MOVIE MONDAYS: EXOTICA

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my babies, let's talk about a masterpiece of a film i watched, oh, about four months ago or so thanks to the fine folks at netflix. okay, that line won't do anymore, will it? i mean, after the hiking up of prices and the Qwikster debacle, they are still fine folks, but maybe my loyalties are shifting. anyway, EXOTICA is by Atom Egoyan. this lowly atom is my entire Sun, because he is by far one of my favorite directors. nobody makes movies quite like he does, it's a very distinctive style that i adore.

the key word to this film and my review of it will be MOOD. mood, atmosphere, this film has it in spades, the air here is heavy, charged with sexual energy, with the possibility of lust and happiness, but also of bad decision-making and a hopeless outcome. the scenario centers around the Exotica Club, a beautiful adult club that far surpasses your typical strip club. this place is filled with beautiful scenery, a watery sky, and most of all, the alluring MIA KIRSHNER in her best performance ever. the way she captures her character's too-young-to-be-that-sexy trance of seduction, mixed in with a child-like innocence and the needs of any young girl to be loved by her father, is just brilliant.

again, i don't want to give away too much of the plot, i'd rather just talk about how i felt as i was watching this. i mean, yes, there's MIA, there are scenes in a pet-store aquarium that are dark, the good kind of dark, like the black paper used to make BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES, there's a poignant scene of a man quietly enjoying a stage production, seemingly to himself as he moves his fingers to the beat, and there's ELIAS KOTEAS, i'll get to him later. again, though, as i was moved by this, it was the atmosphere of the surroundings which took me to a deep level. the only comparison i can draw is when i'm playing one of the favorite ZELDA video games. when i'm really into the game, i actually feel that i am Link in Hyrule battling the monsters. i've often said that my version of Heaven would be my spirit eternally in the real world of the fictional world of the video game, i could strive and thrive there forever. whereas HELL for me is other people, having to eternally conversate with others in awkward, interminal small-talk, i'm very SARTRE like that :)

EXOTICA's characters are caught up in this atmosphere, too. there's a sense of foreboding, the skies always seem to be grey, everyone is moody as they say their lines, they know that great, ugly truths are about to be revealed about themselves that they don't want to hear and acknowledge. i must say, ELIAS KOTEAS gives one of the greatest performances in silver screen history as the character of the manager of the Exotica Club. maybe because i'm a (hack) wordsmith as well, i can relate to him fully. see, every night, elias's character gives a very heartfelt, serious speech using his microphone about the situation at his club, with the sexy dancers dancing for lonely businessmen, nights frittered away trying to glean some satisfaction of one's lustful desires, communication problems, and human comfort and emotion. elias waxes philosophical about the nature of sexual desire, especially of wanting forbidden fruit like MIA, what it really means when a man looks upon a vision of unspoiled beauty like MIA (well, as we learn later, unspoiled perhaps only physically), of men wanting to take it and have it and conquer it, but then nurture it, and how the taboos only heighten the spark in the air, and the desire of the unattainable drives one to act crazy and fatalistic. you can tell the elias character works on his speeches, they illuminate the otherwise tawdry exploits at the club, they inject them with a grandeur of insight and collective human understanding.

so many dreamy sections to the film, especially when it gets into a certain searching for a missing person which i won't spill, and an ending which attacks you with vigor and a combing back through of all you've witnessed as you stare at that slightly creepy house at the end, and it's so worth it, it's all worth it to the point that you feel orgasmic afterwards...i sure did, this movie and chocolate, better than sex as they say, a film about sex :)

so please, on a day when you're feeling bored and lonely, pop this in the old VCR and press PLAY, you won't be disappointed. if you want to discuss the film, or why you or i are especially bored and lonely that day, feel free to email me. discover some place new today, in honor of COLUMBUS, and go buy an ipad in memory of JOBS.




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