Strip clubs are defined by rules that mostly remain unspoken but which are, by and large, uniformly accepted by all who enter. The ecosystem of transactional desire that exists within them is a perverse hyper-reality whose perceived and carefully constructed realness can be destroyed by the smallest of transgressions. Dancers and patrons alike engage in a dance of conflicting needs and shared denial that creates a collective dream space that can erase all evidence of people’s real selves.
It’s fitting, then, that one such club figures so critically in Atom Egoyan’s elusive yet beguiling Exotica, a film whose characters are all stuck performing an array of vexing rituals, and seemingly on a permanent loop. If strip clubs are meant as temporary reprieves from the outside world, a place to come to in order to forget your troubles your troubles, the titular Exotica serves as a more eternal haven, at least for the club’s MC, Eric (Elias Koteas), a young dancer, Christina (Mia Kirshner), and her regular customer, Francis (Bruce Greenwood). Their dances of deception last not minutes, but months, even years.
Egoyan introduces these and other characters in cryptic fashion, presenting their often bizarre patterns of behavior without revealing the events, impulses, or emotions that drive them. Even their connections to one another are shrouded in mystery. We sense an odd protectiveness on the part of Francis during his daily visits with Christina (Mia Kirshner), a young Exotica dancer. His relationship with a perceptive teen, Tracey (Sarah Polley), is even more disconcerting. Even though we only ever see them talking, we’re invited to think that she may be a child prostitute, considering that Francis gives her money at the end of each discussion.
But Francis’s somber tenderness is such that it suggests there’s a deep history between him and these women. He’s paying less for their time or services than their willingness to buy into his daily fantasies, allowing him to enter his own protective dream space. He sees these interactions as a form of healing, but after eventually learning the trauma and loss that he’s experienced, it’s clear that he’s reconstructing a false reality to believe in, like a customer does at a strip club.
Eric, too, has an unusual fascination, perhaps even obsession, with Christina. It’s clear to Exotica’s pregnant club owner, Zoe (Arsinée Khanjian), that announcing Christina when she comes on stage brings him great pain, and she even offers to take over MC duties during such moments. One can sense a complicated past between the three of them. The final piece of Egoyan’s tapestry of damaged souls is the exceedingly awkward Thomas (Don McKellar), a nervous pet store owner whom Francis is auditing and who repeatedly pretends to have been given free opera or ballet tickets as a means of picking up gay men.
For all the initial mysteriousness of virtually everyone’s actions, Egoyan is never coy for the sake of being coy. Rather, his approach purposefully keys us to the feelings of his characters, placing us at a remove from people who are themselves detached from themselves. For various reasons, they hold tightly onto their secrets, their grief, their remorse, their past sins, or their alienation. They all see their rituals as coping mechanisms, but while there’s comfort in seeing the world the way that they want to, it also paralyzes them, preventing them from truly living life.
What makes Exotica even more compelling is the meticulous manner in which Egoyan strips away his characters’ emotional armor. For a film that’s so aloof in its opening scenes, it’s remarkable how rich its emotional palette becomes as the characters are forced to confront the very things they’ve spent years avoiding. Numerous shots highlight the one-way mirrors that offer characters the opportunity to watch without being seen, yet with the freedom this offers comes an overwhelming feeling of isolation. This pervasive aura of disconnection is echoed again in the many aquariums in Thomas’s pet store, and in most character’s cases, it stems from an inability or unwillingness to engage truthfully with the world around them.
Exotica’s structure is a marvel, mirroring the collapsing of the illusory worlds that its characters inhabit, and with each scene it brings the audience one step closer not only to the factual or narrative truth, but the emotional one as well. As it explores the almost labyrinthine ways in which humans construct barriers in the wake of unspeakable trauma and heartbreak, the film finds profound pathos in its characters’ lives, as well as compassion and empathy for them.
Image/Sound
Criterion’s new 4K transfer, supervised by Atom Egoyan and DP Paul Sarossy, looks magnificent. The image has incredible depth and is rich in detail, while a high dynamic range leads to a nice, subtle variation in colors. The color balancing is sure to draw complaints for being in the teal range, but it’s clear that the scenes in the Exotica club and Thomas’s pet shop are designed to foreground blues and greens. The outdoor scenes are more naturalistic, boasting more accurate whites and skin tones. The stereo audio track is equally strong, clearly rendering the film’s dialogue and offering Mychael Danna’s lush, moody score in full-bodied sound.
Extras
This is one Criterion’s most stacked one-disc Blu-ray releases of the year. There’s a full-length audio commentary with Egoyan and composer Mychael Danna. And while they often focus on the genesis of various musical themes and motifs, Danna’s use of the Indian instrument, the shehnai, and how music supervisors often ruin the scoring process, they naturally veer into discussion of the film’s plot, themes, and visual schemes as well. The duo, who’ve worked together on numerous films, are very comfortable with one another, so the conversation feels like an impromptu meeting of two friends, while still delving into the film’s various mysteries.
The same goes for Egoyan’s conversation with actor Sarah Polley, which has a nice give and take as they discuss not only how they view Exotica over 25 years later, but how Egoyan influenced her not just as an actor but also as a filmmaker. But the most valuable extra here is Egoyan’s 1993 feature Calendar, which serves as a perfect link between his earlier work involving the role of video technology in our lives and Exotica’s fascination with the act of watching.
The disc also includes audio from Exotica’s 1994 Cannes Film Festival press conference, as well as three of Egoyan’s short films: 1981’s Peep Show, 1991’s En Passant, and 2007’s Cannes-commissioned Artaud Double Bill. Finally, there’s a foldout booklet with an essay by author and filmmaker Jason Wood, who provides an essential overview of Egoyan’s early films, drawing a line between their fixations and themes and Exotica’s own.
Overall
From the beautiful new transfer, to the new audio commentary, to the inclusion of a second feature, Criterion has put together a stellar release of Atom Egoyan’s masterpiece.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
