Who's the Family To-day?

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I gotta say, I'm becoming a real fan of Atom Egoyan. I watched his first movie a few days ago, 1984's Next of Kin, which is a fascinating film about performative family dynamics.

Peter (Patrick Tierney) is 23 and lives at home, quietly traumatised by his constantly bickering parents. They go to family therapy and Peter ends up sneaking into the office after hours and seeing tape of another family's session, an Armenian family whose son went missing. So he goes to their home and pretends to be their son.

Not as though he's trying to fool them. They all engage in role play and soon they're engaging in different scenarios and everyone seems to gain a kind of delight or contentment from performing an idealised or exciting family dynamic. There's an absurd, almost manic energy to the last portion of the film as though the characters are revelling in some kind of liberation. Each member of the group is very generous with the other in a way reminiscent of a good improv troupe. When one person starts something, the others support it from the point of view of what kind of emotional impact they're trying to achieve. It's a fascinating perspective on human relationships. Maybe we all ought to live life more like performance art.

Next of Kin is available on The Criterion Channel.

Sonnet 1983

Without a spark, the meaning wasn't clear.
No energy expended lit the bulb.
Conducting thoughts occured through mild beer.
More dreams distilled than little bubbles hold.
We went where dizzy crows discussed their war.
The glowing watchers know what's going down.
"It never changes," says the mutant boar.
A tragic day befell the stormy clown.
Across the beach, he chased the pranksters off.
At sea, his loopy girl was laughing hard.
Zosima told the girl she shouldn't scoff.
Alyosha held a torn and worthless card.
The curtains couldn't catch the sun or moon.
But clouds appeared to cool the heavy noon.