Day 7: A Brief Interlude

Absolutely huge break today - 6 hours. So this is a part 1 of todays update.

It's A Free World

The latest Ken Loach film. I like Loach - he puts out good work. Not exactly inspiring and uplifting work, mind you. But good.

This one is about a woman trying to start up a 'recruitment' agency in London - casual/day labour for EU immigrants. Interesting tale, as she starts out cutting corners and goes downhill from there.

Day 6: Enterprising Capitalists

A small aside. Damn these fracking Hollywood bigshots with their damn fancy toys. I've seen a half dozen iPhones in use since the festival has started. I'm starting to seriously consider mugging one of these schmucks for it - knowing my luck tho, I'd probably nab a 4Gb model.

Instead, a hearty "screw you" to Ted F. Rogers. You know why, you bastard.

Vexille

This movie had so many "homages" to other films, I have serious questions about whether or not the author of the screenplay did any actual writing. Off the top of my head, there were nods to Dune, Blade Runner, Starship Troopers, Tron, Braveheart, Ghost in the Shell and Mad Max.

That being said, awesome film. As your attorney, I recommend that you get a large convertible automobile... no. wait. See this movie. Yeah. Do it. Unless you dont like Japanese animation. In which case you're beyond hope and redemption.

(soundtrack by Paul Oakenfold. Like seriously. Why are you still reading this, and not downloading the film from the intertubes?)

Here Is What Is

The Daniel Lanois documentary. Ostensibly about the creative process, it comes off more like an extended music video. Which is cool, since I didnt quite realize how good a musician Lanois is on his own - he's mostly known for his producing efforts of obscure Irish bands.

Very Young Girls

Kinda made me want to take a shower afterwards. Documentary child prostitution in New York City. Apparently the average age in which girls enter into the commercial sex trade is all of 13. Boggles the mind. 13.

Like I said. Shower.

What struck me is that the person in the film that I felt the most opprobrium for was not any of the pimps (tho they are obviously deserving), but for the tool of an ADA who recommended against paroling a 15 year old girl into the custody of her mother, when she was arrested on prostitution charges.

No. Because clearly, having her locked up in the Tombs is a far better course of action.

The Babysitters

People who have daughters will not want to watch this film. In fact, if you have children at all, do not watch this film. Or at least, never hire a babysitter.

For if you do, it may turn out that the very prim and upstanding young lady that you've hired is actually running a escort service, and is banging your husband when he drives her home.

I've placed a call to my younger cousins to see if the Babysitters Club series of novels ever covered this development. Wikipedia is strangely silent on the matter.

Day 5: Peanut Farmers

Y'know. I forgot how much these early films take a toll on me. Been running the last couple of days on a pretty severe sleep deficit. Slightly less than pleasant.

Mongol

I suppose that the years of movie watching has made me a touch jaded. You'd think that a sprawling epic-y movie about the rise of Genghis Kahn to power, with plenty of nifty battle scenes would get someone going.

'Cept, its like the 8th time I've seen a similar film at the festival. Sure, the names/plot elements have changed, but it still boils down to a bunch of Central Asian types rollicking around on horses, swinging oversized cutlery.

So. Meh. Not bad, just meh.

Man from Plains/Conversation

Lets bust out a little Harper's Index style reporting.

2: Number of politicians that the author finds to be a real human being.
1: Number before meeting Jimmy Carter.

This was a double bill - a hosted talk with Jimmy/Rosalynn (moderated/lead by noted pollster Allan Gregg), followed up by the Johnathan Demme documentary Man from Plains. The talk was your standard Baba-Wawa style special - ranged all over the place with some hard questions interleaved with softball human interest ones. It was only an hour long, so its not like there was a heck of a lot of room for maneuvering.

The documentary covers a 2 week stretch where Jimmy is touring the country, pimping his new book - flying commercial no less. He always flies commercial. Slightly mind-boggling there.

Between the two events/films, you get the strong sense that Carter is genuinely interested in bettering the world, and that the things coming out of his mouth isnt just empty rhetoric. He's a smart, funny, sharp guy who's just trying to use what influence he has to make the world a better place to live in.

I may not always agree with him, but I'll take him over the current chowderhead in office every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

Encounters at the End of the World

Documentary about Antarctica - but not about the cute little critters there, or other physical characteristics, but about the people who live and work there.

Which isnt to say that there aren't any shots of adorable penguins (there are), otherworldly underwater videos (yup), or mind-staggeringly beautiful ice formations inside a fumerole on the side of Mt. Erebus (check). Its just thats not what Herzog was focusing on.

Another funny guy, this Herzog is. He spent 5 minutes grilling a penguin researcher about the existence of gay penguins.

Exodus

Hong Kong films which opens up with a squad of naked frogmen beating the crap out of some guy in the hallway of a police station. Lest you think that this is a giant visual non-sequitur, this actually plays a key part of understanding the behavior of one of the characters in the film.

Question for the women in the audience: Are female washrooms used as meeting points in a vast conspiracy to rid the world of men? For thats what this film would have me believe - and makes a compelling case.

Just curious. No need to kill me for asking.

