Toronto Dispatch: Scott's Wanderings

I'd hoped to write this dispatch a little earlier, because once a few days of the Toronto Film Festival have flown by, one finds it difficult to think back and remember things on a day-to-day basis. And since I don't enjoy doing difficult things, I'll just rattle through my memory banks and pull out a few highlights.

Movie-wise, I've been most impressed with The Orphanage (for creepiness), Frontiere(s) (for sheer audacity), Diary of the Dead (for obvious reasons), Stuck (because Stuart Gordon is good at what he does) and Sleuth (because Michael Caine is a god). But I'm still not done gushing and cooing over Jason Reitman's Juno, which is one of the freshest, funkiest and most lovable comedies of the past ten years. I also liked-not-loved David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, got smacked in the face by De Palma's Redacted, fell just a little more in love with Rose Byrne, and (thanks to Elizabeth: The Golden Age) became entirely convinced that Cate Blanchett is the finest actor ever born. (Or very close to it.) Also, Margot at the Wedding made me want to take three consecutive showers.

Beyond the movies and the interviews and the bolting back to the hotel to rattle off some fresh reviews, there's been a little time for fun. I've been able to chill out with my beloved Cinepals James Rocky and Monika Bartleby, and it's nice to know that the "film festival summer camp" vibe is still in full effect. Great folks I only get to see at festivals include Erik "The Movieman" Childress, James "Reel Views" Berardinelli, Jen "Non-Rotten Tomato" Yamato, Mike "Indiewire" Lerman, Ed "Coming Soon" Douglas, Jon "EInsider" Hickman, Geoff "The Man" Pevere, and the ultra-slick SXSW overlords Matt Dentler and Jarod Neece. And of course it's always great to share some acidic movie talk with Diamond Dave Poland.

Although I'm not much of a celeb-hunter, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a huge thrill to bump into folks like Dario Argento, JK Simmons, Ellen Page, Rose Byrne (sigh) and Tom Cavanagh. So I'll end the shameless name-dropping right there and move on to some rather lovable net-nerds: If you check out this report over at The Movie Blog, you'll see that I was invited to a pretty swanky AFI party. And it's there that I drank much alcohol with the likes of Alex Vo and the aforementioned Ms. Yamato from Rotten Tomatoes, Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net, Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm.com, Michael Ridler of MoviesOnline.ca, and the VERY well-dressed Movie Blog posse Jon, Serena and Doug. If you thought all movie nerds were stiff, socially retarded and creepy, well, you're mostly right. But not this gang. (Thanks again for the invite, Jon!)

Hmm, what else? Well it was REALLY hot the first two days I was here. I coulda sworn it was well over 90 degrees but all the locals kept saying it was "about 30," and I thought it would be rude to call them stupid. (Seriously, somebody should teach these people how to read a thermometer. The thermostat in my hotel room has the same problem.) I'm pleased to report that the Toronto Film Festival volunteer staff is as gracious as ever, but seeing as how they're volunteers AND Canadian, it would be silly to expect anything other than frequent downpours of politeness. The bad news is that the currency rate is still plummeting. Just a few years ago one American dollar was worth about $1.055 Canadian. Today I think one American dollar is worth about 99 Canadian cents. Which means I'm paying more for my daily supply of Chicken Nuggets! Also, Reese's Pieces come in boxes, not bags. That's just plain weird.

I still have a few days left up here, and tomorrow I get to see my last pair of horror flicks -- but from Toronto I'm headed straight to Austin to meet up with even more wonderful movie freaks at the 3rd annual Fantastic Fest. But as always, "TIFF" was a real treat to hang with. She's got lots of nice friends and has really good taste in movies.

( Photo taken by Jon Campea. That's Jen Yamato in the dress and me with no hair.)