Ok, so there was another hurricane (I know, I almost can't believe it myself) and this blog is dragging on, but two more entries and I'll be done. Our fourth day in Toronto, I woke up feeling better after getting stuck with needles and actually overslept, waking up in time to make it to the first hour of THE WORLD before going into HAVEN. Having worked in the theme parks here in Orlando, The World was a neat look at a Hong Kong version and showed that there isn't much difference in the pay or the people. I liked Haven well enough, Orlando Bloom's best performance yet, but often wonder how realistic films like that really are (a nerd like me would never know).

Between films I ran into Matthew who introduced me to Jay Rosenblatt, now known to many as Ella's dad. Matthew liked SIDEWAYS a lot, and although wasn't thrilled with Michael Winterbottom's 9 SONGS, couldn't stop talking about it all night.

Over at the Cumberland, I caught A WHALE OF A TALE and all it's goopy, gory shots of decomposing whales. If you're really making a "isn't is horrible what they do to whales" film, should you really stand on top of a dead one floating in the bay as an ending? Then I saw the best American indie at the Festival (in my modest opinion). ON THE OUTS is the story of three young women whose paths cross in juvy. Good acting, good writing, good stuff. And somehow I believed it, naive as I am.

DEAR FRANKIE is a sweet UK film about a mom who is unwilling to reveal to her son what a louse his dad is. Emily Mortimer is great as usual Gerard Butler is a Clive Owen clone.

That night Jason and I grabbed some sushi while Matthew dashed to see Chuck Prophet, only to find out that the time listed in the newspaper was the start of the main act and Chuck was the opener. So the three of us did our annual scavenger hunt of the local used CD warehouse and got home 'round midnight.

Monday I went from film to film to film to needles. Matthew, Jason and I saw THE ASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON. Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in yet two more amazing performances. NOEL, a mainstream Christmas feelgood film with Susan Sarandon, directed by Chazz Palminteri. And FIVE CHILDREN AND IT from Henson creature shop vet John Stephenson. A cross between Tim Burton and Henson with a charming voice of IT by Eddie Izzard.

This was event night so from acupuncture I took a loooong walk to the SXSW/TO party, but didn't really know anyone so walked some more to a cocktail hour at Sage where I made some great business connections. Matthew arrived later and we met up with Jason and grabbed some dinner at Hemingway's before returning to Sage for the indieWIRE party.

After the party, some of us crashed an IFC party on the 32nd floor of the Four Seasons. It wasn't really crashing because Kelly D. was with us! Gotta love a swank party serving white castle burgers at 2 am. A great way to end an evening.

This morning I woke tossing and turning in excruciating pain. Woke up at four, then five, and by six was dressed and heading down to the 24-hour coffee shop down the block. Sidenote: it really is embarrasing to read David Sedaris in public. The outbursts of laughter alone...

I returned to the hotel room at 7:30 to get ready. Matthew left first to see Paul Haggis' CRASH, which he didn't get in to because of the crowd so he joined Jason and I at KINSEY. Apparently Kinsey has received an R rating, raising the question as to whether the sexual content is really less "pervasive" than A Dirty Shame, which got an NC-17.
Regardless, it was the best film I saw in Toronto with great cameo by Lynn Redgrave, among others.

I scooted down to Sutton Place to check mail then back to the Varsity for 10E CHAMBRE, INSTANTS D'AUDIENCES, a French documentary that takes an inside look at the Parisian judicial system. Interesting to me was that they deal with the same issues (DUIs, domestic violence, gun control, etc.) that we do, and criminals are just as crazy.

Still in pain, I ducked out early to go to an acupuncture treatment, which helped me survive the day. Too much stress, the doctor said, you should do yoga. Uh, huh, I know. Refreshed and happier, I finally made it to the Cumberland theater for MONDOVINO. At the door, I met David Fenkel from ThinkFilm (they have Mondovino). Although the film is looong, it is intriguing and the elderly European vintners are hilarious. Wine lovers will definitely dig it.