Day 4: Joga Bonita

The upside of not squeezing 5-6 films into a single day is that you dont have to run like a mofo to get from one film to another. You can take a more or less leisurely jaunt from theater to theater.

The downside is that you get too much time between films sometime. Yesterday saw a 5 hour gap (ably filled with a tasty interlude at Terroni). Today's got a 3 hour gap, which I'm currently in the middle of.

And when yer downtown, its a touch hard to kill that much time. There's only so much time you can spend camping out at Harbucks.

XXY

Argentinian film - the subject of which can be inferred from the title. Reasonably watchable, especially given the hour (9am). Ricardo Darin has got to be the Argentinian version of Calum Keith Rennie - he seems to be in every single Argentine film that I see. Not that I'm complaining much - he's a darn good actor.

Ex-Drummer

Based on a book from apparently the most controversial author in Belgium, it rapidly becomes clear why the guy is vilified. This is one bizarre film - as you'd probably guess a film about a Flemish hard rock band would be.

I thoroughly enjoyed this - starts off not bad, but goes completely off the rails by the end. The main character is delightfully amoral.

Also the early leader in the race for the Wahlberg award - given to the film with the best use of prosthetic plastercine. Truly remarkable in this case.

Le Douxieme Souffle

What is "what I havent got yet". Also a big budget French film noir. I like these big time French movies. They're an interesting contrast to similar Hollywood fare - not nearly as over-produced.

An amusing casting decision, as Eric Cantona becomes the latest athlete to try their hand on the silver screen. Wasnt bad, but he's much better hosting underground soccer matches to the death.

Day 3: The Tenets of National Socialism

Relatively quick recaps - I'm dog tired, and need to get this out before I forget everything by morning.

Jar City

Or as I've been calling it, CSI: Rejkyavik. Icelandic murder mystery. Pretty good as these things go - the lead was quite good, and the whole thing held together nicely. Apparently it was the most popular Icelandic film ever - seen by 100,000 people! Which doesnt seem like a lot, until you realize that the country only has a population of 300k.

Ulzhan

The anti-Borat. Man actually goes to Kazakhstan, wandering around on foot, motorcycle, and horse, attempting to exorcise inner demons. Road movie, of sorts. Wierd mishmash of languages spoken by the actors - despite a German director, the primary language of the film is French, and people will break into English or Russian at odd intervals.

Terroni

Not only am I a world-renowed film critic, but I'm also a noted gourmand. No. Fer serious.

Terroni isnt a movie - its a restaurant. Italian in character. Reasonable prices, excellent food. Pasta's made fresh daily. 3 locations in Toronto. Recommended. Tell 'em I sent you.

The Counterfeiters

Part one of todays theme - the Nazis. Odd choice, eh? Anyways, this is your standard "men in concentration camp do whatever they need to, to survive" film. The variation this time is that the inmates are the tools in a German plot to forge British and American currency.

There's some depth here (is it better to save ourselves and forge madly, or save the world and sabotage the efforts), but not a heck of a lot. Watchable.

My Enemy's Enemy

Part two. A documentary on Klaus Barbie the so-called Butcher of Lyon. Quite good - I knew a decent amount about his wartime exploits, but not really what he'd been up to afterwards.

Turns out the enterprising fellow set himself up as an advisor (political, and ahh... information retrieval technologies, if you get my drift) to right-wing strongmen in Boliva. He more or less had tacit approval from the Americans, who were looking for virulent anti-communists as a bulwark to Communist incursions in Latin America.

Now. The Americans didnt exactly approve of his plans for a Fourth Reich in the Andes with the rest of his Nazi buddies, but good help is hard to find.

Day 2 cont: A Division of Joy

Toronto Hydro Wireless is cool and all, but reception inside the Paramount is teh suck, so herewith is a transcription of notes made earlier today.

Joy Division

You should always come out of a documentary having learned something. I came out of this one knowing the inspiration for Elaine Benes's funky dance movies.

A superb documentary on the rise of the Mancunian super-band Joy Division into the stratosphere of new wave music. Alan Cross should be giving his left nut to do something so well.

All-in-all, the film was great - pretty much all the principals of the band (save Curtis's widows) have copious amounts of face time, talking about the formation and existance of the group. Soundtrack was predictably good, presuming you're a Joy Division fan - and if you're not, what are you doing watching the film.

The only thing that got my goat was the director's insane insistence to start head shots out of focus for a second or two before gradually tightening up. I dont know whether he thought his was "arty" and demonstrated his cinematic chops. It was bloody annoying as heck, tho nowhere near Westray levels of annoyance.

The Man From London

Crime movies come in two varieties. The taut and suspenseful kind, and the kind that isnt.

This is one of the latter ones. About 45 minutes too long, as the director (a giant in European cinema, apparently) completely and utterly fell in love with long (5+ minutes long) tracking shots.

Control

Part 2 of today's Joy Division movie extravaganza. Instead of a documentary of the band, this one is a biopic of lead singer Ian Curtis. Directed by Anton Corbijn, and based on a book by Curtis's wife.

