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Totally agree about the scheduling of p/i screenings taking a major step backwards this year, Dave. Last year was relative nirvana. Not only were the films (considerably) better, but the screening schedule was a lot more considerate and helpful as well.
My next to last day got off to a tepid start with the not unpleasant, if a wee bit dull "Easy Virtue" (Jessica Biehl, amazingly enough, is the best thing about it) and the Cannes-prized "Hunger." IFC is going to have a helluva time getting anyone to pay to see this Bobby Sands/hunger strike/martyrdom dirge...even if it's greeted with the best reviews of the year.
The very definition of a "grim slog," "Hunger" is the kind of film you admire for having been made at all. But actually sitting through it? Grim slog indeed.

"Biehl"? You mean Jessica Biel, right?

TOTAL WHOLESALE OWNAGE THIRD HOTTEST WOMAN EVER YEP KNOW IT.

BIEL OWNS YOU.

Well, I certainly would prefer to be staying through Sunday, instead of leaving this afternoon. Especially since Houston may be receiving the dirty side of Hurricane Ike as early as Friday.

In the old days -- like, the '80s -- they actually would have encore screenings on the Sunday after the official Saturday closing night of TIFF. They were open to the public. But, oddly enough, they never were very popular, and eventually were discontinued.

100% correct with this post. I just arrived in the ol' USA after catching THREE BLIND MICE this A.M. (it was terrific), but there were MAYBE 10 people in the theater. Meanwhile, on Sunday and Monday you're making choices as to which of four films screening simultaneously you want to see; spread it out! There are enough interesting, business-driven films to have 3-4 a day, not 10-12 in the first few days. It's been this way for years, and I have complained every year about it (both on my blog and with e-mails to the Industry office), to no avail. Good post, I totally agree.

You got me, Lex! Guess I should have consulted the program guide to double-check the spelling. But BIEL is actually pretty good here. I just wish that the movie hadn't been so much of a snoozer.

VERY pleasantly surprised by Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles"!
It's perhaps his most unexpected--and most unexpectedly delightful--film to date. I hope a TLC distributer like Sony Classics or (even better yet) Miramax picks it up and turns it into the sleeper smash it deserves to be.
Christian McKay's performance is practically in the same league as Philip Seymour Hoffman's Capote and Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles, Danes is more appealing than she's been since "Shopgirl" and Mr. "HSM" Zac Efron acquits himself admirably. The kid might actually have a career outside of musicals (high school and otherwise).
And for those keeping score on cinematic Mercury Theater paeans, it's a lot more fun than "The Cradle Will Rock."

My biggest peev this year was the festival stopping the later screenings -- post 8 p.m. Those were the ones I attended the most because I always get a second wind in the evening. This year -- hardly a single screening started after 8:30.

This scheduling sounds fuckin' stupid. Pardon the language.

You are so right about the lack of late-ish additional screenings for the more popular titles this year, Eo.
In 2007, I was able to see everything from "Lars and the Real Girl" to "The Visitor" and "NCFOM" after 10 P.M. (as well as a few stinkers like "Sleuth" and "The Walker"). This year, the only p/i screening after 7:15 of any consequence that I even bothered with was one last Sunday nite for "The Burning Plain."
Do they really think that everyone is too busy on the party circuit to care about movies?

Imagine that - they heavily schedule the P/I screenings in the morning and afternoon and then they use the theaters in the evenings for the public screenings when the general public is more likely to be able to attend. I had good luck rushing public screenings in the evening so I would do P/I screenings during the day and public screenings (which are more fun anyway) in the evening. I thought the lineup was very solid. There wasn't anything that really blew me away, but I would say about 2/3rds of what I saw was B+ material and I only walked out of two films. I avoided anything that had US distribution already or that I thought was likely to get it here. The only thing I saw that has distribution was Che (and that technically didn't have it when I saw it.) I would say my favorite film was Goodbye Solo. Also really enjoyed $9.99, Patrik Age 1.5, Che, Machan, Voy a Explotar, The Ghost, and for pure fun there was Sounds Like Teen Spirit.

djk,

Glad to see someone else talking up Goodbye Solo. Ramin Bahrani's one of my favorite young directors, and I felt this one was his best yet.

Voynar, what's up hottie?

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