Exotica

Miramax | Release Date: March 24, 1995

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

72	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Roger Ebert

Exotica is a movie labyrinth, winding seductively into the darkest secrets of a group of people who should have no connection with one another, but do. Read full review

100

James Berardinelli

Egoyan has taken a seemingly-simple story and woven it into a near-masterpiece, creating images and an atmosphere that establish the perfect backdrop for a tale of loss, grief, and eroticism. Read full review

100

Caryn James

Exotica may not be as perfectly formed as some of Mr. Egoyan's earlier work. Because Thomas's subplot is not as intriguing as the scenes in the club, the stories take too long to merge. But the flaws are minor. Mr. Egoyan continues to build an important, uncompromising career. Read full review

John Petrakis

Exotica may be a gloomy journey up river, but it's a trip worth taking. See it with a friend. One who has something to say. [03 Mar 1995, p.J]

Rene Rodriguez

Exotica seems to be about lust for the flesh, but it ends up as something much more tender -- and deeper. [24 Mar 1995, p.4G]

Owen Gleiberman

Like Christina’s dance, the movie is a gorgeous tease, an artful promise of something that never quite arrives. Read full review

Peter Travers

Egoyan is an acquired taste, but once in, you’re hooked. Exotica is Egoyan’s most accomplished and seductive film to date — even tackling acute psychic distress, Egoyan’s deadpan comic eye never flinches. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

Atom Egoyan has made one of his most accessible films to date, a haunting and complex fable of loss and desire with wide implications. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Egoyan's greatest strength as a filmmaker may be his ability to create and sustain particular moods and atmospheres. In that sense, Exotica lives up to its name. Read full review

David Armstrong

Exotica is a worthy addition to an increasingly rich body of work by one of our most prolific and accomplished international filmmakers. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

What I like about these camera movements, combined with the exotic, erotic ambience of Mychael Danna's score, is that they simultaneously implicate us in the characters' fantasies and place us at some distance from them. We literally view the action from shifting perspectives, but the rhythm and direction of our drifting gaze seem to place us directly inside the obsessions of the characters. Read full review

Jay Carr

Until Exotica gets away from Egoyan at the end, it's his strongest bid yet to integrate strong feelings and sleek visuals. [03 Mar 1995, p.33]

Carrie Rickey

In his newest film Egoyan memorably gets under the skin of the skin trade. [10 Mar 1995, p.03]

John Hartl

It's absolutely fascinating while it's happening, but it ends so abruptly that a reel seems to be missing. [03 Mar 1995, p.H31]

Joe Pollack

Exotica is a little hard to believe, but if it catches you, it holds on tight. [24 Mar 1995, p.3E]

Mike Clark

Though some have taken this '94 film fest fave fairly straight, it strikes me as eerily arch and quite the sly hoot as it connects maybe two-thirds of the time. [07 Mar 1995, p.4D]

Hal Hinson

Stylish, intelligent but rather soulless bit of moviemaking. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Fascinating, and without the pretensions that have marred some of Egoyan's earlier work. Read full review

Leonard Klady

There's demonstrable growth in his visual and narrative skills here but the writer/director isn't likely to expand his audience with the sometimes oblique, unnerving saga of interwoven lives whose paths cross with alternately comic and tragic results. Read full review

EmpireKim Newman

Exotica reaches for the mysterious, subtle and provocative with sparing but tangible success, and is flashy in the same way earlier Egoyan films were buttoned down. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

The picture gives the impression of a director in control of his vision, making precisely the film he intends to make. But the vision is a distinctly idiosyncratic one that will appeal only to certain tastes. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Exotica sounds terrifically lurid and interesting, but like most Egoyan films, it's far more interesting in the telling than in the watching. Read full review

Steve Persall

Egoyan's self-importance mars every frame of his film. [24 Mar 1995, p.9]

Jay Boyar

Egoyan makes you pay dearly by subjecting you to large doses of film-festival-strength ponderousness. [14 Apr 1995, p.19]

Desson Thomson

At its worst, which ends up being most of the time, the movie traps us in art-house pretentiousness, as we're obliged to follow the yearnings and abstract corruptions of the urban zestless. Read full review