The Sweet Hereafter / Family Viewing

THE SWEET HEREAFTER, 1997, Warner Bros., 112 min. After a fatal school bus crash devastates a small town, an aggressive attorney (Ian Holm) arrives to capitalize on the tragedy. As he tries to convince the townspeople to sue whoever (if anyone) is responsible for the accident, the lawyer deals with his troubled relationship with his drug-addicted daughter while his new neighbors deal with secrets and agonies of their own.

FAMILY VIEWING, 1987, 86 min. Two years before SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE, Atom Egoyan gave us this riveting exploration of video and its relationship to sex and voyeurism. A young man who feels alienated from everyone around him -- including his father and father’s mistress, who live together in a highrise full of video equipment -- becomes involved with a young woman who works in the phone sex industry. As the plot reveals itself, connections between the characters emerge at the same time that all the technology around them creates distancing effects.