exotica

formative movie for me. watched on endless loop 15 yrs ago and recently rewatched and discovered it all still works. i don't know if atom egoyan has matched it yet frankly. built almost like a collage - themes of grief, money, transformation repeat and ripple thru characters, each mirroring another - but it does not feel randomly assembled, quite the opposite. maybe grief is less so in don mckellar's character. we learn his father died recently but we don't see him being taken under like francis or even like eric, the dj whose lamenting is more about heartbreak than death. mostly. in any event, from the second the title started and the first piano of m. dyanna's score starts progressing i was transported. awesome