Missing You

Posted on Author Ryan McNeil

Today’s the day I order take-out for dinner and spend a few stressful hours with highlighters scattered across my desk, my outlook working overtime, and working some mad google skills to get the scoop on titles I’ve never heard of. In short, it’s the day I try to draw up my Toronto Film Fest schedule.

I sort of have it down to a fine science by now, but just about every year, no matter how happy I am with what I saw, I look back and wish I’d seen some other titles.

I posted this same entry last year, but since many of you weren’t reading this space much more recently than four months ago, I figured I could bring it back for another go. So in lieu of a top five this week, I thought I’d own up to some of my greatest misses…

Top TIFF Films Hatter Missed Out On

2002: BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, WHALE RIDER, SPELLBOUND, WINGED MIGRATION, FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and most painfully CITY OF GOD.

2003: THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS, ZATOICHI, 21 GRAMS, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, and most painfully LOST IN TRANSLATION.

2004 (The not-so-bad year): OLDBOY, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL, A DIRTY SHAME, and most painfully HOTEL RWANDA.
2005 (The year the fates make up for the year before): C.R.A.Z.Y., TRANSAMERICA, TSOTSI, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, THE DEVIL & DANIEL JOHNSTON, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, and most painfully DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY

2006 (The year of the three-way tie): VENUS, THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, and PAN’S LABYRINTH.

2007 (The year Hatter skippped the name brands) THE COUNTERFEITERS, RUN FAT BOY RUN, EASTERN PROMISES, MICHAEL CLAYTON, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, ATONEMENT, INTO THE WILD, and most painfully THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY.

5 Replies to “Missing You”

  1. I didn’t even realize Diving Bell was at TIFF last year. I hope you got a chance to see it!

    Tonight will be a crazy one for scheduling, I have my chart and lists ready for when I’ll be sitting there pulling my hair out.

    Some great places to check for film info are:
    http://tofilmfest.com/ – links to reviews, searchable by film, program, country.

    http://twitchfilm.net/incoming/TIFFTrailerPark.html – trailer madness!

    Not that I doubt your l33t googling skills…

  2. Ouch. Considering a number of those are “best ofs” from the respective years, that has to hurt. I think ’02 and last year would be the most painful for me.

    You and you lucky TIFFers.

  3. Shannon, I hope your scheduling is going well, my stressing will have to wait until I get home around 7.

    I did see DIVING BELL in the early part of this year – loved it, thought it was amazingly original and truly beautiful. I didn’t write about it on the blog just due to business…maybe one day I will.

    Daniel, yep – many of those *are* best-of’s, and I did get to see them eventually. The whole thing is a crapshooot. You can’t see ’em all, and scheduling makes some choices amazingly difficult. For every SPELLBOUND or PAN’S LABYRINTH I’ve missed, I was lucky enough to catch a TALK TO HER or a FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.

    It all balances out in the wash.

  4. Take comfort in the fact that there’s just a ton of good film out there. Tough to jam them all in at film festival. This post reads like a list of films everyone should see. I’ve sen all but six. Enjoy TIFF, I look forward to your posts!

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