It’s Day 3 at the Fest and it was a busy day. It’s really quite late. 2am in fact. ‘Yesterday” by the Beatles is on the radio at the internet cafe. I’m enjoying an orange/tangerine flavoured Dole Sparkler. Apparently, Dole has been handing out free beverages for the last couple of days. This is my fourth free Dole drink and I must say…Dole Sparklers? Very refreshing. I would pay for these in the future. Just for the record this e-mail was paid for by Dole Food Company Inc. which is a subsidiary of Pepsi-Cola Canada Ltd. All rights reserved.

I woke up early today thanks to a stupid cat. I’m staying at my brother’s place in Toronto and there’s this cat living there too. It’s a dumbass. It only comes out when I’m sleeping and it decided to climb some shelves and knock over a bunch of my brothers collection of Coca-Cola bottles and cans that he has on these shelves. By the way Grant…there was an issue with the Coca-Cola bottles and cans early this morning. Also, I finished that entire box of Sugar Crisp this morning. That stuff is delicious. Finally, you know how you warned me about the coffee table leg being wonky? It seems I wasn’t paying much attention to you. I’ll clean that right up.

I meet a friend for lunch at Fran’s Diner before the movie and I ordered Mozzarella sticks. They came with Ranch Dip. What the fuck is that all about? It’s not like they ran out of marinara sauce. It was on the menu. Ranch dip with Mozza sticks. I’m offended on so many levels. As an Italian, as a cook and as a connoisseur of appetizers. Son of a bee sting, that made me angry.

My first film today was called Juno. It was directed by Ivan Reitman’s son Jason. He debuted the well-received Thank You For Smoking here at TIFF a couple of years back. It stars Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and the fabulous Ellen Page. After seeing this movie, Ellen is quickly becoming one of my favourites. Juno is about a sixteen year old girl (Ellen Page) who gets preggo from her high school chum (Cera) She decides that abortion is out of the question and finds her own surrogate parents (Bateman and Garner) to adopt the baby. Juno’s parents were played by the always excellent J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney. What an amazing cast! This film had the most written sarcasm out of any film I have ever seen. I have been known from time to time to use sarcasm and some of the dialogue had me on the figurative floor. The writing was sharp, quick and very, very natural and apparently this film is generating quite the buzz. I highly recommend this film. Best of the Fest so far.

So…as I’m writing this the guy behind me is swearing up a storm to himself. I have no idea what he’s so angry about, but he keeps calling something a piece of shit. Anger issues.

Next up is a film called The Savages. It’s about a brother and sister who have not seen their father in many years and are called upon to take care of him. They deal with the guilt of having to look themselves in the mirror after dumping him off at a senior citizens home. The brother and sister are played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. I picked this film based solely on the two of them knowing that I’d get some decent acting and I did. This was the first film for me here that wasn’t a comedy or wasn’t meant to have some big laughs. It dealt with people who have to face the realities of familial responsibility when they have never had to do it before. Both of the children are writers and seem more focused on their work, but they try and in time learn a little about themselves as people and how to deal with responsibility. This film was average. Good acting, but all in all not that great. Seeing Laura Linney up close and personal was cool though.

Wow…this dude behind me is really upset. He just slammed his mouse into the desk. I want to turn around and see what the hell he’s doing…but I’m concerned for my safety.

In line for my last movie I’m approached with another offer of a free beverage. Score! This one was an energy drink called Red Rain. I ask for one and the guy giving them out says I have to pose for a pic. Over walk two hot girls in tiny Red Rain dresses. I have to pose for a pic with them. Twist my arm, why don’t you? I put my arm around one, crack a smile, flash a gang sign and I’ve got myself a free drink. Sweet.

The last film I had today was a bit of a bonus. One of my best friends was supposed to come up and see a bunch of flicks with me, but apparently her future career and once in a blue moon opportunities are more important to her. I’m only kidding, Pepper. You know I love you. Just feel satisfied that you were mentioned in this blog! So, I traded in three tickets. (I still have the Bob Dylan one for you, Pep. Don’t worry) Anyway, I checked out this horror film called Stuck. It was directed by Stuart Gordon and was filmed in New Brunswick. Technically, this counts as a Canadian film. Look at me supporting the Canadian Film Industry. How patriotic! So, this movie stars Mena Suvari from American Beauty and American Pie. I defended Miss Suvari’s looks the other day when it was said she had a giant forehead. In this film….she has a massive forehead. It was almost obscene. She showed up at this premier with a pixie cut style hairdo. It did not help her forehead situation. Moving on. Stuck was about a nurse (Suvari) driving home after a night of partying when she hits a homeless man played by Stephen Rea. He goes flying into the windshield and she panics and drives home into her garage with the homeless dude’s body halfway through the windshield. She goes to bed waiting for him to die, but she wakes up and he’s still kicking. So, she goes to work waiting for him to die, but when she gets home, he’s still kicking. The rest of the movie is about her and her boyfriend trying to figure out a way to fix the situation and the homeless’s guy attempt to escape the car and the garage. This is the latest in a recent trend of the torture porn genre of horror films like the Saw series and Hostel. It wasn’t that gory, although there were a few squeamish parts, but mostly they turned into nervous laughter from the crowd. It was average. I think my favourite part was right before the film started they had the director and cast on the stage. The guy that played the boyfriend, who was African-American, takes the microphone and says ‘It’s midnight. I’m fucked up in T.O and you midnight fuckers are sick sons of bitches.” That got one hell of an applause. I think he was high.

It’s late. I need to get to bed. Three films tomorrow including Takeshi Miike’s latest: Sukiyaki Western Django! The Old West, samurai swords and some bad ass fight scenes.

Greg

Greg’s 2007 Toronto Film Fest Report: Day 2
Greg’s 2007 Toronto Film Fest Report: Day 1

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