• Like his debut Next of Kin in 1984- Atom Egoyan’s Family Viewing (second film) is a fascinating family drama – a sort of bizarre coming of age story about a seemingly disturbed young man coming to grips with an equally (or even more so) disturbed world.
  • Works as sort of a family therapy—catharsis– and a bit of a social critique and twisted thrilled
  • Video plays a major role in the film and is largely the target of Egoyan’s critique (and the film oscillates between video and 16mm film—both ugly as hell) like Haneke’s Benny’s Video and Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Haneke’s film came later, but Cronenberg had to be an influence on Egoyan- another Canadian auteur
  • A nice opening shot- Egoyan holds the frame on a food tray rack and slowly removes the trays to reveal the protagonist framed by it
  • The photography is brutally ugly- but Egoyan’s camera movement and placement is very intentional- deliberate – slow zooms
  • The owner/manager of the nursing home wearing a tie with the handicap sign on it is priceless- haha
  • Aidan Tierney’s Van (main character) seems like he’s influenced (in character and casting) by Bud Cort’s character in Ashby’s Harold and Maude
  • The father (and acidic home environment) is often shot on video—and when Van is outside it Egoyan uses 16mm- nice formal touch. The father tapes over his childhood videos (father is in the video industry) with videos of sex with his girlfriend
  • Recommend- but not in the top 10 of 1987