TIFF 2006 FILM FEST DIARY

9-19-2006—Vickie wraps it up with her Best of TIFF 2006 and her Wish List for 2007 9-18-2006—The festival awards are handed out... Bella wins the Audience Award? WTF?!? 9-16-2006—Thankfully, the last day's movies don't suck! 9-15-2006—Crap! It's PFS (Post-Festival Sickness) arriving early and uninvited. 9-14-2006—OMG! Was that the back of Viggo Mortensen's head???. Also Shane Meadows' latest film is awesome. 9-13-2006—The Dixie Chicks doc has pluck, and Blindsight has inspiration. 9-12-2006—Another walkout, plus a film where the talents of Joan Allen, Kathy Bates, and Jessica Lange are wasted!. 9-11-2006—What up with this year's crappy TV coverage? And when an actor is unprepared for a Q&A. 9-10-2006—When movie-going turns into a cruel playground... plus Michael Ian Black's sharp comedy! 9-9-2006—Rain, fatigue, and other disasters slightly mar an otherwise decent day of TIFF'n. 9-8-2006—Obnoxious Man gets his karmic smackdown, plus Summercamp! is already the best of the fest! 9-7-2006—The fest begins, and Vickie has her earliest TIFF walkout EVER! 9-6-2006—Wary of The Schmooze Vickie dreads the phancy CHUM/City Star! Party. 9-5-2006—Obnoxious Man curses the Borat screening (just you wait!).

PAST TIFF DIARIES

2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

I’m back! It’s back! We’re all back!

It’s September, it’s TIFF time and I’m once again planning on providing daily updates on what I’ve seen and whom I’ve spotted at Toronto’s annual cinematic extravaganza! Newbies or those wishing a refresher can click on the handy links to the right to visit the ghosts of diaries past, where you’ll find such gems as anti-lottery rants, Mouthy Martha stand-offs, handy tips on smelling nice for your seatmates and a detailed account of my 2004 pursuit of Maggie Cheung on Linda’s behalf. Ah, memories!

As with 2005, the most up-to-date (but text-only) diary entries can be found by heading over to Moviepie’s official blog site every day, where I’ll be posting entries nightly while Linda simultaneously works her magic on converting that text into colorful, magical, graphics-laden diary entries here at the ‘Pie. Check back here (and there) frequently for updated reviews and ratings, as well as to see which sassy photos Linda culls from the archives or which post-film Q&A session featured the lamest moderator!

If you’d like to see which movies are playing or when, or need to know which tickets are still available, or are so bored that you just want to read things like the official festival statement on the controversial film D.O.A.P., you can visit the official TIFF homepage, which contains all that info and much more.

Unfortunately for us all, my movie-going sensei, Roger Ebert, will not be attending this year’s festival as he’s still recovering from his recent surgery. I, for one, will miss his presence…even though I failed to snag an Ebert sighting in either of the last two years. If you’re concerned about Rog’ or just want to see what he thinks is worth checking out at TIFF 2006, you can pop over to his official website for all the latest. On behalf of all the Pie Pals, we’re wishing him a speedy recovery! Come back to Toronto, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert!

A new addition to this year’s entries will be the daily citing of the Crappiest Crap I Consumed Today, detailing the most fat-laden, gastronomically obscene, chemical-filled garbage I put into my body that day. TIFF is always a time for questionable dining decisions, so I expect this new feature to be both informative and terrifying (in hindsight).

Finally, also new this year and, in my opinion, ferociously helpful will be the weather forecast! That’s right, I said it, the weather forecast. Find out what it’s going to be like in the T-Dot by clicking on the Weather Network Canada’s Toronto page! (Sure, you scoff now, but wait until you find yourself clad in capris and flip-flops on a day promising rain and temps around 15! Then you’ll be all, “Omigod, dude, I totally should have checked Vickie’s TIFF diary this morning to see what to bring! Hypothermia blows!" Or you might not. I have an active imagination. Still, I’m adding it. So there.)

With all that said, it’s time to get things rolling. Happy TIFFing and happier reading!

See you in line,

Vickie

FESTIVAL MOVIE REVIEWS:

Recommended! A red arrow means that Vickie rated the movie six (out of eight) slices or better.

The numbers following the title show Vickie's rating of the film; i.e. (5/8), means five out of a possible eight slices.

2:37 (Australia) (7/8) 10 Items or Less (USA) (7/8)    Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (UK) (5/8)    American Hardcore (USA) (5/8) Blindsight (UK) (6/8)    Bonneville (USA) (4/8)    Breaking and Entering (2006) (UK / USA) (5/8) Catch a Fire (United Kingdom / South Africa / USA) (6/8)    Citizen Duane (Canada) (3/8) Day on Fire (USA) (6/8) Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing (USA) (7/8)    The Dog Problem (USA) (4/8)    Everything's Gone Green (2006) (Canada) (4/8)    Falling (Fallen) (2006) (Germany / Austria) (5/8) Fido (Canada) (6/8)    Griffin and Phoenix (USA) (4/8) The Half Life of Timofey Berezin (USA) (6/8)    I am the Other Woman (Ich bin die Andere) (Germany) (5/8)

Love and Other Disasters (France / UK) (4/8) Outsourced (USA) (6/8) Paris, je t’aime (France) (6/8) Penelope (UK / USA) (6/8) The Pleasure of Your Company (USA) (7/8) Severance (UK) (6/8)    Starter For Ten (UK / USA) (5/8)    Summer '04 (Germany) (5/8) Summercamp! (USA) (8/8) This Is England (UK) (8/8)    Time (South Korea) (4/8) La Tourneuse de pages (France) (6/8) True North (2006) (Germany / Ireland / UK) (6/8) Volver (Spain) (6/8)    White Palms (Fehér tenyér) (Hungary) (5/8)    The White Planet (La planète blanche) (Canada / France) (4/8)