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Secret Movie Reviews
Films with a special twist
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Next of Kin (1989)
Director: Atom Egoyan
Rating: R
Stars: Patrick Tierney

No, I'm not referring to the 1987 film where Patrick Swayze portrays a hillbilly cop in Chicago fighting big city gangsters. I'm talking about Next of Kin, the debut feature of Canada's Atom Egoyan, one of the most underrated filmmakers of the past two decades. Egoyan is best known in the States for The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica, and has long been the master of withholding essential pieces of information until it's absolutely necessary for the storyline. His non-linear method of writing and editing has come into vogue recently (see Memento and Irreversible), but no one does it better than Egoyan. In Next of Kin, Peter (Patrick Tierney), a young man undergoing video-therapy with his dysfunctional family, discovers tapes of an equally troubled Armenian family, who 20 years earlier had given their son up for adoption. Deciding to incorporate himself into this Armenian family, he poses as the family's long-lost son. Egoyan deftly unravels layers of secrets to get at the root of just what it means to choose one's parents and family history.

Sex, Lies & Videotape (1989)
Director: Stephen Soderbergh
Rating: R
Stars: James Spader, Andie MacDowell

This is another debut film, this time by a much more recognizable name this south of the Canadian border, Steven Soderbergh. In recent years he's made waves and won more than a few awards with the films Erin Brockovich (ouch) and Traffic. But back in 1989, he released a film that would change the face of independent cinema. Sex, Lies & Videotape tells the story of Graham (immaculately performed by a young James Spader), a drifter who comes back to his hometown and reacquaints himself with his old college buddy, John (Peter Gallagher), his buddy's wife (Andie MacDowell) and her sister (Laura San Giacomo). Graham and Soderbergh seem to share a unique bond for exploring people's secretly interconnected relationships. Graham does it with his cathartic videotapes containing interviews about sexual matters with female subjects. Soderbergh nails this unique storyline with his masterful character development and subtle direction. What is captured here on celluloid is testimony to what a hungry and talented director and cast can do with a limited budgeted, a strong work ethic and a tight script.

The Man Who Wasn't There: (2001)
Director: Coen Brothers
Rating: R
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, James Gandolfini

"I was alone with secrets I didn't want. And no one to tell 'em to anyway." So claimed a small-town barber, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) in the latest Coen Brothers film, The Man Who Wasn't There. The C brothers return to their noir-ish roots (see Blood Simple) with a nod to James M. Cain's pulp fiction style of writing. This time the film is shot in color and then processed in black and white. The result is a strikingly beautiful and effective canvas on which is depicted a storyline about a quiet, wistful man who strives to better his life by investing in a fly-by-night dry-cleaning business. In order to get the $10, 000 dollars he needs to launch his entrepreneurial endeavor he decides to blackmail his wife's rich boss, Dave Brewster (James Gandolfini). Ed constructs a ransom note detailing the affair that Dave is having. However, Dave's affair just so happens to be with Ed's wife, Doris (Frances McDormand). Not surprisingly, this is barely the beginning. Just when you think you know what is going to happen next, the Coen Brothers add a twist.