Not many reviewers can sit through a sexually charged movie and see in it the warp and woof of opera. When Joel Crary watched Atom Egoyan’s Chloe at the Bytowne Cinema, he was pulled back to his studies at the University of Toronto to find the film’s comedic timing and situational irony.

“…it is a story that has been playing out on stages for hundreds of years and more, but it recognizes that what makes it interesting is the way eroticism continues to surprise us.”

For a young man, Crary is one of Ottawa’s most-gifted movie reviewers because he’s able to pull the little threads of history and context together to explain clearly what’s happening on the screen. When watching sex in the dark, it helps to know that I’m not the only one seeing theatricality in it.

“In 1996, filmmaker Atom Egoyan directed his first opera production for the (Canadian Opera Company), an adaptation of Richard Stauss’ Salome, at least partly famous for its seductive dance of the seven veils. Chloe is Egoyan’s latest erotic adaptation and it surges with the retreat and advance of operatic themes and timing…”

www.joelcrary.com

Crary is also prolific, reviewing at least five films a week on his site www.joelcrary.com. Chloe is just the most-recent, and his insight on Polytechnique, a film about the 1989 shooting murders at École Polytechnique in Montreal, is one the most perceptive I’ve ever read. Chloe plays at the Bytowne until April 8.