AppsScraps

The adventure that is the Toronto International Film Festival began today! I’ve just returned from my scurry down to the main box office at College Park where I stood in line with the other poor sods to get my hands on the official film schedule and film guide.

While TIFF is without a doubt the greatest Film Festival in North America and the, what, third or fourth greatest Film Festival in the world after Cannes and Berlin, the crew that runs it is thoroughly inept at organizing. Every other film festival is able to provide a listing ahead of time and doesn’t force film goers through the ridiculous adventure of getting their ballots, making their picks and getting those same ballots in within 3 days! Dumb, Dumb, DUMB!

This is made all the more challenging in that: 1) I’m leaving for a conference in the States in nano-seconds; and, 2) we’re in the midst of coordinating the initial options/upgrade meetings with the developer who is building our new condo.

There, rant on TIFF over. Look for my rants on these latest ‘hot news’ items soon:

• the province’s move to appease Ontario’s military lovers with the dumber-than-I-can-possible-put-into-words notion of dubbing a stretch of Hwy 401 into “The Highway of Heroes” (please, someone gag me with a spoon) a scant month before an election;
• the TTC‘s latest ploy to defect blame for the fact they have no idea how to solve their budget woes with a “Please Tell Us” campaign inviting Torontonians to provide advice on how to make up the shortfall. Oh, don’t you worry TTC, you’ll be getting my two cents worth: start by negotiating a sensible deal with the union that pays people a salary commiserate with their skill set and job function; and,
• the continuing battle to have ‘support the troops’ ribbons put on police vehicles. As a staunch anti-war advocate I’d like to thank Police Chief Bill Blair for not kowtowing to the union’s demands on this one. Too bad our Fire Chief couldn’t say the same thing. At a minimum, I feel the City should put ‘pull our troops out of Afghanistan’ ribbons alongside those support the troops ones so the silent majority of Torontonians, like myself, have their views publicized on public, taxpayer funded vehicles.
  

But back to the movies ….

If you want a real website that functions with ease and grace (unlike the TIFF one), and – shock, horror – actually provides reviews on the 352 films coming to the festival, set your browsers to TiffReviews.com.

Some of the films I’m hoping to see this year are:

• Atonement;
  
• Sukiyaki Western Django;
• Silk;
• Sleuth;
  
• Happiness;
• Help Me Eros;
• La Citadelle assiegee;
• Nightwatching;
• Nocturna;
• Sad Vacation;
• Secret Sunshine;
• The Mourning Forest; and,
• Vexille

We’ll see next week if I managed to actually get any of these choices.