The Summer Of Directors Challenge: Film 36, #51: Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Fascinating. sex, lies, and videotape delivers everything promised in its title. Soderbergh's visual style was already entirely defined in his first feature, and coupled with the offbeat acting and plot structure, it's one of the most interesting film debuts of all time.

Soderbergh Ranked

As far as feature film debuts from great directors this isn't bad. It shows none of the signs of the lack of experience which hold back many such movies. But it's also no Eraserhead. It has an interesting enough story to keep you hooked, the pacing and cinematography bear the seeds of the great director to come, and most of the acting is solid (a few actors at the beginning of their careers who would end up making it pretty big too). But despite the subject matter being right up my alley (psychology) and being from a director I know and love I wasn't really blown away. Fun and worth seeing for fans of Soderbergh, but not required reading.

Quality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
★★★½

i only give it a 5 bc reading the screenplay 1st and then watching was such an experience and i don't know if ill be able to stop reading screenplays b4 watching the movie. 

like shit this movie is so good in so many different ways and i thought i'd hate james spader but having a chance to get to know the character w/o his face was def beneficial and he was 100% the right choice for graham. And omg the dad from the O.C. i was not ready,, but boy was i ready. 10/10 good shit

everytime I see a psychosexual James Spader movie I always wonder how many psychosexual James Spader movies there are left for me to see

I imagine the answer would be shocking

great movie. james spader was a total babe in this movie tbh...
i have and would rewatch again.

Excellent scenes in search of a story with an ending, refreshingly bizarre nuance trying to co-exist with one-dimensional asshole behavior. For every moment of truly fantastic acting, there’s a touch that throws me off (the ADR phone voices are next-level distracting). Very much a debut, but it really is a kick to see Soderbergh, the most airtight director working, begin his career with a movie about lingering and talking.

An incredible debut for Steven Soderbergh and Cliff Martinez.

Of the two actors who went through a wildly erratic physical change from an average white guy to becoming a smooth voiced maniacal scotch drinker from 1989 to present day, which ones wins in a fight James Spader or Alec Baldwin?

sex, lies, videotape, and plant metaphors

Soderbergh did such a great job telling this story. Its so brave and i can see why the film was so eye opening in those days. Its always a pleasure to see a filmmaker take chances with controversial topics and make the best out of it. As i was watching the film, i tried to think as if it was the first time i saw characters talk about their sex life in a film, this affected so much the way i believed the stories and connected to the characters. I just wish Steven Soderbergh could stop making all that trash he’s making nowadays and get back on some good storytelling he used to do.

This tweet.