Spader Fetish

James Spader is such an interesting actor. By no means have I done a deep dive into his filmography, but it's generally known that he is attracted to dark and/or sexual roles. And, you know, Boston Legal. He's a weird guy and that's why we love him. I recently had the opportunity to watch a sexy Spader movie I hadn't seen before (Sex, Lies, and Videotape), and a..."sexy" (????) Spader movie I have seen before and wiped from my memory (David Cronenberg's Crash), so I thought I would review the two films and round them out with one of my all-time faves, which is also a sexy Spader movie, Secretary.

***

Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a film that dips its toe in the waters of sexual liberation but ultimately pulls back and reinforces the value of "normalcy".

The film follows four people: married couple Ann Mullany (Andie MacDowell) and John Mullany (Peter Gallagher...oddly enough looking a lot like comedian John Mulaney and basically sharing the same name), Ann's sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo), and John's old friend from college, Graham (Spader).

Ann confesses to her therapist that she doesn't really like sex and thinks that masturbation is "a dumb thing to do". In 2024, we'd probably call her asexual, demisexual, or gray ace. But in 1989, when the movie was made, she just comes off as a prudish wife. John is sleeping with Ann's sister, Cynthia, who is just a terrible person. John is also a terrible person (total finance bro type). His college friend Graham comes back into town and when John finds out that Graham is weirder and quieter than he used to be, John basically writes him off. However, Ann takes a liking to Graham. She inadvertently finds out Graham's unusual hobby: he films women talking about sex. He interviews them and lets them talk for as long as they like about anything they want related to their sex lives. Sometimes they do more than talk, only not with Graham, who is impotent.

Ann is is freaked out and disgusted by Graham's voyeuristic proclivities. But she eventually comes back around to liking him when she discovers her sister and husband's betrayal. She even asks to be interviewed, and ends up turning the camera on Graham.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape is very character-driven movie and even though I didn't particularly like any of the characters, I found myself drawn in. The acting is very strong, especially MacDowell, who, despite her judgmental attitudes about sex, is a compelling and sympathetic protagonist. 

The film approaches voyeurism with ambivalence. On the one hand, Graham's hobby, which really is the way he experiences his own sexuality, is treated as a deviancy and a personal defect. At the same time, the scene where Graham interviews Cynthia is easily the sexiest scene in the movie. In fact, the very idea of a man asking *me* questions about my sexuality and then listening is mind-blowingly hot. But also, I'm a big talker. 

As I say above, Soderbergh plays with the idea that sexual "deviancy" can actually be normal and even healthy for some people while stopping short of celebrating and affirming unique expressions of (consensual, adult) sexuality. But for the time period, I can see why this movie was considered cutting edge. 

Grade: B+

***

Crash (1996)

Not to be confused with Paul Haggis' extremely stupid 2004 movie, David Cronenberg's 1996 film Crash, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard, is truly transgressive. In short, the film is about car crash fetishists. People who get sexually aroused by being in and by watching car crashes. 

Crash is one of the most sexually explicit non-pornographic films I've ever seen (undoubtedly, it is considered porn by some, but not by me). This100 minute movie contains 8 or 9 full-on sex scenes. There are scenes with women and men, two men, and two women. Can I say it any more clearly? This movie has a lot, and I mean A LOT of fucking in it. Yet...my god, is this movie not erotic at all. 

Well, maybe it's erotic if you're into car accidents. Or wounds created by car accidents. But it's not just the whole car crash fetish aspect that makes the film un-erotic, it's the robotic affect of many of the film's characters. The main couple, James (Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), have an open marriage where they frequently have sex with other people and then share their experiences with one another...but they seem to achieve no satisfaction or joy from these encounters. They seem frigid. Even dead inside.

After James gets into a near-fatal car accident, he gets pulled into the world of car crash re-enactors and fetishists, led by Robert Vaughn (Elias Koteas, the best thing about this movie). Vaughn and his crew re-enact famous car crashes, such as the one that killed James Dean. Vaughn brings danger and passion into James and Catherine's lives, but also the very real possibility of dismemberment and death. I LOVED Elias Koteas in this role. In a movie positively dripping with sex, Vaughn is one of maybe two characters (the other being Rosanna Arquette as Gabrielle, another car crash fanatic) who actually seems horny. Vaughn is also a violent, unstable nutcase, but I guess you take the good with the bad.

So, what does this film mean?? Well, it's a Cronenberg film and much of his oeuvre deals with the intersections of man and machine and how technology affects humanity. Or maybe it's about America's love affair with cars? I don't know man, but I have to give Crash a rating in the "A" range because even though it's a deeply unpleasant and off-putting movie, it is really, really transgressive and just swings for the fences in a way so few movies have the balls to do. There is something really admirable about that. 

Grade: A-

***

Secretary

You gotta be living under a rock if you haven't heard about Secretary. Directed by Steven Shainberg, Secretary is about a meek woman, Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is released from a stay at a mental hospital for self-harm. Seeking work, she finds an ad for a secretarial position to lawyer E. Edward Grey (Spader). Mr. Grey is an odd, exacting boss who chastises Lee for small mistakes. But Lee rises to the occasion and becomes a very, very good secretary. 

The two weirdos fall into a Dominant/submissive relationship that they keep at work. It involves Lee being spanked for typos, crawling on the floor to deliver letters to Mr. Grey, and being put in bondage. Lee absolutely flourishes as a woman and as a human being in these conditions. Her sexuality is awakened. Her need to self-harm evaporates (more on this below). She is happy, beautiful, and glowing under the care and discipline of Mr. Grey. 

Lee realizes that she wants more from Mr. Grey. She wants them to do their thing 24/7 and, you know, be together as a couple. Grey pulls away. It turns out that he is very ashamed of his desires. There's a scene where Lee listens to an audiobook titled "Coming Out as Dominant/submissive" while at the same time Grey is writing her letter that starts with "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm like this." I love this scene because it demonstrates that the roles people play in BDSM don't really say much about who they are as people outside those roles. In other words, sexually submissive Lee has the confidence and curiosity to learn about and embrace her desires while dominant Mr. Grey is beating up on himself (pun fully intended) and is too scared to be his authentic sexual self. So it is up to Lee to prove her worthiness to Mr. Grey and also to prove that they are worthy and deserving of the kind of love that feels right to them.

Secretary is a feminist film with a strong, smart, courageous heroine who isn't perfect and has a lot of growing to do, but learns to stand up for herself and for her man. All while getting spanked over a desk. Secretary is also one of the few movies about BDSM that seems to actually "get" that BDSM is a lot more complex than whips, chains, and leather. To be clear, people live and express BDSM in a million different ways, not just in the way that Lee and Grey do, but Secretary gets that this way of expressing love, power, and sexuality is generally pretty integral to people who are wired for it and that you can't just "be normal" if you're built different. And also that BDSM is not something to be ashamed of. Unlike Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Secretary *affirms* so-called "deviant" sexuality, it doesn't just gawk at it.

That said, the film still has its flaws, the biggest of which is that Lee stops self-harming because Grey tells her she doesn't need to anymore. That's not the way that works. BDSM is not therapy, though it can be therapeutic. And mental illness doesn't go away because a Dom tells you that you're better. However, I'm inclined to let that issue slide because Secretary presents a fantasy. After all, Grey positions Lee over a desk one day and spanks her...and she likes it. In real life: don't do this. It's a romance. Much like Bridgerton, it ain't real life. In addition to being a fantasy, Secretary is also a comedy and the humor is pretty dark and wry at times. This is a special movie and not everyone is going to be on its wavelength. But those who get it and like it really like it, and I'm one of them. 

 

Grade: A+