From [email protected] Tue Mar 28 09:48:14 EST 1995
Article: 53384 of alt.sex.movies
Newsgroups: alt.sex.movies
Path: roch0.eznet.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!torn!nott!cunews!freenet.carleton.ca!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!bw877
From: [email protected] (Doug Schneider)
Subject: REVIEW: EXOTICA!
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Sender: [email protected] (Doug Schneider)
Reply-To: [email protected] (Doug Schneider)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 13:37:40 GMT
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Status: RO
Since there has been much interest in the Canadian film Exotica, I dug up
a review I did a while back for a local 'adult' magazine. I'm posting
this for anyone's interest in the movie, which, by the content of the
review you will see I recommend in a BIG WAY!
EXOTICA....Doug Schneider
A sexy title, a story of obsession, and a beautiful stripper in
a heavenly place called Exotica - "yeeeee-owwwwww," it sounds
too good to be true.
Acclaimed Canadian director Atom Egoyan brings a tale about an
average guy, Francis (Bruce Greenwood - best known for boffing
then stalking the bodacious Paige of Knots Landing), with a
hidden past and a bizarre obsession. Just how average is he?
Well how 'bout being a Tax Auditor for starters, not exactly
most people's idea of rip-roarin' stimulation, is it? If I was
the boring bureaucrat, I'd be looking for a charge to my
erectile tissue too. And true to male form he finds a way to
make the most of his time at a place he can turn $5 into the
live peep show deal of the century. His sanctuary is a lavish
strip club called 'Exotica' where nightly he pays the same (as
in EXACT same) beautiful schoolgirl stripper named Christina
(Mia Kirschner) to table dance. Consistency is nice, but our
boy is here far longer, far more often, and for far more serious
reasons than you, I, and all our friends combined ever would be.
'Look but don't touch' is the rule in the skin caves where
hours pass and his sweat boils over the tartan-skirted
Christina - watching, talking, protecting, then bolting for the
doors in a tense rage. Christina is not oblivious to his
obsession as she mysteriously relishes in this attention.
Egoyan pumps his characters full of secrets and lets them unfold
slowly. This is key to Exotica's tense storytelling. And many
secretive characters there are, as we quickly find out Francis
is not alone in his obsessive rage and the young stripper's not
lonely for love. Lurking a few feet above the panting auditor
at this same strip bar heaven lusts the D.J., who also achingly
drools over Christina - scheming, stalking, and pleading to her
at every chance. He wants her back, but did he ever have her?
Rounding out this sexual triangle is Exotica's pregnant owner
who also has eyes for Christina.
Many other quirky events and characters surround this love nest.
By day, our Tax Auditor's on the tail of a pet-store owner
raising and selling exotic pets, who does his own bit of night
prowling with anonymous homosexual rendezvous at the opera. The
mystery continues as we're introduced to Francis' brother in a
wheelchair, the niece that babysits his empty home, and the eery
flashbacks to a massive police search. Obviously good clean
country livin' didn't get Francis where he is today, but I'm not
gonna give away any more of the story. There's more to all
this, much more, so much more that it can't be described quickly
anyway and I could sell you a novel instead. But even Forrest
Gump could figure out that all these seemingly unrelated events
have something to do with Francis' fixation on Christina. It's
not until the puzzle pieces are put together that we really know
why.
Greenwood's understated performance is strong and believable.
Sure he's a little off the deep end, but despite all the
weirdness going on, the audience can still identify with him
because he looks like an everyday person. We know something
has forced this handsome, intelligent guy off the freeway a few
exits early. Kirshner as Christina is unbelievably sexy and
enticing. "Schwing!" would be the understatement of the year.
Let me tell ya, if she was stripping here you can bet I'd be
there a few nights myself. I've never seen this actress
before, but I sure hope we see her again, and again, and again,
and......
Obsession and voyeurism are strong themes throughout this movie
and the audience themselves become voyeurs watching these
secretive lives' unfold. But unless you didn't read the
preceeding paragraphs, you've now realized this is not
soft-core erotica nor even a spiced up erotic thriller as the
title, the sexy poster, the strip bar story, and the nudity
warnings were titillating enough to imply. If a 'skin flick'
is your game plan, your money will be better spent elsewhere. A
disappointed friend said it was, "the orgasm that didn't
happen." "All the sexy women, that gorgeous stripper! Where was
the payoff?" he demanded. My friend was lookin' for love in the
wrong place. This is a mind game that seductively draws you in.
