My festival started with Perrier’s Bounty, where I met up with Mike beforehand in the lineup. The movie was really fun [...]]]> The first day of the festival is really easy to recap, since I didn’t have anything scheduled! I did this so I could still make it for the first floor hockey game of the season.

My festival started with Perrier’s Bounty, where I met up with Mike beforehand in the lineup. The movie was really fun and darkly hilarious; the cast was fantastic, they put together a great group. They have distribution lined up in the spring for UK and Ireland, but nothing yet for North America. I don’t think it would be a huge hit, but lots of people would like it.

After that, I headed over to the AMC theaters for the Swedish film The Ape. I have to note one welcome improvement to this year’s festival: indoor lineups for AMC! In case of bad weather, this should be much better than the one giant queue outside on Victoria St. (and beyond) and then pulling people out of the line when a particular movie is letting in.

The Ape was … interesting. It starts off with some mysterious circumstances and follows the main character through his day. His edginess sets the stage and as bits of the story come into focus it gets more and more tense. Now, answers aren’t always apparent and there’s lots of symbolism if you want to interpret things … so it may not be for everyone. But definitely some interesting things done with this film.

Day 3 is a busy one, with a full slate of 5 films.

Canada First!

Oh wait … none this year! This is a surprise as I usually have at least a few picked out, some [...]]]> Now that my schedule’s all confirmed, here are some notes on the films about why I’ve selected them. As with last year, I’ll sort by programme and mark my must-sees with a *.

Canada First!

Oh wait … none this year! This is a surprise as I usually have at least a few picked out, some of which end up being among my favorites of the year. I did have some of these titles from first time Canadian directors on my “Maybe” list, but they just got beaten out by other selections.

Contemporary World Cinema

• At the End of Daybreak: a Malaysian family drama that builds up the tension to shocking events. I have to admit, the trailer really sold me on it.
  
  

  At the End of Daybreak

• Castaway on the Moon: Korean dude tries to commit suicide and ends up stranded on an island in the middle of Seoul’s Han River, where apparently no one takes his pleas for rescue seriously. Strange shut-in girl watches him from afar and I think we can guess where it all leads. Looks humorously quirky and funny!
  
  

  Castaway on the Moon

• *A Gun to the Head: a wild-night-on-the-town flick which looks a little rough around the edges, but is directed by New Pornographers keyboardist Blaine Thurier so it’s a must-see in my books.
  
  

  A Gun to the Head

• Police, Adjective: I’m not too sure what to expect from a “witty Romanian film about small town life”, but it’s receiving rave reviews. Director was responsible for 12:08 East of Bucharest, which I remember was much buzzed-about at TIFF06.
  
  

  Police, Adjective

• Suck: each year I need at least one silly-looking Canadian film (see Control Alt Delete, Just Buried) and this one’s by Rob Stefaniuk, who gave us Phil the Alien back in ‘04.
  
  

  Suck

Discovery

• The Disappearance of Alice Creed: a UK thriller that sounds like it has plenty of twists and turns.
  
  

  The Disappearance of Alice Creed

• Samson and Delilah: two teenagers in an Australian Aboriginal desert town come together and deal with personal tragedies. Built buzz at Cannes (won Camera D’Or for best first feature) and takes place in a setting that I know next to nothing about.
  
  

  Samson and Delilah

Gala Presentations

Second showings, of course. I’ve actually got a few on my list this year and would have also gone to Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but I’ll be out of town for the last day of the festival.

• Chloe: the latest thinker from great Canadian director Atom Egoyan, with a great cast of Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and the rising Amanda Seyfried. Moore’s character thinks Neeson’s his cheating on her, so she hires Seyfried to tempt him.
  
  

  Chloe

• Cooking with Stella: directed by Dilip Mehta, written by him and his sister Deepa Mehta, and starring Don McKellar and Lisa Ray. McKellar alone makes it a CanCon must-see. He and Ray play a Canadian couple working in New Delhi “who inherit a household of Indian servants.”
  
  

  Cooking with Stella

• *Micmacs: doesn’t matter what the plot description is, I’m sure it will be wonderfully and strangely funny coming from writer/director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (the amazing Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie, and A Very Long Engagement).
  
  

  Micmacs

Masters

• *Antichrist: I think my favorite description is calling this Lars von Trier’s “latest provocation.” I’m expecting something shocking and disturbing in this story about a couple who descends into madness when dealing with the loss of their child. Much controversy has been generated by this film since draining audiences at Cannes.
  
  

  Antichrist

Midnight Madness

A sign of my age is that I’m only braving one midnight showing this year. I definitely want to see Jennifer’s Body, but it’ll be coming out the following week in theaters anyway.

• The Loved Ones: a creepy-looking Australian horror flick.
  
  

  The Loved Ones

Real to Reel

I usually make it a point to select at least a few documentaries, but it was a shocker that none made the cut this year! None of the subject matter really jumped out at me.

