We all think of filmgoing as a leisurely activity—I mean, the minimum requirement for the viewer is to just show up and sit there for 90 minutes or so—but a film festival is a different beast entirely, especially for someone who's obsessed with movies. Incessant filmgoing is not something I dabble in for 11 days just once a year. It's a year-round activity, an obsession that never grows old. But for any Toronto cinephile, TIFF is the most manic period in the city's filmgoing calendar.
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The festival is a little more complicated if you're also a journalist, as you find yourself in a relentless (if very often pleasurable) grind: a marathon interrupted by the occasional sprint. Doing this right requires a massive time commitment and a singularity of purpose, but even that can't protect you from the dark side. For all the great films you've seen in past festivals, the impending TIFF melee also triggers memories of tedium, exhaustion, and movie-fueled disassociation.The days before the festival begins are all about tying up loose ends. In a sense, covering TIFF is a lot like going on vacation—with two crucial differences: (1) you return home every night and (2) you constantly have work to do. During the festival, you become one of those people who is always too busy to answer emails, even invitations to cocktail parties featuring free drinks and movie stars.Knowing it's impossible to see everything worthwhile, you try to find a reasonable balance between your interests and your obligations. Past experience teaches you that sticking to this schedule is virtually impossible, but piecing it together is still a gruelling process. After all, every film you choose is 20 films you miss.
DAY 1: Thursday, September 10
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After our first festival meet-up, I wind up in the longest movie line I've ever seen—at the first public screening of Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next. Experiencing TIFF in more digestible doses, the public is often in a better position to enjoy the proceedings. This may explain the exaggerated enthusiasm often found at public screenings. The audience dutifully rewards Moore's good intentions with a standing ovation.MOVIES SEEN: Hitchcock/Truffaut, Sicario, Where to Invade Next
DAY 2: Friday, September 11
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Which is actually not such a bad thing. Surviving the chaos and clutter of TIFF requires a kind of single-minded focus that is increasingly difficult to achieve in these phone-saturated times. To take it all in, you have to block out some of the usual distractions. When your phone is rendered almost unusable, this shift is even more dramatic, heightening your senses and making you far more attentive to your surroundings. Still, if you can avoid breaking your phone, that's probably for the best.MOVIES SEEN: Green Room, The Martian, Youth, The Final Girls
DAY 3: Saturday, September 12
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If you have non-passholder friends who happen to be festivalgoers, there is one way to stay in touch during TIFF: public screenings. However, a case could be made that this is more hassle than it's worth, particularly during opening weekend. On Saturday night, I join four friends for a public screening of Maggie's Plan, but we spend roughly two hours in the cold/rain before we're allowed inside the theater. I vow not to make that mistake again.MOVIES SEEN: Evolution, The Lobster, The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, Maggie's Plan
DAY 4: Sunday, September 13
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For the most part, covering TIFF is a smooth, even idyllic experience. Given all the obvious perks of a press pass, it's easy to tolerate the occasional drawback, but there are a few. For example, you may find yourself watching films from seats you'd never tolerate under normal circumstances. During Hardcore—an ultra-violent Midnight Madness selection shot entirely from the protagonist's point-of-view—I wind up in the second row, a vantage point that renders this film almost unwatchable. (At one point the protagonist smashes his phone after falling from a moving helicopter, an incident that seems no more traumatic than my own phone mishap a few days earlier.)The occasional sub-par seat plays a role in the frequent walkouts at press and industry screenings, but this also stems from the price of admission (free) and the abundance of options and obligations found elsewhere. Except in very extreme cases, I have a strict no-walkouts policy. For press, suffering through the occasional film is part of the job. It's a different story for distributors—who are really there to sample as many films as possible—but I still interpret every walkout as a scathing insult.If you don't believe in walkouts, you become very familiar with the feeling of being trapped in a movie that is failing to achieve the desired effect. In my experience, it only takes around 15 minutes to determine if a film is working, and it's rare for any film to nosedive or make a miraculous recovery. By my estimate, approximately 20 percent of the films I see during the festival are walkout-worthy. If you tough it out, your mind wanders to other things, hatching plans for later in the day and generally making the best of a bad situation.
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MOVIES SEEN: James White, Black Mass, Hardcore, Baskin
DAY 5: Monday, September 14
DAY 6: Tuesday, September 15
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MOVIES SEEN: The Family Fang, The Meddler, Heat, Lace Crater
DAY 7: Wednesday, September 16
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MOVIES SEEN: The Devil's Candy, Demolition, Anomalisa, The Girl in the Photographs
SouthboundAs the festival crowds start to dissipate, everything about TIFF gets easier. This may explain why there's no sense of relief associated with the home stretch. In fact, the winding down process is somewhat bittersweet. Sure, it will be nice to eat normal food again and get a good night's sleep, but you start feeling comfortable with the simplicity of the festival routine: line up, watch movie, repeat.That said, there's a limited supply of worthwhile new movies in the world, and you feel a diminished sense of potential with each passing day. Early in the festival, many films are screening for the first time, creating a sense that anything is possible. Some are gems, some are duds, some are a bit of both, but there's real excitement in the mystery. By day eight, you know what to expect, and most of the films that remain have been discredited in some way. At this late stage in the festival, even a worthwhile film feels like a non-event.Keith Richards: Under the Influence is a perfect example. While this documentary hits all the right notes and Richards turns up for a lively Q&A, director Morgan Neville's introduction reveals that the film is coming to Netflix… tomorrow. This kind of buzzkill bombshell would never fly during opening weekend.MOVIES SEEN: Southbound, Our Brand is Crisis, The Mind's Eye, Heart of a Dog, Keith Richards: Under the Influence
DAY 8: Thursday, September 17
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