Good film, but "suffers" in comparison with the documentary, which I preferred more. Possibly precisely because it was about the band, rather than the lead singer. Visually stunning (go figure, given the director) with a truly excellent performance by Sam Riley as Curtis himself.

Day 2: Paramount Day

Its the Paramount. I dont care how much some financial institution pays for branding/naming rights. It started as the Paramount, it'll always be the Paramount to me.

Yes. I'm fully aware of the irony inherent in that statement.

I've got a gaping hole in my schedule today - my first film just ended, and the next (also at the Paramount - like all my films today. Love when that happens) isnt until 2:45pm, so me and the jBook are camping out at a Harbucks and making use of Toronto Hydro's wireless mesh. Mmmm. Wireless. This explains why there'll only be a single film update at the moment.

But first - a small digression. Those who've seen my film schedule may be a little shocked/surprised to see relatively few films listed. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but waywaywayway near the top is the truly usurious prices that TIFFG is charging for festival passes this year. $509. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

When I first got the pass in ah... 2001 I believe it was, it was $300. For those counting at home, thats over a 67% increase in 7 years. I'm not David Dodge, but I think I can say that a 67% increase slightly outpaces inflation over that period of time. Greedy mofo pikers. I suppose part of the cost can be attributed to needing to build the Festival Theatre... errr.. "Bell Lightbox".

OH NO WAIT! ITS STILL A GAPING PIT IN THE GROUND! WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED!

*grumble*

You, The Living

(no film hotlinking - the TIFF website is hosted off an abacus, and his been down for the last 10 minutes)

Another minor digression. Stop complaining. You all love it.

The seasoned festival attendee quickly leards to hate (hate!) the opening bumpers and shorts that precede the actual film. I'm pleased to report that while the content is as stupid as ever (Death Shark!), the bumps are blissfully short this year. Yay.

I was entering this film with just the tiniest bit of trepidation. When you need to wake up early and hie one's ass downtown for a 9am film, you start wondering if scheduling a Swedish exisitentialist film was possibly the wisest idea in the world.

Fortunately, things worked out mahvelously. Less existentialist, and more absurdist. Which is fine. Absurdity is great - and those whacky Scandanavians seem to have a strangehold on that particular genre.

I still havent seen a Scandanavian film that wasnt washed out, from a color palette standpoint. I dont know if there's a government mandate to have everything look bland, but perhaps there's a reason that certain countries rank high on this list

Day 1: And so it begins

I dont know if its been all the drinking I've been doing in the last year, or if perhaps its the incipient signs of Alzheimers, but I always wind up being perpetually surprised each year at the wholesale incompetence of the Festival crew.

For something like the n'th year in a row, the very first freaking film of the festival was delayed - they seated us 20 minutes late, and the film didnt start until something like 25 minutes past the posted time.

I just dont understand this. Its not like they had to clear the venue from a previous movie - there was no previous movie. Its not like they didnt know that there'd be a 9pm film. So what the hell? Perhaps they're just sadistic, and enjoy making us stand out on Yonge Street. For the verdant sights and lavender scented air.

Fuckers.

P,S, The Elgin is still the worst place to see a festival film. Just in case you thought something might have changed. And speaking of films

Persepolis

This, I believe, is an excellent film to start the festival with. The film was adapted from the graphic novel/series by Marjane Satrapi, and recounts aspects of her life as a young girl growing up in Tehran, circa 1978.

Fine film. Very enjoyable. The animation (predominantly monochrome) has a nice feel to it. Storytelling was excellent - poignant where it needed to be, with a fine sense of humor.

Recommended.

If its September, it must be TIFF time

A small note to those who may be camping out, awaiting the 2007 installment of '30 seconds of snark' with baited breath.

Like. Chill out dude. Go outside. Smell the flowers. Have sex.

Day 9: Grassy Knoll Revisited

Celebrity sighting #2: Bryan McCabe walking with his wife and kid along Cumberland. Exciting, I know.

Nue Propriete

Good film. Reminded me a little too much at times of my own childhood, what with all the fighting - between brothers, and between the mother and (divorced) father. P-Giddy and I almost came to blows before the movie even started, arguing about the relative merits of Isabel Huppert and Juliette Binoche.

Seraphim Falls

Watch Liam Neeson chase Pierce Brosnan around the wild west. Fascinating, even tho you dont really find out why until near the end of the film. The Elgin was surprisingly empty for this - I suspect that they underestimated the kind of crowds they'd be getting for this.

Death of a President

After some reflection, I figure that this is a film that Kilgour Trout would have made. 9.5 out of 10 for idea, 2 out of 10 for execution. There are many levels that you can evaluate this film on, and frankly, I thought it was poor on most of 'em. The big killer was that most of actions that they suppose happening dont pass the smell-test for believability.

And it didnt help that I was sitting next to this twit who a) insisted on talking during the entire film and b) actually had the temerity to clap with glee at the part in the film where they announced that Bush had succumbed to his wounds. Tres tacky.

Princess

For some reason, I thought this would have been a lot more disturbing than it actually was. Not that it wasnt disturbing, I just thought it would be more so.