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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
sex, lies, and videotape
Miramax Films
FILM:
MPAA 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.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Steven Soderbergh
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Steven Soderbergh
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 8, 1998
Video: September 9, 1997
Theatrical: August 4, 1989
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
100 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
The film was nominated for a 1990 Best Original Screenplay Academy Award (Sodergergh) and won the Palme d'Or and the Best Actor award (Spader) at 1989's Cannes Film Festival.
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...
100
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
A movie of prodigious power and feeling that is also high-spirited, hilarious and scorchingly erotic.
100
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]
100
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]
100
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]
100
The New York Times
Caryn James
Astonishing... One of the freshest American films of the decade. [4 Aug 1989]
100
Variety
Staff (Not Credited)
A sexy, nuanced, beautifully controlled examination of how a quartet of people are defined by their erotic impulses and inhibitions.
100
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]
100
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.
90
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.
88
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]
88
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.
80
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.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Staff (Not Credited)
Compulsively watchable.
75
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]
70
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.
60
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.
50
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]
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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