TIFF 2009 – Day One

Never mind health care, here’s the real difference between the U.S. and Canada: Driving into the country from the States side of Niagara Falls, you pull up to the Customs officer’s booth, he asks you the purpose of your visit and when you say you’re covering the Toronto Film Festival his next question is “What’s your favorite movie?” And then he tells you his (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and then he wants to know what’s up with James Cameron’s Avatar because he heard that it’s going to revolutionize the movie-going experience.

And then: What are you looking forward to seeing in Toronto? Are there going to be a lot of stars?

Somehow I can’t picture the Homeland Security dude on my return through New York asking me if the new Pedro Almodovar is as good as All About My Mother.

Speaking of which, Broken Embraces, with Almodovar muse Penelope Cruz as a woman leading (at least) a double life, and her relationship with a blind screenwriter (Lluis Homar) who has his own secret past, isn’t perfection after all. But this moody, labyrinthine soap opera is never less than compelling.

Forget Jennifer’s Body, though. A self-consciously hip horror thing with Megan Fox striking various teen-seductress poses as she gnashes and gnaws her way through Devil’s Kettle High, this might have felt fresh 15 years ago, but then again, maybe not. Amanda Seyfried, as the kinda nerdy good-girl and Jennifer’s improbable best-friend, voice-overs the tale, directed by Girlfight’s Karyn Kusama, from an arch script full of pseudo-cool teen patter from Diablo Cody of Juno fame.

Way more engaging, and truly nutty: The Men Who Stare at Goats, with George Clooney (looking like a fried Clark Gable) and Jeff Bridges as U.S. army intelligence agents trained in paranormal, psychic powers. Ewan McGregor is the reporter along for the ride, covering this seriously strange gang (also Kevin Spacey) as they bring their unique abilities to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The line for the press and industry screening was literally out the door. And there are some Jedi jokes that take on special meaning given that McGregor is, of course, Obi-Wan Kenobi in another life. Not quite the awed audience response that greeted Slumdog Millionaire in the same theater last year, but hearty applause nonetheless.

Brian De Palma spotted walking from one screening to another, and then later out in Yorkville, sitting on a rock in a pocket park in his trademark safari jacket, adjusting his iPod. DePalma is one of the fest’s annual fixtures.