Sex, Lies, and Videotape 1989

I am not a huge devotee of American indie films from the 1990s and onward. The story themes, production and directoral styles are repetitive to me and its grown into an overpraised and over-referenced genre for American film enthusiasts. Maybe its childish, but I resent these movies because they are usually only good and still rob the attention away from truly great films made worldwide and even in Hollywood. American indies are synonymous with "Oscar bait".

But this is what the market has turned into. It was once something less pretentious and home to films that were too fringe or risky for Hollywood studios. In 2017, the high profile indie film hit will have an enormous budget and only separate itself by having a slightly older audience or less marquee actors. I guess thats been the case since John Cassavettes defined the movement in the 1960s. But indie films are made for the indie film audience now. That audience is clearly defined and vocal and willing to invest lots of dollars so many indie filmmakers deliver the expected tripe.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape was one of the films that is credited with establishing this middle class audience and proving the commercial viability of indie films to Hollywood players. I was wary that this would be another film about a tiny cast of sad white youths failing to disconnect and climaxing with a cathartic tragic moment of romance. And it is. "Sex" the genesis of that wide-reaching formula but, like many originators, it is better than its imitators. While director Steven Soderbergh is definitely lifting from Cassavettes, Bergman and Tarkovsky, he tempers it and irons out the edges to create something less heavy, more commercial and yet still as personal. He anchors it all with simple cinematic storytelling and broader and more universal archetypal characters. The power of SLAV is that it finds the high drama in such American whitebread lives (Southern WASPs to make it more shocking). A cynic would say he's just swiping the characterization from his influences but I would say he is revealing WITH IRONY the Bergman in these purposely boring American types. Its a calculated call to arms to other filmmakers to bring the arthouse to American indie films and a show of unity between America and the struggling classes elsewhere.

I wouldn't blame anyone for dismissing this film with or without seeing but I think it deserves a watch when given the proper context. Its objectively an important film and I think its clearly superior to most films out today because of its purity and complexity. This is one of those films that has influenced not only a bunch of other influential films but also TV series like Mad Men, The Young Pope, etc. So many film students were moved by this and it charged them to create some of the best work being made, so you have to give credit to Soderbergh. For its tiny place between commercial and arthouse cinema, I would say Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a minor masterpiece.