Short Cuts Canada

During my first couple of TIFFs, I saw some real gems in this under-appreciated programme. Unfortunately, the past couple of years have been somewhat disappointing because the groupings varied wildly in quality; it wasn’t worth it to see three or four mediocre shorts and be rewarded by only one or two. But this year looks very promising.

• *Short Cuts Canada Programme 2: ok, this is really just all about seeing Guy Maddin’s Night Mayor, “about the night mayor of Winnipeg, an inventor of Bosnian descent who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to transmit distinctly Canadian images across the Great White North.”
  
  

  Night Mayor

• Short Cuts Canada Programme 3: nearly the entire lineup looks strong …
  • Runaway: animated story about a runaway train; looks Triplets of Belleville-esque in style and humor.
  • Pointless Film: “two men haggle over the price of a used futon.”
  • Man v. Minivan: “Shane’s future brother-in-law thinks a visit to a strip club is the best way for Shane to start his wedding day.” Hilarity ensues?
  • Soap: “With a nod to the Coen brothers, and nostalgically set in the eighties, Soap uses dark humour to relay its tale of a woman forced to take control of her life.”
  • Homeland Security: “Concerned about the fidelity of his wife, customs agent Phil takes out his frustration on a group of young ladies heading south of the border for a bachelorette party.”
  • The Island: “A ‘fantasy island’ for gay people is imagined by a director fed-up with homophobia.”
  

  Runaway

• Short Cuts Canada Programme 4
  • M: “a hypnotic abstract animated film that plays with delicately hand-drawn structures.”
  • Danse Macabre: “a corpse enacts a final erratic ballet in this exquisite experimental dance film.”
  • The Armoire: “a young boy descends into an abyss of secrets, fantasies and memory when he realizes that his best friend has gone missing.” This is directed by Jamie Travis, who brought The Saddest Boy in the World to TIFF06 which was one of the funniest things I saw all year even at only 13 minutes long.
  

  The Armoire

Special Presentations

• City of Life and Death: a story of those trying to survive the massacre in Nanjing when the Japanese invade.
  
  

  City of Life and Death

• Defendor: amusing-looking tale where Woody Harrelson thinks he’s a superhero, Defendor, and looking for this nemesis, Captain Industry. Also with Kat Dennings, Sandra Oh, and Lisa Ray.
  
  

  Defendor

• J’ai Tué Ma Mère: Quebecois director Xavier Dolan is only 20 years old, but wrote, directed, and stars in this film which picked up three awards at Cannes; he stars as a gay teenager, raging a battle against his mother.
  
  

  J'ai Tué Ma Mère

• *Mr. Nobody: Sarah Polley’s in the cast? Must-see. But the movie sounds cool anyway, as Jared Leto is the world’s oldest man after humans have discovered immortality. As he gets closer to death, his fractured memories look back at three possible love stories from his past.
  
  

  Mr. Nobody

• *My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done: my jaw dropped at the thought of Werner Herzog directing a David Lynch production, so I knew this had to be at the top of my list.
  
  

  My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

• Perrier’s Bounty: crime caper with excellent actors Cilian Murphy, Jim Broadbent, and Brendan Gleeson.
  
• A Prophet: a young Arab man get caught up with the wrong people in a French prison; won a Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes, and nominated for the Palm d’Or.
  
  

  A Prophet

• The Road: I’m a sucker for anything set in a post-apocalyptic world, so with a cast including Viggo Mortensen and Guy Pearce, count me in! Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men).
  
  

  The Road

• *Up in the Air: with the star power of George Clooney, hopefully this continues director Jason Reitman’s hot streak of intelligent comedies after Juno and Thank You for Smoking.
  
  

  Up in the Air

• The Waiting City: I seem to have a tradition of seeing movies where a young couple finds themselves stuck in a foreign city.
  
  

  The Waiting City

• *Whip It!: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Alia Shawcat, Ari Graynor, and more — so many funny women in Barrymore’s directorial debut set in the world of roller derby.
  
  

  Whip It!

• *Youth in Revolt: “an outrageous and heartwarming tale of Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), and his quest to win the heart of Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) and hopefully lose his virginity along the way.” Also has the guy who played Raj in Aliens in America!
  
  

  Youth in Revolt

Vanguard

• The Ape: “A descent into hell, Jesper Ganslandt’s disturbing and suspenseful second feature begins with a man waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, only to find the life he knew the day before is gone.”
  
  

  The Ape

• Leslie, My Name is Evil: it wouldn’t be TIFF without a film that had Don McKellar and Tracy Wright in the cast somewhere. This one is directed by Reginald Harkema (Monkey Warfare, TIFF06). “Perry (Gregory Smith), a sheltered chemist, falls in love with Leslie (Kristen Hager), a former homecoming princess, when he is selected to be a jury member at her hippie, death-cult murder trial.”
  
  

  Leslie, My Name is Evil