DIRECTED BY Steven Shainberg
STARRING Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren
Opens May 16, Cert 18, 104 mins
When secretary won a special jury prize at Sundance for originality, the award probably wasn’t intended to be an arch stroke of understatement, but once you see this subversive, challenging and audacious film, you’ll think so. To call it ‘original’ is like saying sandbags don’t dance too well. Shainberg’s truly, tellingly odd tale of mind games and sex games, elaborated from a story by cult American writer Mary Gaitskill’s book Bad Behaviour, recalls the impact sex, lies and videotape made for Soderbergh in ’89. It probes into unnerving areas of the psyche and libido which indie auteurs have, for the most part, sadly shied away from since then. It’s an heir to Bu