The Unloved, Part 135: Adoration

The untempered version of world events right now: Things are not getting better. There’s no opposition coming, there’s no reckoning on the way, there is no stopping the free fall. And art is not going to save us. I don’t have much use for the untempered version, even if, on my worst days, I believe it. So, I continue to make my art about art, and I continue to seek out the opinions of people who have not given up. And hope for the best and do what I can for people who need help.

Atom Egoyan, I feel, has had this conversation with himself a million times, and he’s one of the few adult filmmakers left in North America. His stories of deviance and awakening, of art consuming itself and the people who make it, are, for me, an oasis in the desert, including his latest release, the splendid “Seven Veils.” He’s a synecdoche for Canadian cinema, same as David Cronenberg, Don McKellar, Guy Maddin, and Sarah Polley. A national treasure, and I’m here to stick up for even his most loathed works. Find something to center yourself…then get your head back in the fight.