MOVIE REVIEW
Adoration (2009)
Sophie Giraud/Sony Pictures Classics
Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” takes a powerful, simple subject and mucks up its exploration with elaborate stylistic complications and moments of pure over direction. At its core is the grief-stricken story tinged with guilt, of a teenager learning to cope with the accidental death of his parents years earlier. Mr. Egoyan transforms that narrative into a murky rendition of the seedier side of the Web, and hampers it through the high-concept development of a premise centered on a convoluted role-playing assignment taken on with gusto by the main character and a central figure in his life.
Continue reading “Caught in the Web, Where the Truth Lies” »
Sophie Giraud/Sony Pictures Classics
The Museum of the Moving Image hosted the New York premiere of "Adoration" on April 27, which included a Q&A with the director, Atom Egoyan, and two of the lead actors, Scott Speedman and Devon Bostick. David Schwartz, chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, moderated the discussion.
"Adoration," like many of Mr. Egoyan's films, is one that deftly plays with timelines and chronology in storytelling. Mr. Egoyan discussed this style as simply how he thinks and develops narratives, and spoke about cinematography as a tool to help break down the various moments in time. Certain scenes are rosy, softly-focused, and others slightly more surreal, giving the audience hints of un-reality and imagination. While there are scenes that veer into the sentimental, Mr. Egoyan responded to an audience question by saying that he doesn't consider his films to be melodramatic in the least. He talked about his attempt to shine a light on the complexity and nuances of relationships, while melodrama aims to simplify and polarize. He did concede, laughingly, that he had recently won the Douglas Sirk Award, so perhaps there was some truth to the suggestion of melodrama in his work.
Continue reading “Application of Artistic License” »