Well, we're reached the end of the ten days. I saw 13 films (one I skipped on purpose as the reviews were just terrible across the board, and another I had slept through at home) and out of those I only vehemently disliked one of them, and was middling on another one...the rest of them I was pretty impressed by for different reasons which can be read in my specific reviews.
I tried to stay spoiler-less for the most part and I think I achieved that. I simply wanted to get the word out there on which were worthy of your time if they drop wide (which a bunch already have release dates for).
So let's do a quick point form run down of some notables shall we?
BEST FILM OF TIFF 2012 (that I saw): Hmmm, a tough category, and while I think it's split between Neil Jordan's BYZANTIUM and J.A. Bayona's THE IMPOSSIBLE...part of me just thinks that BYZANTIUM left the most indelible mark on me. I walked out of that screening immediately wanting to see it again.
WORST FILM OF TIFF 2012 (that I saw): Easily the misstep that was A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE UNTRUE STORY OF MONTY PYTHON'S GRAHAM CHAPMAN. Not knowing whether to be a serious documentary or a faux-mentary comedy, the film fails at both. Some great animation mixed with some TERRIBLE animation. It's just a big, costly flop.
STRANGEST MOMENT AT TIFF 2012 (experienced by me): Hugh Laurie (post-MR. PIP screening) being ushered into his waiting SUV behind the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre where a smallish (not unmanageable) crowd awaited him for autographs...and he didn't stop to sign anything or say anything at all. After a bizarre and oddly lackluster Q & A post-screening in which he seemed to wish he was anywhere but there, the no-fan-attention exit seemed even stranger.
HAPPIEST MOMENT AT TIFF 2012 (experienced by me): The Q&A after the screening of ARTIFACT (30 Seconds to Mars doc. and People's Choice TIFF Doc winner) with Jared and Shannon Leto was informative, exciting and totally entertaining! I had a grin a mile wide for that.
CRAPPIEST MOMENT AT TIFF 2012 (experienced by me): I was first in line for my screening of WASTELAND so I could get the cherry seat I like at the Scotiabank, and was the first seated. Then an older lady with rank B.O. and a loud talking voice sat beside me (without asking if the seat beside me was free....but nevermind), and the girl who sat behind me had a horrendous, vile, mucous-filled cold and proceeded to talk and snort and sniffle and cough her foulness in my direction (I mean honestly, when you are that sick you don't attend a film screening with others, that's just common courtesy). I moved to another seat which wasn't too bad, but I was still bothered by the fact that I lined up two hours before the screening to GET a seat and ended up in one I could have gotten had I showed up 20 minutes early.
So in the end I had a great time, and I even think that next year I may go for 20 films instead of 15 as I found myself often with nothing to do at home between screenings. BYZANTIUM you need to see. It's phenomenal. CLOUD ATLAS will divide audiences, with some (like me) loving it, and others scratching their heads angrily (there was actually a person behind me who said after the screening "That was 3 hours too long"), THE IMPOSSIBLE will make you emotional, and DREDD will impress you with its uncompromising vision and action. MR. PIP will show you that the world isn't all sunshine and roses, WASTELAND will remind you why heist movies are so fun, and KEY OF LIFE will help you see that sometimes, being weird and bizarre can help you have the most interesting life.
So, we close the door on another TIFF, and a pretty successful one at that, with many people buzzing about the big films, and a few buzzing about unexpected smaller films (Sarah Polley's THE STORIES WE TELL is being talked about for Oscar-worthyness already).
Lastly, here are links to all the film reviews I've done over the fest in one convenient place. Thanks for reading!
DREDD 3D Review
FIN (THE END) Review
CLOUD ATLAS Review
MR. PIP review
THE IMPOSSIBLE Review
A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE UNTRUE STORY Of MONTY PYTHON'S GRAHAM CHAPMAN Review
BYZANTIUM Review
JUMP Review
ARTIFACT Review
OUTRAGE BEYOND Review
KEY OF LIFE Review
WASTELAND Review
THERMAE ROMAE Review
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