Atom Egoyan: Search and Destroy

If you had looked at this poster when it came out, and were asked who would have the best career 7 years down the road, would you have picked Amanda Seyfried? I doubt that anyone would, yet here we are.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8f/Mean_Girls_movie.jpg/220px-Mean_Girls_movie.jpg

felicia's journey was a weird freakin movie. idk what was even going on in that one.

Felicia's Journey came out while I was living in Birmingham, and it was fun to see my adopted home writ large.

i haven't seen his last three films, for some reason. at one point he was my favorite filmmaker. I still think most of his stuff through Sweet Hereafter is top-notch. YOu need to get over the canadian-ness of some of the acting though.

If you had looked at this poster when it came out, and were asked who would have the best career 7 years down the road, would you have picked Amanda Seyfried? I doubt that anyone would, yet here we are.

in the shower this morning i was trying to remember if amanda seyfried had been in this movie, and i managed to convince myself i'd been confusing her with blonde rachel mcadams.

you all shouldve watched Veronica Mars, where Amanda Seyfried plays a better dead girl than Sheryl Lee...

Just watched Sweet Hereafter again; I think that movie has held up really well...

I was just thinking of watching that again. Love Ian Holmes's last line to Sarah Polley in that.

"Ian Holm's" rather

^yeah that's great! Holm is awesome; Polley, too.

Also the rare film that is better than the (well regarded) source novel. Seem to recall Banks liking Egoyan's additions as well.

Man, Egoyan - what happened, man?

stopped directing films he wrote, mainly. although I didn't see adoration (actually I haven't seen anything past ararat, which I think is very good)

although people liked chloe, didn't they?

Chloe has to be his biggest film; they were selling it at Walmart!

it has the most famous lead acress of any of his films, which is why

yeah, right, it's just an erotic thriller from Atom Egoyan is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Walmart

I wonder what happened to his repertory...

Chloe is on mubi, might give it a go.

I hear good things about Remember from some ppl I mostly trust but overall man it's hard to think of filmmakers who fell off harder

Chloe is like one of his old Red Shoe Diaries episodes. Remember was so bad.

still haven't seen anything past Ararat. I think his films through Sweet Hereafter are all awesome.

Buncha his films newly available on Criterion Channel. Guess I should finally watch The Adjuster?

I remember loving The Adjuster while also having it nake me feel slightly nauseous inside

That's how I feel about a lot of his earlier stuff. It can be so ... discomfiting. (At least "Next of Kin" is pretty funny, iirc.) I want to say his "mature" streak of "Calendar," "Exotica" and "Sweet Hereafter" is where it all comes together (right before it all falls apart), but I haven't seen those early movies in so long.

Adoration is not terrible iirc

oooh i'm finally gonna get to see exotica!

/Adoration/ is not terrible iirc

Saw Next of Kin for the first time... It is funny, but also has the hollow protagonist/videotape thing which is quite creepy.

Also i'd forgotten Arsinée Khanjian is married to Egoyan.

it's hard to forget by the sixth time she shows up in one of his movies

LOL

I've forgotten how much a creepy queerness permeates his films

Not sure i've ever detected that, but i'm rewatching stuff now after a 15-20-year layoff.

The older victim in The Adjuster feverishly kissing Elias Koteas' hand; the gay scene in Exotica...

his early movies are all incredible and that unsettling, uncomfortable aspect is what makes them so. but my favorite is Calendar.

I'm dreading a rewatch of Family Viewing but I'm otherwise compelled to. I haven't rewatched any of the early ones since they came out.

wow, the adjuster!!!! what a film

rewatched exotica last night, that's now an all-timer for me. a vibe i haven't found anywhere else

the verhoeven quote upthread is fundamentally right especially wrt to comparing exotica and showgirls, but it also wouldn't occur to me to compare them. showgirls is corrupted; exotica, despite its consumingly sinister atmosphere, is very innocent. these are babes in the woods, broken apart by trauma and reassembled into people they don't recognize

the club is incredible but all of my favorite dialogue exchanges in the movie are between bruce greenwood and sarah polley in the car

yes, one of my absolute all time favorite films. I think the screenplay is exceptional. It's one of the only screenplays I bought in book form and kept.

showgirls and exotica aren't even remotely about the same thing so comparing them isn't fair to either one. Exotica is explicitly about grief.

the abrupt transition from the club to the shot of the search party emerging over the hill and then back to bruce greenwood sweating in the bathroom... takes my breath away

Liked Exotica when it came out, haven’t seen it since. Did see Don McKellar’s Last Night finally on MUBI recently.

holy fucking shit @ speaking parts

watched exotica yesterday, the first egoyan movie i've seen - incredible! some of the plot mechanics don't really make much sense but the vibes are amazing. the set design, the colors, the score, beautiful

His run of films from Family Viewing through Ararat is one of the most incredible in all of Western cinema. Family Viewing (which he routinely cites as his best) and The Adjuster in particular are stunning

I never got a chance to visit his Camera Bar venue in Toronto, sadly

Really sad what’s happened to him lately. The last one, the Holocaust one whatever it was called, was like a self-parody.

He’s released two features after Remember. Guest of Honour got distributed by Kino Lorber, which doesn’t have the resources of even A24 or Neon, and Seven Veils, which still hadn’t had a commercial release in the States

Were they any good?

Guest of Honour is worth a rental, or even buying in one of Kino Lorber’s sales. I have yet to see Seven Veils. Maybe Mubi will pick it up at a fire sale price