Ryan McNeil
Allow me one last lap before I leave the festival circuit for another year…
21 Thoughts on TIFF 2012
- Yesterday was the busiest day in the history of this site. Thanks for that everyone.
- You know you have a lot of filmgoing friends when you only sit through 2 of 27 films by yourself.
- Surprise, surprise! For only the second time, I saw the Audience Choice Award Winner during the festival.
- in case you missed it, I found time to sit in on the Row Three Cinecast mid-festival and discuss my thoughts on the AMERICAN BEAUTY Table Read, SEVEN PSYCOPATHS, TO THE WONDER, and more.
- I want to say the ad reel before the films was intolerable this year, but it feels like I say that every year.
- Just like any great festival, there were divisive films. Going to love continuing to argue CLOUD ATLAS and TO THE WONDER in the coming weeks.
- Because I wasn’t getting up in the wee hours all week to add more tickets, this is probably the most well-rested I’ve been at the end of a festival.
- When I sat down for AMOUR on Sunday morning, it was the 100th screening I’d attended this year. In 2011, it took me another six weeks to get to that point. I think this is officially a disease.
- In case you’re wondering, I didn’t write about THE MASTER because there’s a full review and a podcast about it coming this weekend.
- Next year, I must try to keep the days where I have both my DSLR and my laptop in my bag to a bare minimum. My shoulder still feels screwed up from that attempt at being a pack mule.
- I found myself missing The Ryerson Theatre. I must book more screenings there next year.
- Ditto the Lightbox.
- After all the sitting around and not-so-healthy food, I’m gonna have to hit the gym soon.
- I must remember next year not to end my festival with something so heavy.
- I find myself envious that Tom Clift is departing today to soak up two more film festivals.
- Admit it – part of you is happy that I’m about to start talking about something else.
- Contenders for the 2012 Golden Pan Award include THE SAPPHIRES, ARGO, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, BLANCANIEVES and KON TIKI
- For most films, my notes would take up a page…maybe a page and a half. For CLOUD ATLAS and THE MASTER? Four pages each.
- Is it sick that I’m wondering which dvd in the ‘to-watch’ stack I’m going to put on this afternoon?
- I think next year I’ll have to be more flexible. I really ended up missing Lindsay thanks to our opposite schedules.
- Easily the best part of my week? Hanging out with my out-of-town film friends on my home turf. I miss y’all already.
Finally, now that the dust has settled, I’d say my top five films of the week go as follows:
How I’m ever going to make it through the workday tomorrow, I’ll never know. Light a candle for me, will ya?
Thank you, Ryan for all your great reviews of the TIFF shows. 🙂 Now, if any make it to San Francisco, I’ll know what to expect.
For tomorrow — call your doc and have him/her prescribe a tablet of “Provigil” or “Nuvigil”, whatever it’s called in Canada. Works like gangbusters.
Cheers,
Lynn
Thanks Lynn – glad to know I wasn’t busting my butt cranking out content for nothing. I’m actually reasonably well rested (one extra day off from the office is helping that even more), so don’t think things will slow down around here anytime soon.
Terribly jealous of your TIFF lineup, as usual. I’ve been avoiding reading any of your comments on the individual films just yet, as I like to enter the season with a fairly clean slate, but I’ve made sure to come by and browse through the selections. So many on my must see list. How do you have time for this binge movie watching!?
I get the time to do this cinematic binge by actually booking vacation time at the office, so for ten days every September, I have all-day and all-night to run around town as I please.
Some go to Mexico; I go to the movies.
No worries about keeping things at arm’s reach, I totally get that. Many of the films I chose I’ll write about again as they get released, so come by then and leave a thought or two.
I don’t think you should worry about THE SAPPHIRES. It’s a nice film sure, but it’s no LOST IN TRANSLATION or C.R.A.Z.Y.
Congrats on coming out of a film festival relatively sane – this is a feat I’m yet to achieve. I hope to see you next year!
If you make the trip up next year, I’ll be sure to introduce you to the local brood – and Mr. Clift can attest to how we look out for the out-of-towners and make sure they feel welcome.
SAPPHIRES sounded like a lot of fun, hence its inclusion. By the sounds of it though, I’ll be most kicking myself for missing KON TIKKI or BLANCANIEVES.
Sounds like you had a fantastic time. It was exciting to see photos of you and Tom Clift (and others) hanging out. We have seen a fair bit of each other this year too. Hopefully Sam and I will be there next year 🙂
I can’t wait to catch up with some of the films you saw. Cloud Atlas is THAT good? Awesome. I’d say Argo and Berberian Sound Studio could contend for the Golden Pan. Haven’t seen Argo, though.
