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Tape Movie Review

Tape is a 2001 drama film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman. It’s such an underrated, phenomenal film.

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“People change.

They end up having nothing to say to each other

even if they were best friends years before“

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Two friends get together and uncover past trauma that happened ten years ago while in high school. One of the guys apparently raped a girl back then, so Vince the protagonist tapes his confession and brings the girl over to stir drama. Basically, this is one of those one-setting movies where the entire drama unfolds in this one small apartment with only three people involved.

And it was glorious. It’s one of the better and more underrated examples of such a structure that entirely worked for me. The dialogue and acting were never stagey at all, at least not to me, but as sophisticated and as fascinating and engrossing as you would expect from Linklater’s caliber. Apparently, the screenplay was based on a play, which makes sense, but it worked as a movie immensely well.

Vince is this slacker type character archetypal for this director, but much better developed than most previous such instances. He is a loser, but he does feel great contempt and hypocrisy for his friend’s behavior full of disdain and entitlement. Yes, Jon Salter is a horrible man, and it was great to see a movie portray such a hypocritical person as this world is full of them.

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By becoming extremely polite, cultured and a movie director, he feels that he is past his previous persona and, most importantly, his crimes. He did rape Amy and that realization was very difficult to handle as the film made it suitably intense. The arrival of Amy made things even more uncomfortable, but she eventually got the best of both of them, which was incredibly rewarding to see.

The film benefits strongly from all three tremendous performances. Robert Sean Leonard is probably the finest of the three, though clearly the lesser-known actor. He sold all of his emotional turmoil in what was the most difficult role to pull off. Uma Thurman was a pleasant surprise, and she was perfectly cast and excellent. As for Ethan Hawke, he has rarely been better than in this extremely entertaining, playful and manipulative role that aptly made use of his dramatic and comedic skills as an actor.

Tape has its problems, though they are lesser in quantity and importance. Still, I found the insistent asking questions and repetitive lines of dialogue very deliberate as he wanted to extend the film to an hour and a half mark, but it felt forced and unnecessary.

Other than that, the drama is wholly engaging and I would even say captivating as you are made to cling on each word spoken as the conflict is so juicy. A decade or so before many sexual misconduct allegations would rock the Hollywood world, Tape feels very advanced for its time as it handled rape and the trauma that emerges from it so well.

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The movie was obviously cheaply made as it was filmed with a camcorder, but it did not bother me in the slightest as the drama is so captivating and the dialogue is fantastic. The script is clever and its setting is very well utilized for the narrative. I did dislike the quick camera jumps from person to person, but besides that, the film was technically serviceable for such a low budget.

Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman are all tremendous and perfectly cast in Tape, a drama that is so juicy and simply captivating to follow. It’s a cheap, but immensely engaging film that deals with a complicated issue in a very intense, sophisticated manner. As a result, this is one of Linklater’s greatest and most underrated directorial efforts.

My Rating – 4.5

You can get Tape on Amazon.