It's wicked and sexy like Christina, but it won't perk your
coffee in the usual way. Erotica it's not, Exotica it is.
Canadian made films don't usually have people stampeding for the
box office, scared they'll find something that looks like an
episode of The Littlest Hobo. No fear here! The makers of
Exotica have done us proud with this world-class production,
deservedly walking off with numerous Canadian and International
film awards. For those who want an emotionally driven, complex
mind-bender about obsession and desire then step right up.
Uniquely smart, sexy, and seductive, with great visual style, it
sets new standards for Canadian film. Take your friends too,
you'll have plenty to talk about afterwards.....highly
recommended.
Released 1994, stars Bruce Greenwood, Don McKellar, Mia Kirshner
Directed by: Atom Egoyan
169 “I can arrange all that.” Such Apaches as had not gone back on the war-path returned to the States with the troops; but there were five months more of the outrages of Geronimo and his kind. Then in the summer of the year another man, more fortunate and better fitted to deal with it all, perhaps,—with the tangle of lies and deceptions, cross purposes and trickery,—succeeded where Crook had failed and had been relieved of a task that was beyond him. Geronimo was captured, and was hurried off to a Florida prison with his band, as far as they well could be from the reservation they had refused to accept. And with them were sent other Indians, who had been the friends and helpers of the government for years, and who had run great risks to help or to obtain peace. But the memory and gratitude of governments is become a proverb. The southwest settled down to enjoy its safety. The troops rested upon the laurels they had won, the superseded general went on with his work in another field far away to the north. The new general, the saviour of the land, was heaped[Pg 305] with honor and praise, and the path of civilization was laid clear. Parliament met on the 10th of January, 1765. The resentment of the Americans had reached the ears of the Ministry and the king, yet both continued determined to proceed. In the interviews which Franklin and the other agents had with the Ministers, Grenville begged them to point to any other tax that would be more agreeable to the colonists than the stamp-duty; but they without any real legal grounds drew the line between levying custom and imposing an inland tax. Grenville paid no attention to these representations. Fifty-five resolutions, prepared by a committee of ways and means, were laid by him on the table of the House of Commons at an early day of the Session, imposing on America nearly the same stamp-duties as were already in practical operation in England. These resolutions being adopted, were embodied in a bill; and when it was introduced to the House, it was received with an apathy which betrayed on all hands the profoundest ignorance of its importance. Burke, who was a spectator of the debates in both Houses, in a speech some years afterwards, stated that he never heard a more languid debate than that in the Commons. Only two or three persons spoke against the measure and that with great composure. There was but one division in the whole progress of the Bill, and the minority did not reach to more than thirty-nine or forty. In the Lords, he said, there was, to the best of his recollection, neither division nor debate! His cheek paled for an instant as the thought obtruded that the man might resist and he have to really shoot him. "Good, the old man's goin' to take the grub out to 'em himself," thought the Deacon with relief. "He'll be easy to manage. No need o' shootin' him." "Them that we shot?" said Shorty carelessly, feeling around for his tobacco to refill his pipe. "Nothin'. I guess we've done enough for 'em already." John Dodd, twenty-seven years old, master, part of the third generation, arranged his chair carefully so that it faced the door of the Commons Room, letting the light from the great window illumine the back of his head. He clasped his hands in his lap in a single, nervous gesture, never noticing that the light gave him a faint saintlike halo about his feathery hair. His companion took another chair, set it at right angles to Dodd's and gave it long and thoughtful consideration, as if the act of sitting down were something new and untried. "Besides," Norma said desperately, "they're only rumors—" "Oh, I've found a way of gitting shut of them rootses—thought of it while I wur working at the trees. I'm going to blast 'em out." During the next ten years the farm went forward by strides. Reuben bought seven more acres of Boarzell in '59, and fourteen in '60. He also bought a horse-rake, and threshed by machinery. He was now a topic in every public-house from Northiam to Rye. His success and the scant trouble he took to conciliate those about him had made him disliked. Unprosperous farmers[Pg 124] spoke windily of "spoiling his liddle game." Ditch and Ginner even suggested to Vennal that they should club together and buy thirty acres or so of the Moor themselves, just to spite him. However, money was too precious to throw away even on such an object, especially as everyone felt sure that Backfield would sooner or later "bust himself" in his dealings with Boarzell. "Let's go home," she said faintly—"it's getting late."