toronto film festival: day 2

it's day two and i am knackered. so much so that i had to come home this afternoon, shower from the heat and literally sit on my bed so my feet would lose it's soreness. much had to do with the fact that i saw 3 1/2 films, walked up and down bloor trying to get some last minute interview slots and showing up just in time to talk to carrie anne moss (matrix) and billy connolly (mrs brown).

i had to get up extra early this morning so i could catch a screening of the opening film for the canada first program called fido.

part zombie film, part boy and his pet feature, part douglas sirk tribute, fido prides itself in it's complete crossing of genres and manages to come out pretty sassy and subversive in the process. starring the aforementioned carrie anne moss, billy connolly and dylan baker, fido is a story of how a lonely boy finds his best friend in the form of a zombie (played hilariously by connolly). funny, twisted and darn bloody, the joy of this film is to watch a zombie play fetch one minute, then rip the arm off an old lady the next. though the plot does wear thin after awhile, the pitch perfect cast really bring fido above the average median.

my next screening was sometime later in the afternoon and though i was already a bit sleepy, i was glad that it was the highly buzzed stranger than fiction.

directed by marc forster (monsters ball, finding neverland), strangers has the feel of being this years 'eternal sunshine'; quirky, sad and painfully romantic. basically howard crick (played with such resistance from will farrell) is a by-the-numbers IRS auditor. one day, he hears a british woman (emma thompson) accurately narrate his life on a minute by minute basis. it's when the voiceover forbodes his impending death that harold decides to take great measures to find out how to stop his potential demise.

it's a kooky premise that doesn't really resonate until a good hour into the film. but when it does, the movie turns into a touching story with enough twists to have you emotionally rooting for harold to succeed. not amazing, but good nevertheless.

right after strangers, the theatre next to it was showing the film chacun sa nuit, the debut film by actor jean marc barr (the big blue).

though the cast was delectable (hot boys and a girl lazing about half naked or wrapped around each other), the plodding plot was too much for me to bear and i made my first official walk out of the festival.






i went back home to rest my feet but was then pulled back out at 10pm to check out the latest quarter life crisis film starring zach braff called the last kiss.

adapted from the italian box office smash film of the same name, the last kiss unfortunately doesn't hold up to the promise of taking a sensitive look on relationships. instead, all of the plotlines seem forced, and barring jacinda barrett, the (mis)cast seem like they're trying really hard to make an important movie. well news flash people... it's not important (and if i have to watch yet another film stuff good music into scenes to carry the movie, then hell is going to break loose). while i'm at it, i'm done with zach braff films that try to ride the 'garden state' trolley. those films suck!

though i walked out of the previous film, this last kiss was just plain horrible.