Review of Exotica (1994) by Steff A — 02 Jun 2013

Beautiful movie about the stories of troubled people. Well, aren't we all? But these stories are told by a great auteur so these are not ordinary stories in the end. Egoyan weaves his stories as in a spider web and the spider is called "Exotica" the club around which all the characters revolve.

In this particular club Egoyan creates an atmosphere of mysticism that captures the viewer from the first minute and a chessboard for all the pawns, represented by his characters, to face off. The characters of the movie are well written on paper but they become amazing when they are fleshed out and portrayed by these actors with the director's guidance.

It is a well rounded ensemble cast and an ensemble of characters with real problems and complex psychologies that are revealed throughout the movie. Such a well structured narrative can only be found in Egoyan's next film "The Sweet Hereafter" for which "Exotica" was the best launching point.

I love almost every dialogue and the little behaviours of the characters are also worth a good comment. The film also uses music in an effective way smartly contradicting classical with club music. In short this is not one to miss.