Matthew was busy at YES, the new Sally Potter film where the characters speak wholly in rhyme. Then he and Jason went to see RAY while I caught OYSTER FARMER, an Australian love story with leads too gorgeous to be believed. It was charming and funny with great Aussie one liners that Ian Bricke and I mused we should have written down for future use.

I waited for Matthew and Jason in the lobby and then we went to dinner at a little (ok, tiny, we shared condiments with our neighbors) Italian place in Yorkville and then called it a night.

By day two of our Toronto adventure I was feeling that old severe pain in my shoulder and began to scour the phone book for an acupuncturist. I felt better after a shower and took off to see THREE OF HEARTS: A POSTMODERN FAMILY at the Varsity. Director Susan Kaplan is a Miami Beach native, so we thought we owed her the courtesy of seeing the film. This insightful doc gives an almost all access view into the marriage of two men and a woman. Yep. You read it right. But what I thought would be a "gay" themed film turned out to be an amazing essay on love, sex, family, parenting, business, identity, self esteem, and life in today's world. A good start to a week of films.

From there I went to the German OFF BEAT and ran into Paul from Atlanta. I don't think I have ever been to a festival outside of our own where I haven't run into Paul. Toronto now felt official. OFF BEAT is the German version of Garden State, a bit edgier and more adventurous, but it gave me the same feeling in the end.

I grabbed some lunch at the cafe downstairs at the Varsity then ran into Matthew and Ian from Sundance Channel on my way to Sutton Place to check my email. In the lobby, I ran into Gary Springer, Paul and Gayle Cohen of Manhattan Pictures, and gave a nod to Bob Berney of Newmarket who was in FL for our distributors panel in March.

At 5:00 I headed back up to the Varsity (where I was destined to live this week) for THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, fully expecting to hear that familiar Pacino twang. And while there were the slightest glimmers of it, I still thought that this was a great performance considering his amazing work in Angels in America. Joseph Fiennes plays Bassanio once again turning to the Bard (although he has four other non-Shakespeare films in the works).

I found Matthew in the lobby as the film let out and we jumped in line for HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, the new Zhang Yimou film. I think the last time I saw colors that vivid on the screen was Amelie. Loved the "echo game" scenes. The story's not bad either (Matthew said he liked it better than the plot of Hero) and of course includes many daggers, bamboo climbing, arrows, horses, and snow (white=death, get it?).

Jason had a day of sexy French films MA MERE and ANATOMIE DE L'ENFER while Matthew saw the new Bruce Weber tribute to his dog among others.

By the end of the day, my back ached and we didn't hear of any parties (at least none that we would be invited to), so we packed it in early and went to bed.

First, let me say that I have "blogged" for a few years about my festival experiences to the local Central Florida crowd via email and have been tempted to reproduce them here, but will spare you my near death experience on a bus at Sundance a few years back.

Second, I am still getting used to blogging regularly and have reverted to my usual tactics of taking notes all during the festival and reporting the whole event in several entries...for those of you who think this is all old news I apologize. I'm no Matt Dentler (who did a great job of blogging Toronto)!

Our flight up to Toronto was delayed a bit so we wound up running into Dick and Sue Morris at the airport (they had just flown in from Tampa) and decided to share a cab as we were all at the same hotel. I got flagged and had to go through immigration for the first time. Expecting to be grilled about why I was invading Canada by the agent, I instead got grilled about the movies I've seen (Did you see Touch of Pink?!) and a lecture on how great Canadian filmmaking is. I just stood there kind of stunned, got my passport stamped and was on my way.

Matthew and I dropped our stuff at the hotel and met Jason N. at Sutton Place Hotel to pick up our badges. We grabbed some food and waited until 6:45, checked back at Sutton and scored tickets to the opening night party. I returned to the hotel for a nap while Jason and Matthew went to see The Alzheimer Case (most depressing movie title ever).

The party was big and crazy as usual, but we quickly noticed that there were a lot less festival industry people there. Apparently no one could get tickets. We did see Brian and Eugene from indieWIRE, Matt Dentler from SXSW, and Brian Newman from NVR, among others. Overall a decent evening, but we weren't really feeling it yet. Back at the hotel, we planned our screenings for the next day and collapsed.

More to come...