Atom Egoyan: Search and Destroy

Exotica: the splintered time sequence stuff is interesting, but large swathes of this film seem to exist in some wierd alternate universe. And not an interesting alternate universe like in David Lynch films. I mean, that strip club in Exotica - do places like that exist? Why in the name of christ would a strip club have a DJ/MC who keeps reminding people that they can only look but not touch (and not in an 'I'm just stating the rules' kind of way, but like it's all part of the act)?

I've never seen an Atom Egoyan film, btw. I'll have to check him out.

I rented this the other night (first time I had seen it in a while; this was the movie that turned me on to his stuff)...still just blows me away. I actually find it more interesting than a lot of Lynch's alternate universes (though I like Lynch a lot, too), because while many of Lynch's sets are clearly off-the-meter NOT real, Egoyan's sets strike me as more subtle, and have a way of being 'real-yet-not- real' all at once. The strip club is a great example; also the all- white, sci-fi looking video mausoleum in Speaking Parts, the triangular house in the middle of nowhere in Sweet Hereafter.

Still good. I loved The Sweet Hereafter. I loved Mia Kirshner, too.

i interviewed him comedically at last year's tiff

Ararat was a mess, I'm curious to see Truth on DVD.

AND ANOTHER THING: The Bacon/Firth comedy team was very much unfunny in their act.

Slocki, are you Jiminy Glick?

casting kevin bacon and colin firth as martin & lewis is astonishingly weird.

and what about when Melanie Griffith played a Hasid?

All that, of course, does make Nomi remarkably difficult to empathise with. "So's Lady Macbeth," Verhoeven says.

Donald Sutherland was in it? I don't recall him at all. Are you thinking of Christopher Plummer?

That's bonkers.

I've only seen three of his films, I think. He's sometimes at the Cinematheque (Toronto) when I see films there. I'm not bold enough to go up to him and say, "Stop--please."

We watched Chloe last night... Mixed feelings on it. I guessed the twist right away (never saw the source film this was based on) but thought the third act was the weekest. Not bad though, the lead has great lips and curves... kinda this Sarah Polley meets ScarJo hybrid (straight up Egoyan's alley, iow). Julianne Moore is pretty decent too. I think this was the movie that Liam Neeson was filming when his wife died. Not sure if that affected his performance. Idk, I could go either way on this. Might watch again.

"Plus, he's a better adapter than original screenwriter"

Still can't believe someone believes this.

Are you not familiar with Amanda Seyfried, Shasta? She's been getting a lot of roles lately.

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