Hope the recovery is speedy. Great coverage as always.
CLOUD ATLAS is messy due to its ambition, but the fact that it comes out with that much ambition was what floored me. I hadn’t seen any of the trailers, so it was able to hit me with its full impact.
As I said to Sam, if y’all make the trip up, we’ll all be sure to show you a good time.
I hear ya. Festival can be a grind, I tried to make sure that I don’t have anything heavy late in the festival. My last 3 films were Frances Ha, Bad 25 and John Dies At The End. Nothing heavy, mostly enjoyable.
I also tried to have a decent balance of films, don’t go for too many emotionally heavy films, which explain why I miss Amour.
Well my top 5 of TIFF would be:
1. Stories We Tell (Can we just say that Sarah Polley is the best Canadian director working today?)
2. Bad 25 (A complete surprise, especially coming from a non Jackson fan like myself)
3. Smashed (Usually not a fan of recovery movies, but this is much more than that, Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives the best performance of her career, who knew Ramona Flowers has this in her?)
4. The Thieves (The most fun I have in a theater this year)
5. The Master (Need a 2nd viewing to get a proper handle on it. Compelling on a scene to scene basis, but not sure how well it adds up)
Really enjoy reading your coverage, there is always next year.
I hear you on THE MASTER. I’ll be podcasting about it in two days, but plan to go give it a second look before I write about it for Sunday.
BAD 25 really intrigues me, but given that I know it’s going to be on dvd/blu so soon after the festival, I decided to give it a miss…not to mention that the second showing of it was curiously left off-sale.
Thanks for keeping up with the coverage – always great to see it strike a chord.
Clearly, you’ve not seen Kim Nyugen’s REBELLE yet. That is some pretty damn impressive filmmaking. Also, when you say Canadian, do you mean only ENGLISH? What about Jean-Marc Vallée or Dennis Villeneuve?
I will miss toronto. It was a great fest and look forward to returning to give a bigger and better view and review count next year.
It’s all about the pacing good sir. That’s why I keep the watch-count lower than some (between 25-30). I *could* clock in 30-40 like y’all, but I enjoy having the down time to post coverage on-the-go.
Looking forward to having you back next fall.
Fantastic coverage! Once school is all over and I have money I’ll be coming up. Y’all probably would have forgotten about me by then, haha. Anyway, have really enjoyed the coverage. I look forward to next year.
We could never forget about The Mighty Taylor. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll all be here waiting for ya!
Fianlly! Some non-TIFF posts! ^_^ Great coverage Ryan but like some others I avoided reading quite a few of the posts, partly to keep the mystery on must see films but also because I have no idea when if ever I’ll get to see some of the more obscure choices. I’ll be sure to page through all the posts a few months later when most of the titles are available.
That’s sorta bittersweet to hear. On the one hand I totally understand, but on the other hand it was a lot of work cranking out these entries as the festival was going along.
Good to hear from you again at any rate!
LOVE that photo of all the tickets you got at TIFF! Nice job covering the festival once again, Ryan! You’re an inspiration as TCFF is touching down in less than a month here in MN.
My wife one-upped me and took a similar photo of her tickets…but she got them to fan in a more perfect circle. I was actually thinking of you at one point when I met a writer from variety who was from Minneapolis (I said “Nice! I have a lot of movie-lovin’ friends there…)
Looking forward to reading about your adventures around TCFF.
Your coverage of the festival has been excellent! I would highly recommend checking out Kon-Tiki on release. Try seeing it on the biggest screen possible too. That and Liverpool were, for me, the two biggest surprises at the festival. I liked Berberian Sound Studio but I think one would have to be a die-hard fan of Giallo films to truly appreciate the film; there were too much references that were only clear to me when the director pointed them out at the Q&A.
Also, next year’s going to be the 25th anniversary of my favourite part of the festival – Midnight Madness!!! Another reason to see a movie at the Ryerson Theatre 🙂
Speaking with others about Kon Tiki, I really get the impression that’s the film I’m going to regret skipping over the most (that or Blancanieves).
Next year I’ll have to get back to my old custom of doing at least ONE midnight madness film at midnight.
Good to have met you – when everyone recovers and we schedule another bar night, I’ll be sure to drop you a note.
Impressive coverage of this festival, man. Taking in 27 films is nothing to sneeze at. I’m a little shocked at all of the positive reviews for The Silver Linings Playbook. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from that, but now I’m really looking forward to checking it out.
You think you’re shocked? When I got to the halfway point of the festival with that sitting as my favorite, I found myself wondering “Shit, how’d that happen?”
You and your lady friend must come up and join us one fall!