture, but since the punch isn't in the ending, the final storybook resolve doesn't really matter.

I've never bought Andie MacDowell in this role, and I still don't. She's fine, but she plays Ann like an implosion - all internal process, sucking air out of the room. James Spader is a little ingenuous, but his Graham is somehow iconic. He could step out of this film and into "The Last Picture Show," and no one would bat an eye. Peter Gallagher is so vivid a slimeball that I have never entirely detached his career from this single character - he's not evil, particularly, but he is such an ass - and Laura San Giacomo has ruined my life on several occasions, except she was always another girl at the time. If you know what I mean.

She must be a Scorpio.