Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
sex, lies, and videotape
Universal acclaim
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Steven Soderbergh
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 4, 1989
DVD: September 8, 1998
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R
Starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, and Laura San Giacomo
Written in eight days on a trip to Los Angeles by first-time feature director Stephen Soderbergh, and shot in five weeks on a meager $1.2 million budget, the film tells the story of Graham (Spader), who visits old friend John (Gallager), and engages John's wife (McDowell), and her sister (San Giacomo) in his unique method of overcoming his unusual sexual dysfunction.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bubble Erin Brockovich Eros Full Frontal Ocean's Eleven Ocean's Twelve Out of Sight Schizopolis Solaris The Good German The Limey Traffic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A movie of prodigious power and feeling that is also high-spirited, hilarious and scorchingly erotic.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The kind of picture to whip out the clichés for: Surprisingly original. Delightful. Brilliant. Funny as all heck. When 1989 is through, sex, lies, and videotape may well be remembered as the best film of the year. [11 Aug 1989, Daily Datebook, p.E1]
Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson
Electrifying… As writer, director and editor, [Soderbergh’s] control is mesmerizing. It's also more than a little creepy; as though Soderbergh were drawing us, a step at a time, into a warm pool where intimate secrets flowed back and forth as simply as currents of water. [4 Aug 1989, Calendar, p.6-1]
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Soderbergh is helped enormously by the interplay of his actors, whom he has cast like a master... [He makes] a film that goes past what it shows to disclose what can't be seen. It's a fine achievement. [4 Sept 1989, p.26]
The New York Times Caryn James
Astonishing... One of the freshest American films of the decade. [4 Aug 1989]
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
A sexy, nuanced, beautifully controlled examination of how a quartet of people are defined by their erotic impulses and inhibitions.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
What amazes is that at just 26, Soderbergh displays the three qualities associated with mature filmmakers: a unique authorial voice, a spooky camera assurance, and the easy control of ensemble acting. [31 July 1989, p.65]
Empire Wendy Bristow
Startling is the fact that a film so light on action and heavy on chat can be so achingly funny without having being crafted by a young Woody Allen.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
What "The Big Chill" was to baby boomers, the inspirational sex, lies, and videotape is to the mall crowd. It's designer soul-searching, a looking glass for a generation.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Twenty years ago, you could view early works of big-splash directors and often tell where they were coming from - or going. Yet Soderbergh and his debut project are mysteries. What can possibly come next? You won't be able to drag me out of line opening night. [4 Aug 1989, Life, p.1D]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It has more intelligence than heart, and is more clever than enlightening. But it is never boring, and there are moments when it reminds us of how sexy the movies used to be, back in the days when speech was an erogenous zone.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Cunningly scripted and acted, and talky in the best sense, the film is engrossing to watch but not especially interesting to ponder afterward; it's certainly an improvement on formulaic Hollywood, but on a thematic level there's still more windup than delivery.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr
Sex, lies, and videotape discovers a distinctive, laconic rhythm right from the start, thanks to Soderbergh's taste for holding his shots just a bit longer than conventional, slick editing technique would allow. [11 Aug 1989, Friday, p.A]
TV Guide Staff (Non Credited)
Beautifully edited by Soderbergh, the film is evenly paced, its subtleties accreting slowly, and by the end it gathers powerful emotional momentum.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The writer in Soderbergh proves the ultimate weak link. In sex, lies' last third, he seems seized with a compulsion to make sense of it all, bring everything to bear, give everyone their moral comeuppance, their screenplay payoff.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The first half is full of verbal and visual surprises, but the later scenes are talky and dull, as if filmmaker Steven Soderbergh had lost interest in his subject and his characters. Which would be understandable, since the story often seems more calculated than heartfelt. [4 Aug 1989, Arts, p.10]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mark R. gave it a10:
One of the best films I've ever seen. almost twenty years old and has lost none of its erotic and intellectual impact.
Nacho C. gave it a10:
Wow. Soderbergh stop making big budget films, come back to writing solid screenplays and drawing the best out of actors. SLV was a fantastic film, highly recommended.
Robert R gave it an8:
Sex, Lies, and Videotape is an imposingly inherent annotation on infidelity. Its four separate protagonists share affinities in their exposure to sex, one being their reluctance to completely discuss sex as a sober topic. Though it appears that Graham is the most sophomoric of the characters, his ability to comprehend sex as a momentous and frustrating force in life is a profound revelation that permits the transcendence of his character, which deepens the dimensions of—and his relationship to—the Ann protagonist and the two supplementary characters. Through divulging conversations, tentative actions, and foreshadowing cinematography, Steven Soderbergh creates an easily resonant environment that necessitates the viewer’s confrontation with his phobias, analogous to that of Soderbergh’s fiction.
David A. gave it a10:
Very impressive. Even back then, Soderbergh knew how to make awesome movies.
Kevin D. gave it a3:
Boring. Thats pretty much all I have to say. I forced myself through it the first time and won't make myself endure that garbage again. Well acted, well directed, but just plain boring.
Jane A. gave it a 10:
Brilliant. Really wonderful.
Pat C. gave it an 8:
An engrossing & unique project that seems indie in its atmosphere and construction. Like the relationships it decribes, it goes nowhere and with reckless unresistable energy. It's like Woody Allen minus the obsession for closure. It was made back when finding an answer still mattered, but when it was also an accepted alternative to minimize the importance of an answer. The sexual mindset as an expression of will is therefore implicit.
