9-10-2001

these truly are my favorite nine days of the year—i LOVE the toronto film fest and i live, eat, sleep and breathe it for its entire duration... heck, i've come home now during a break between movies and i feel like instead of eating a decent meal i should be forsaking nutrition (i do, anyway) and spending my time in the festival village just ABSORBING the whole scene.

yesterday (among other un-noteworthy selections) i also saw "novocaine," the new steve martin movie. it's a really, really dark suspense-comedy (!) about a dentist whose life spirals out of control after he gets involved with one of his patients (helena bonham carter). it was really well-done and very entertaining.

so far today i've seen: "life as a house," an incredibly moving (read: i was bawling) drama about an architect (kevin kline) who learns he's dying and decides to spend his last few months repairing his relationship with his troubled son (hayden christiansen) by building his dream house from scratch. SO sad, but VERY good. betcha it scores a bunch of oscar nominations.

after that, i treated my red, puffy eyes to an incredibly bleak polish drama ("hi, tereska") about a teenage girl growing up in the polish ghettos. according to the director, he found the girl who stars in the film in reform school...and she's since escaped from that school, is in a gang and is wanted by the polish police. needless to say, she was not in attendance at the screening!

happily, that film was followed by "dogtown and z-boys," a wickedly frenetic documentary about stacy peralta and the zephyr skate(boarding) team of the 1970s. stacy directed the movie and the whole experience (for me as an audience member) was pure adrenaline. he was there, as was tony alva (one of the best skateboarders of his time), and the demographic of the audience was totally different than most at the fest—namely: very young. the Q&A after the film was great, and it was amazing to see someone who's so obviously passionate about what he does and his film. it truly made for a great end result.

my last film later today is "carving out our name," a documentary about four up-and-coming actors (including wes bentley and brad rowe). i am praying that it's not a horrible vanity piece... although i suspect it might be.

—Vickie