Rating: 
Summary: Everbody got that broken feeling...
Review: You have to ask yourself: what is Exotica hiding? It is a modern passion play trying to work the story of Francis, Thomas, Christina and Eric past the memory of a tragedy. Nothing is as it appears. With a great script, a very effective ensemble of actors like Mia Kirshner, Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas and Don McKellar who play the range from carefree and younger to older and cynical, Atom Egoyam creates a quirky, dark, almost raging universe that defies any usual sense of reality. Through a serpentine dance to a fascinating soundtrack, the story suspends your disbelief right where the customers can see you. Then it touches you on the belly and brings the story out to the rest of us having to explain itself. This is my favorite of EgoyamÕs films, but definitely check out The Sweet Hereafter. Also if you arenÕt squeamish like me, or maybe if you are squeamish but willing to give an interesting film a try, watch The Adjuster. (I will never watch it again, but it is really interesting.) In both these movies, He uses almost the same actors but in completely different characters.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and highly provocative mosaic
Review: First of all, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's lavishly intense film is NOT to be mistaken for "Showgirls," nor for any triple-x movie (although it IS R-rated).
Although the film presents certain elements of mystery (and one must pay extraordinary attention to both detail and innuendo), the intensity of the characters and plot propel the film across several levels. The viewer hangs on every word, both to pick up (almost desperately) clues toward understanding the over-lapping stories, but also because the characterizations are so thoroughly riveting.
Bruce Greenwood displays excellent range as he portrays both a care-free young family man as well as that character in middle age, besought with layer upon layer of tragedy and "baggage."
Mia Kirshner similarly impresses as we see her character at various stages: as a troubled pre-teen, replete with pony tail and braces, and also as both a mature college graduate and, quite convincingly, as an exotic dancer.
Elias Koteas is stunning as an anguished and lost club DJ/poet.
Don McKellar and Arsinée Khanjian are also quite brilliant in supporting roles.
Be prepared to want to immediately view the film a second time -- to do so is not merely repetition but serves as an opportunity to continue to fathom the depths of the characters and the film's unrelentingly passionate intrigue.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time with this trash
Review: I was browsing movies on Amazon looking for something new and different to watch, using customer reviews to decide if it might be worth my time or not. When the movie started, I already knew this one was a mistake. I sat through the whole thing (another mistake) and in the end I felt very cheated out of a buck and a couple hours of my life I could of spent doing something else. The acting, characters, script, and plot were pathetic. The climatic ending that people keep mentioning wasn't a big deal at all. This movie was not artistic as some claim. It wasn't thrilling or suspenseful. It was just a bad attempt at a bad story with bad actors. Move right along to the next movie.
Rating:
Summary: What is there to do?
Review: In "Exotica" Egoyan returns to the theme of emotional and visceral disengagement and alienation in the New World. The film's protangonist has no way to directly engaging his emotional turmoil and diress. All he can do is engage in a series of staged psychodramas which are repeated again and again without any sort of real interpersonal engagement or personal mental catharsis. The lonliness or trauma of people in the New World has no cultural idiom. There is only forms in which there is play acting but never any real touching or meeting or feeling or realness. We are accustomed to seeing vice portrayed in certain ways in the media and in the politics. "Erotica" suggests that the patronization of vice and fantasy in the New World has other reasons, motivations, and offers sympathy for men involved in this. It suggests that they are driven to it because of the paucity of ways for men to deal with issues of the emotion and spirit in the practically oriented material culture of North America. Despite the highly unusual plot, theme, and experimental nature of the movie, it is paced and filmed in a smooth, well organized, professional and technically proficient manner. All of the actors play their part in a realistic and belivable way.
Rating:
Summary: Shallow to deep.
Review: One has to wonder if those who rated this movie poorly 'got it'. I gave this to a co-worker and he was highly confused at the end because he missed a critical link. For myself, I'm not sure what I expected. I knew I liked Mia Kirshner, and the pick-up of the DVD in a bargain bin was a "what the heck" purchase though I'd read reviews that seemed to promise a dark, disturbing, thought provoking movie. Well, the packaging, as alluded to in the description, makes this seem like a standard erotic thriller. The addition of much of the action taking place in a strip club only seems to reinforce this as being standard, even shallow, fare. It's anything but. It might not be believable as a story, but the characters themselves are. Not only that, but fittingly enough, the shallowest seeming character through much of the film turns out to be potentially the most complex. It wasn't until after the end credits had rolled, and while still wrapping my mind around the whole canvas of the movie, it clicked as to why the character may have acted in a certain way. I'll add a disclaimer here for anyone interested in the movie. If you are at all squeamish about the concepts of pedophelia, homosexuality, strip clubs, etc... well, just be aware that you might feel highly uncomfortable. I only plead discomfort to the first and parts were painful to watch even though nothing explicitly happens (and as is the case of the whole movie, nothing is anywhere near as simple or obvious as it first appears). Highly recommended if you want a thought provoking, dark movie that at times makes you do a mental doubletake.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and highly provocative mosaic
Review: First of all, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's lavishly intense film is NOT to be mistaken for "Showgirls," nor for any triple-x movie (although it IS R-rated).
