Thank You For Smoking (imdb | tiff) was a great way to end things. A great movie before a huge crowd on the last night (and second-to-last film) of the festival. It had amazing dark humour, criticisms of lobbying, politics, marketing & spin, even some nearly-heartfelt father-son stuff. It deservedly got picked up this week by Fox Searchlight. I’m glad it turned out to be our last film; what a way to go out.

Rating: 9 out of 10.
Star power: Director Jason Reitman (Ivan’s son).

We just got in line for the movie. It’s a frickin’ mile long. Good thing the Ryerson theatre’s huge.

I’m taking a week off from studying; having just finished one easy course and knowing that the next should be fairly relaxed for me (it’s an IT strategy course, which is kinda what I do for a living) I’m just taking this time to relax a bit and gear up for economics, which starts in November. Might try to get those books early. But for now, until the Monday after next, the textbooks stay closed.

And a good thing, too: my reading pile has grown completely out of control: two issues of Esquire, one Playboy (plus the Thomas Friedman interview from the last one that I’m finishing up), a Toronto Life, two Stuff gadget magazines, a Hockey News yearbook and a Harry Rosen magazine…not to mention the daily Toronto Star (which shows up even though I don’t pay for it), weekly issues of Eye and Now, and the daily deluge of news feeds.

Not that I plan to get much reading done tonight (last film festival movie) or tomorrow (my brother, his wife and their three kids are coming to town for the day).

This morning’s early, early movie was Winter Passing (imdb | tiff), another no-cast-or-crew-on-hand screening. It’s little wonder; this was the third screening, and it’s a little early on a Saturday for stars to be up and about, let alone the rest of us.

The verdict: very good. Difficult to watch at times, but light and funny at others, so I agree with the TIFF’s assessment that it’s a well-rounded film. Brilliant performances all around, especially Zooey Deschanel, who’s quickly becoming one of my favourite actresses, and Will Ferrell, who nails it without ever really falling back into the typical Will Ferrell persona as you half expect him to.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
Star power: Nada.

We had to get up a lot earlier than we would have liked this morning to catch our 9 AM movie.

Note to self: croissants at Starbucks blow.

Sandwiched in between two TIFF movies today, I had dinner with Nellie and T-Bone at Fieramosca. Damn, I love it there.

This afternoon I saw Little Fish (imdb | tiff) with T-Bone. Though I liked it slightly more than she did, I didn’t think it was great. The two best parts about it were Hugo Weaving’s performance and the little details that slipped into the frame…like how Cate Blanchett looks at a bunch of bottles on a dresser. But it was a bit too long, too slow, too…not predictable, but unsurprising.

Rating: 5 out of 10.
Star Power: Zip. Nothing. Zero. No cast, no crew. Not even a festival programmer.

However, Nellie and I suffered no such disappointment with Sorry, Haters (imdb | tiff). It was an extremely tense film, very thought provoking. Not difficult, though; by that I mean that it wasn’t working hard at making you think, but it was working hard at making you try to understand Robin Wright Penn’s character. The best sign of how interesting and challenging the film was: after the credits began to roll it took a good 30 or 45 seconds before anyone clapped…we all just sat in our seats, murmuring about what the final few scenes had meant until our Canadian politeness took over.

The director gave some terrific comments up front (he stuck around to see the third festival screening after his flight to New York was cancelled…he figured it was “destino”) and answered several questions afterward. All in all, an excellent film, well worth the hour-long wait in the cold rain and the lack of leg room.

Rating: 9 out of 10.
Star Power: Just director Jeff Stanzler.

I just got three CDs in the mail — The Dandy Warhols‘ Odditorium Or The Warlords Of Mars, Sigur Ros‘ Takk… and Cuts Across The Land by The Duke Spirit. I’m listening to that last one right now, and I’d forgotten how good it was. I downloaded the MP3s months ago, listened to them once and immediately ordered the CD. I suspect it’ll be on my year-end top ten list.

Heading out in a couple of hours to see a fesitval film (Little Fish) with T-Bone, then meeting up with Nellie for some dinner before film #2 (Sorry, Haters) starts.

This Wanda Sykes quote might be the funniest, most politically astute thing I’ve heard all week (except for Kurt Vonnegut’s tear on The Daily Show Tuesday night):

“I don’t think the President should have taken responsibility…. I don’t blame the President. I blame the American people. Y’all knew the man was slow when you voted him in. You can’t blame the blind man for wrecking your car when you’re the one who gave him the keys.”

[via]

Ouch. I’m glad we didn’t waste a pick on this.