Fuck Yeah TIFF 2024

Petered out in the blogging by the end, did not see Florence Pugh, have not tried to rush line anything although I might try tomorrow. But heard Tim Robinson from I Think You Should Leave has a great comedy here called Friendship I would like to try to catch. On the whole, talking to other people at the festival, and from my own experience, TIFF24 has been an unusually high quality bumper crop of films. Last night I caught Steven Soderbergh’s POV ghost story Presence and it was solid too. Other films I am hearing hyped over and over is Corbet’s The Brutalist, Leigh’s Hard Truth, of course Cannes winner Anora, this Alicia Vikander sci-fi film The Assessment, the Kidman film Babygirl, the Portuguese black and white film Grand Tour, and that’s just what my feeble mind can remember without looking up. There’s always the possibility of festival over-hype, I think Nightbitch is caught up in that echo chamber to an extent, but then there’s something like Luca Guadagnino’s Queer which I heard middling things out of Venice and the consensus is just dead wrong.

So here is my ranking of best to worst for me this year (overall very high success rate, more than normal):

1. Queer

2. Disclaimer (watch it on Apple+ next month!)

3. The Substance

4. Presence

5. Nightbitch

6. Oh, Canada

7. Megalopolis

Another stupid random tip, if you have short legs the inclined seating at some of the venues (particularly Princess of Wales and Roy Thomson) can be brutal, especially with the three hour opuses that screen here… so bring something to raise your feet on, like Bram Stoker’s Dracula!

Also that is the first physical ticket I have received at TIFF in years and had to request it as their moronic site kept thinking I was a bot and wouldn’t let me access my electronic tickets (great system).

Forgot if I said it here before, but I caught the first three episodes of Cuaron’s Disclaimer miniseries on Apple+ and it was top tier, the best thing I have seen so far, and apparently they are impromptu screening all seven episodes the last day of festival so if you got the time and the means it is worth it. Kevin Kline is back and amazing and Cate Blanchett does her thing, and there’s this highly erotic moment in ep.3 that reminds you this is the creator of Y mama tambien.

Saw Megalopolis last night, and I will say I was not bored. This is not a timid movie by any measure. In Q&A, Francis said it was an experiment, that it was play, and in that play is some reckless often incoherent abandon. Failed experiment for me but what a failure!

First film watched, caught the non-midnight showing of The Substance. Lives up to the hype for the most part, satire is genuinely funny, body horror is genuinely gory. Demi Moore goes all in and it’s so satisfying to watch a Hollywood actor push the boundaries this far (Portman with Black Swan seems so quaint in comparison). A lot of comparisons are made with The Shining, but for me the most important association is A Clockwork Orange, which when you think of that movie, is rarely attempted, and why The Substance feels new and aggressive in a way rarely tried. It goes all in, building to an ecstatic crescendo that is both hilarious and haunting.

Demi was there but I was sitting so far up she was a smudge out of photographic range.

Looking back over my festival-going experience I realize that when the pandemic started my attendance at the festival drastically downturned and of the scraps I was able to catch in 2020-2023, absolutely nothing warrants mention. Which is why Fuck Yeah 2024 was so important to make as the prodigal son returns.

Continuing from my previous post, here are the best films I saw at TIFF for the years 2015-2019:

2019 - Waves (Shults)

2018 - Roma (Cuaron)

2017 - Lady Bird (Gerwig)

2016 - Moonlight (Jenkins)

Like I said, most of my tickets were arranged through a shadowy benefactor with connections to the octopus underworld of TIFF (or just someone who donated more), so I got most that way. However he missed one of my tickets so I had to join the rabble and wait for the Ticketmaster pre-sale to try my luck today.

Of course the link did not work. Of course no one from TIFF bothered to update this crisis until like 45 minutes after the fact. Of course I relied on the kindness of strangers on Twitter to gerry a way past the link, and accomplish my mission.

Tried for Anora, but alas, the Sean Baker mumblecore film for what I assume was $90 a ticket was too enticing for the Cinephile hivemind and I missed out. I did grab the premiere of Alfonso Cuaron's Disclaimer with Cate Blanchet in attendance. And while I was feeling spunky, I picked up a ticket to Soderbergh's premiere showing of Presence, some ghost horror film (I have probably seen more Soderbergh films at TIFF than any other filmmaker).

So Flo mood check:

(oh shit I have to sit and watch all these films now)

The Hero Journey is as follows:

The Substance (Cannes hyped horror film with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley)

Nightbitch (director of Can You Ever Forgive Me? with Amy Adams as a dog, and third times a charm, never got to see her at Nocturnal Animals or Arrival so that b.... better show)

Megalopolis (FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA!!!!!!!!)

Queer (LUCA GUADAGNINO!!!!! on book by Burroughs)

Disclaimer (see above)

Presence (see above)

Toronto now has a Shake Shack and the allure of it hasn't worn off. It's at the corner of Yonge and Dundas, ground zero of most of the hysteria that goes on in the downtown core. If you continue east along Dundas you will see our Diagon alley (Victoria st), a colorful area where Dundas opens up to Ryerson University - AVOID.

I recommend instead getting your burger and cheese fries to go, walking west along Dundas one block, and entering the derelict food court at Bay and Dundas. It might be the only quiet place to sit for blocks in all directions (it used to be something when the bus terminal was operating but now that it is not, it's mostly empty). You could also eat across the street in Sankofa Plaza or whatever they are calling it this week, but I watched a guy lying on the ground masturbating once, and probably not the best option if you want to retain your appetite.

The best free washrooms in Toronto are in the Sheraton Center on Queen st just in front of City Hall. Take escalator down to Pathway, turn right, they are often quiet unless there's a conference going on.

Of course none of this is all that close to King Street where the festival is happening, and when you are there, it is just like the fox said in Anti-Christ:

I am in my Amy March youthful haze period of my TIFF 2024 sojourn where I have done absolutely nothing (I didn't even have to fight with Ticketmaster to get my tickets but had a friend do it for me) and now there's just mouth agap, top hat ritz level of bliss. The possibility still remains that everything could go swimmingly, I could make new friends, rediscover old ones, tap the emotional core of my soul, watch films worthy of my opportunity to brag about, get a few likes and a certain degree of tumblr fame (that I hope will not go to my head).

And of course, find Florence Pugh.

The surge pricing of the festival wherein they bump up the prices in the first weekend, so that I spent $90 to see Amy Adams on a Saturday and only $50 on a Monday to see Daniel Craig, somewhat sours my mood, but fuck it, we are all going to to die soon. Money is an artifical construct; witnessing Florence is not.

I am not seeing her movie because of timing (and because it probably sucks) but it is my destiny to see her, and you can be sure as shit that the blurriest photo ever taken on an iphone will be snapped by me and proudly displayed here.

Unlike my unhinged friend who is seeing 20-30 films, I am probably seeing five or six. I will be gawking, some Euphoria stars may appear here, maybe a little Ana de Armas, or Tim Robinson. I may write some pithy one line Letterboxd reviews to dazzle you.

I will complain about people in lines and talk about how much my ass hurts at such and such place and such and such movie, and you will get the voyeuristic experience of being here at the festival.