Exotica Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Exotica Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 15, 2015

Winner of Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Atom Egoyan's "Exotica" (1994) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Alliance. The only supplemental feature on the disc is an audio commentary with director Atom Egoyan and composer Mychael Danna. In English, with optional English SDH and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

We'll have a good time tonight...

There are a lot of naked bodies in Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s Exotica, but this isn’t an erotic film. It is a film about people in pain who gather in a place that temporarily makes them forget about it.

The place is a stylish gentlemen’s club somewhere on the outskirts of Toronto. For a small fee, the beautiful girls who work there quickly take off all of their clothes and then talk to their clients. The girls can touch them, but they cannot be touched.

Francis (Bruce Greenwood, Being Julia, Thirteen Days), a lonely tax inspector, is a regular who loves watching Christina (Mia Kirshner, The Black Dahlia, The Crow: City of Angels) dance. Christina dresses as a school girl and likes entertaining Francis. Zoe (Arsinée Khanjian, Felicia's Journey, Speaking Parts), the club’s pregnant owner, is aware that there is a special bond between the two but does not mind. Eric (Elias Koteas, The Adjuster, Crash), the club’s DJ and Christina’s boyfriend, does not like it. He wants to know what Christina sees in Francis and why she enjoys talking to him.

Later into the film, Christina will also talk to Thomas (Don McKellar, Last Night, eXistenZ), a very shy gay pet shop owner who smuggles exotic eggs into Canada. But before she does Thomas will befriend Francis when he begins auditing his business after his latest trip to Asia. Thomas will also have a casual encounter with a handsome black man who might be interested in his illegal business.

As the film progresses the relationships between the different characters become very complicated, at one point even borderline confusing. Past and present frequently overlap to reveal different relationships that also have important roles in the giant puzzle Exotica is.

Eventually, however, Egoyan aligns the scattered pieces and everything begins to make perfect sense. It is all done in such a brilliant fashion that the viewer is essentially forced to go back and reevaluate every single character, from the tax inspector to the pregnant club owner.

As it is always the case with Egoyan’s films, the atmosphere is fantastic. Light, shadow, color and soothing music are used to create a Lynch-esque world in which anything could happen. Needless to say, as much as Exotica is a film that tells a fascinating story it is also a feast for the senses.

Greenwood and Kirshner are both spectacular, but Koteas and Khanjian are equally impressive. McKellar’s subtle performance also leaves a lasting impression. A very young Sarah Polley also has a small but very important role in the film.

Exotica was lensed by Egoyan’s longtime cinematographer Paul Sarossy. The two have collaborated on many of the Canadian director's very best films (Felicia's Journey, Where the Truth Lies, Ararat, The Sweet Hereafter, and The Adjuster).

The film’s fantastic soundtrack was created by Oscar winning composer Mychael Danna (Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine). Also used in the film is Leonard Cohen’s beautiful song “Everybody Knows”.

Exotica Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Atom Egoyan's Exotica arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Alliance.

The release has been sourced from the same dated master British distributors Artificial Eye accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray review of Exotica. Depth and clarity are very underwhelming. Select close-ups with plenty of light could appear somewhat decent, but the entire film looks disappointingly soft. Indeed, there are obvious traces of moderate to strong filtering adjustments that have irreversibly affected the film's dynamic range -- shadow definition, contrast stability, and color saturation are clearly destabilized (see screencaptures #13 and 14). The darker footage from the night club, in particular, looks extremely flat. Overall image stability is very good. Also, there are no large damage marks, cuts, stains, or debris to report in this review. Finally, there is some light banding that isn't present on the Artificial Eye release. All in all, Exotica can and should look far better in high-definition. However, it appears that at the moment there isn't a suitable master to produce a strong Blu-ray release. My score is 2.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Exotica Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH and French SDH subtitles have been provided for the main feature.

If you have not yet purchased Artificial Eye's Blu-ray release of Exotica, which comes only with a lossy track, you should consider getting this Canadian release. Music has a very important role in the film and the lossless track allows it to breathe a lot better. The sequences from the night club, in particular, sound vastly superior, but even in areas of the film where background music is used to enhance the moody atmosphere the difference between the two tracks is easily noticeable. (If the audio is ramastered, fidelity will be even better). The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review.

Exotica Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary - director Atom Egoyan and composer Mychael Danna discuss the production history of Exotica (the entire film was shot for less than two million dollars and clearing the rights for some of the songs that are heard in the club, for instance, was not at all easy), the specific rituals seen throughout the film, the sexual overtones, the sense of "suspended moment" and its importance, the scoring of the film and the nature of the contrasting music themes, etc.

Exotica Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Exotica is my favorite Atom Egoyan film and it is very disappointing to see that at the moment there simply isn't a Blu-ray release that does the film justice. This Canadian release is sourced from the same dated master Artificial Eye accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray release, but it comes with a strong lossless track and a very informative audio commentary with the Canadian director and composer Mychael Danna, Obviously, it is the better of the two releases, but the film really needs to be rescanned and then brought to Blu-ray so that it looks as good as it should.