Exotica (1995) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

This movie made some of the top 10 lists in 1995, including those of such respected critics as James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert. It is indeed an excellent movie, but viewed in retrospect, compared to Egoyan's follow-up, the brilliant "The Sweet Hereafter", which treats some of the same themes with the same actors, "Exotica" seems to be only prefiguring what might yet come from the director. Is Exotica the greatest film that nobody has ever heard of? It grossed a mere five million dollars at the box office in 1994, and is now all but forgotten. It seems strange that even a terrific movie like Exotica can find itself in the shadows, but it is not alone in that regard among Egoyan's films. The Sweet Hereafter was such an unqualified success that Egoyan's more recent films, although strong efforts, seem like a let-down because we know the upside of his capabilities.

I very much like the circular way Egoyan tells his stories, in which characters seem to know other mysterious things about other characters, but we don't know who knows what, and we find out only when the other characters do. This technique conveys a real sense of mystery, and it seems to be especially effective for treating the deep sense of loss felt by so many of the characters in his movies. What can I tell you? Atom Egoyan is brilliant at mood and atmosphere. He is the greatest film auteur in Canada, and perhaps he is already the greatest writer-director in the world, although he's still a very young man (he just turned 40). It will be interesting to watch his progress. His movies crossed over from arthouse to mainstream when he stopped thinking so much and started to lead with his heart, resulting in two emotional and genuine films, Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. His films since the Sweet Hereafter have shown somewhat of a regression to the over-intellectualized, post-Modernist Egoyan of his earlier works. Will he learn to expand his talent and make his movies ever more human and sweeping, like a more intellectual version of Spielberg, or will he pigeonhole himself into a narrowly pretentious artistic niche like Tarkovsky or Peter Greenaway?

Either way, he's going to give us some great moments in the next few years, and I eagerly await his future efforts.

Tuna's comments in yellow:

Exotica (1994) is an Atom Egoyan film, which means you can make some assumptions about it knowing nothing else. The cast will include his wife, Arsinée Khanjian. The story will be revealed in layers, within a non-linear time frame. A major theme will be how people deal with the loss of a loved one.

Exotica is a strip club, and many of the characters have that location in common. Arsinée Khanjian is the owner, Mia Kirshner is a star performer, Bruce Greenwood is her biggest customer. We eventually learn that Greenwood's daughter was murdered. There is more, but in case you haven't seen this film, I will leave it to you to discover. This was Egoyan's best film to date at the time it was made, and he followed it with an absolute masterpiece, The Sweet Hereafter. In Exotica, I always found myself wanting to get on with the story, whereas The Sweet Hereafter, which used the same tools of non-linear time and unraveling layer after layer, held my interest too well to want to jump ahead.