sex, lies, and videotape

sex, lies, and videotape (1989) runs on four people and almost no events. A woman is unhappy in her marriage, her husband is sleeping with her sister, and his old college friend arrives to stay. The friend has an odd habit: he talks to women about sex and records it. The tension comes from confession rather than bodies. Steven Soderbergh wrote the script in eight days on a yellow legal pad while driving across the country. He had been carrying the idea for a year. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1989. Soderbergh was 26, the youngest solo director ever to take it. It cost 1.2 million dollars and grossed 36.7 million worldwide. That number changed how independent films were financed and distributed in the nineties, proving a small well written drama could find both critics and an audience. It runs 101 minutes. Good for: drama built on dialogue, films about honesty and intimacy, and the history of American independent cinema. Less good for: saying nothing happens would not be unfair, it is entirely conversation. Sex is discussed frankly and never shown, which disappoints expectations in both directions. None of the characters are likeable.