I was always peeved that this film won the Palme d'Or over Spike Lee's film. So much that when I first watched it, a few years ago when I was getting started in film, I turned it off after 15 minutes and claimed it to be one of those film classics that I didn't approve of. Because I was being edgy back then. Finally coming back for a full viewing on a Saturday afternoon, I prove my young self-worth wrong again. It's truly amazing at just how mesmerizing, audacious, and downright sexy Soderbergh’s debut is.

It's been said that Sex, Lies, and Videotape is the independent film that got mainstream audiences into independent films and while that was certainly true…

I feel as if I know Laura San Giacomo from somewhere, but after checking her IMDb-page, I am pretty certain that I have never seen her in anything, no movie at least; must be the distinctive nose in combination with the hair that (strongly) reminds me of some other actress I cannot recall right now. Anyways, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, the more-or-less debut of director Steven Soderbergh, of whom I had already seen nine features before this, many of which I like, but none of which I love. Until now! Because Sex, Lies, and Videotape is undoubtedly (in my opinion at least) his best work to-date, and since he claims to be retired, it will probably defend that title for…

-Sex as a form of illusional self-empowerment AND a justification of living a double life
-Lies as a mechanism to justify said double life and a means to psychologically deny your own problems as a social being
-Videotape as a form of distancing yourself from your surrounding reality, beginning by your own, and confronting yourself and your deceptive fantasies from a third-person perspective

From Polanski and Zanussi (interestingly enough, both debuts) to Pasolini, the third party triggers the hidden emotional mechanisms of a marriage slowly disintegrating to shatter it to pieces, but passively, not directly interfering in what is fundamentally wrong with the protagonistic relationship, but rising to the surface the unspoken truths that are causing a consciously unspoken lack…

Writer-director Steven Soderbergh's terrific debut is a tremendously intimate, slowly unfolding low-key human drama about conflicted characters, marvelously played by its actors.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a risky film which graphically examines sex head-on with the utmost seriousness. In this film sex isn't made into a joke like so many low-brow comedies, and it isn't taken too far either like an over-the-top erotic thriller. Sex is looked at under a very dramatic and very sincere scope which treats it like any mature and significant piece of subject matter. This is what sets Sex, Lies, and Videotape apart from so many other films of its nature. It is serious, but doesn't give the feeling that it takes itself too seriously.…

I don't consider myself a fan of Steven Soderbergh but after revisiting Sex, Lies, and Videotape I have a renewed sense of respect for his craft. This was his very first feature-length film and remains one of his best. I may not be a fan of Soderbergh but I am a fan of this film.

Soderbergh brought out a vulnerability in the actors, providing them with career-defining roles. Besides the soft-spoken and sweet Andie MacDowell, the most noteworthy cast member is James Spader. Obviously, I'm going to be a bit biased as I have been in love with him since I was old enough to recognize what attraction entails. With that aside, this was Spader's first great role, sure, he…

The second sex interview we see, the focus is immediately on her early sexual experiences. Eight years old, fourteen. This moment is supposed to set an erotic tone. It's clearly pandering to a sexualized prepubescence, a disturbing prurience implied in the audience/filmmakers that is played as sexy and not sickening. Any power the film had to elicit resonance with its lukewarm exploration of fetish is lost. The characters may not be pedophiles, but the manner in which this exploration of child sexuality is used is a glorification of it. It plays into the wider narrative in this world of powerful (usually) men taking what they want from (usually) women of any age.

This film is just another dull examination of…