Intimate Affairs

Cult director Alan Rudolph’s smart and funny 2001 film Investigating Sex arrives on DVD with a more generic title, but it is still an egghead indie lover’s delight. Inspired by real events, the film centers around a small group of academics and artists who decide in 1929 to conduct an inquiry into the topic of sex. They sit around and talk about their thoughts, feelings and fantasies while two attractive stenographers (Neve Campbell, Robin Tunney) take notes. The film functions as an ensemble character study and the dialog as the vehicle for introspection, seduction and plenty of male posturing. Rudolph lets each performer have his or her moment in the spotlight, but the truly scene-stealing bits come courtesy of Alan Cumming (as a horny artist), Nick Nolte (as the rich patron of the investigation) and Tuesday Weld (as his Russian wife, whose accent tends to slide into Brooklynese).

Shelf Talk: Intimate Affairs might lack the pretty imagery that typically sells a Merchant-Ivory-style period title, but it contains a superb cast, which is its main selling point. In addition to A-listers Nolte and Campbell, the film features Dermot Mulroney (Georgia Rule) and Oscar nominees Julie Delpy and Terrence Howard, who are a definite lure for indie fans.