Although the film presents certain elements of mystery (and one must pay extraordinary attention to both detail and innuendo), the intensity of the characters and plot propel the film across several levels. The viewer hangs on every word, both to pick up (almost desperately) clues toward understanding the over-lapping stories, but also because the characterizations are so thoroughly riveting.
Bruce Greenwood displays excellent range as he portrays both a care-free young family man as well as that character in middle age, besought with layer upon layer of tragedy and "baggage."
Mia Kirshner similarly impresses as we see her character at various stages: as a troubled pre-teen, replete with pony tail and braces, and also as both a mature college graduate and, quite convincingly, as an exotic dancer.
Elias Koteas is stunning as an anguished and lost club DJ/poet.
Don McKellar and Arsinée Khanjian are also quite brilliant in supporting roles.
Be prepared to want to immediately view the film a second time -- to do so is not merely repetition but serves as an opportunity to continue to fathom the depths of the characters and the film's unrelentingly passionate intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Egoyan's swan Song!!!
Review: O.K. this film sarts off with a elderly Kung Fu instructor that, at the end of his life, realizes that his five students could become evil. Each of the students has become a master Kung Fu fighter and has specialized in one of five deadly techniques. The problem is that the master has no idea who each of the " deadly venoms " are now that they have been able to leave the secret Kung Fu school......oh, wait! This is Atom Egoyan's Exotica I'm writing about. Sorry! Exotica made me fall into a deep, deep sleep. I had a dream about a real strip club. It was NOTHING like Egoyan's over the top exotic wonderland. In reality strip clubs, strippers and strip club DJs couldn't be LESS interesting. The average strip club is , at best, entertaining. There is nothing exotic or entertaining about Exotica. I wonder if Egoyan has ever been in a strip club? Well, I'm sure he's too cultured for that kind of thing. 5 stars for the the Shaw Brother's Kung Fu classic Five Deadly Venoms! Top notch Kung Fu !!!
Rating:
Summary: What is there to do?
Review: In "Exotica" Egoyan returns to the theme of emotional and visceral disengagement and alienation in the New World. The film's protangonist has no way to directly engaging his emotional turmoil and diress. All he can do is engage in a series of staged psychodramas which are repeated again and again without any sort of real interpersonal engagement or personal mental catharsis. The lonliness or trauma of people in the New World has no cultural idiom. There is only forms in which there is play acting but never any real touching or meeting or feeling or realness. We are accustomed to seeing vice portrayed in certain ways in the media and in the politics. "Erotica" suggests that the patronization of vice and fantasy in the New World has other reasons, motivations, and offers sympathy for men involved in this. It suggests that they are driven to it because of the paucity of ways for men to deal with issues of the emotion and spirit in the practically oriented material culture of North America. Despite the highly unusual plot, theme, and experimental nature of the movie, it is paced and filmed in a smooth, well organized, professional and technically proficient manner. All of the actors play their part in a realistic and belivable way.
Rating:
Summary: Egoyan never fail to amaze...
Review: Exotica is a gentleman's club in the Toronto area that ties lives of four characters together through their personal involvement as customers or workers. There is Eric, the jealous DJ, Christina, the innocent school girl stripper, Francis, the frequent visiting tax accountant, and Thomas, the shy pet shop owner. These individuals bring their own stories and as the film evolves their stories become intertwined together. Atom Egoyan directed this film with skillful cleverness that can cause guessing audience members to get lost in the story. This film is a brilliant cinematic experience, which leaves a lot of room for the audience to muse and enjoy the journey of the four characters.
Rating:
Summary: Weird, kinky, and dark
Review: I thought this was one of the most interesting films to come out of the 90's. The film's weird, kinky, and dark overtones and themes interweave to produce an oddly engrossing film. All the main characters in the movie bring virtually truckloads of emotional baggage to their relationships, and the movie doesn't so much resolve those tensions so much as use them to provide an emotionally charged atmosphere, as we see the hidden elements of each relationship peeled off and revealed until the final climax of the movie is reached. Overall, a fine film and one that should reward seeing again.
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