Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Plot:A sexually repressed woman's husband is having an affair with her sister. The arrival of a visitor with a rather unusual fetish changes everything

Yes, "Sex, Lies and Videotape" is about sex, lies and videotape. And, while the sex is mostly served in dialogue-form and not a single shot of nudity is present, there is some graphic lying and some explicit videotape.
"Sex, Lies and Videotape" is Steven Sodenbergh's first film and it's not a bad one.The film takes about a quarter of an hour to kick in, yet once the character motivations become more clear it's quite an engrossing experience, a movie that unfolds rather like a novel.The situations in the film do create a fair amount of tension that moves the story along. But then, it'd be hard not to have some tension in a film about a woman whose husband is cheating on her with her sister, while she starts interacting with a stranger who is the husband's old college roommate and has a strange videotape fetish and may or may not be a pathological liar.
Clearly, these characters clash together. But it's not as heated or interesting as it was in later Sodenbergh's films like the spectacular "Traffic." The dialogues in "Sex, Lies and Videotape" range from good to incredibly awkward. But the real strength of the film is the actors. While James Spader clearly stands out - This is Spader at his very best, as you never saw him before, if you had noticed him before, that is. Although, when you look back, Spader always seems to have given his characters a little freaky edge (something about his dreamy look, or his slow drawl); one of my favourite scenes in this film is the one in which Graham explains his one-key theory to his one-time buddy over dinner, and you sense that they have really nothing in common any more. - Andie McDowell is phenomenal, Peter Gallagher playing the scummy, treacherous husband yuppie lawyer type is great and Laura San Giacomo as the vulgar sister / lover is fabulous. Their performances make the script work.
3/5