The Blacklist Declassified

Crash, directed by David Cronenberg (1996).
sex, lies and videotape, directed by Steven Soderbergh (1990).
Bad influence, directed by Curtis Hanson (1990).
Secretary, directed by David Shainberg (2002).

 
I’ve been watching some James Spader films from the 1980s and 1990s (to fill the time until The Blacklist starts up again). My response has not been what I expected, especially to Crash, ‘sex, lies & videotape’ and also, Bad Influence and Secretary. This group seems to have a certain coherence, thematically. In all of these, I would say James Spader plays an innocent, even a sexual innocent. I am not saying he is sexually naive, but rather is caught up in situations in which sexuality is an externalized, even emasculating force with which he is trying to cope. In both Crash & sex, lies & videotape, he struggles with impotence; also in both of these, he is just gorgeous, almost feminized at times. He is, in both, more the subject of seduction than its perpetrator. In key scenes in each the camera lingers on his wavy blonde hair and handsome face.
Continue reading ‘🔴 Passion & Passivity: Four Films’