Family Viewing / Next of Kin

REVIEW
Family Viewing:
Told with salacious humor and effective drama, this unusual black comedy is a droll observation of the goings-on of a de-nuclearized family. Dad is a middle-class, sadomasochistic VCR repairman who, after driving his wife away with his obsession for kinky phone sex, lives in domestic bliss with his sexy bimbo. His son, Stan, is a pasty-faced teenage couch potato. The son finally escapes from his father and moves in with his girlfriend who, unbeknowst to him, works at the phone sex company and has a peculiar sexual relationship with his father. This story of contemporary familial corruption is an intelligent and promising start for a talented filmmaker.

Next of Kin<>/I>
Egoyan's fascination with family relations and the effects of electronic media on one's life are explored in this sly, off-the-wall comedy-drama. Peter, in most respects a normal young man, finds his relationship with his tyrannical WASP family to be unbearable. After a session of video therapy, he sees a video about a troubled Armenian family that had lost a baby to adoption 20 years before. Deciding that a new family is in order, he acts out the role of their long-lost son. Inspired lunacy reigns in this brilliant and original directorial debut that explores not only family tensions but ideas of displacement, cultural stereotypes and role playing.