I disliked the Duelist (although I’ve come to respect it) maily due to problems marrying Lee Myung-Se’s style to that material) - http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/tiff-report-the-duelist-review2/

for M, the style is so beautifully suited for this particular subject (affects of fear-anxiety-regret) that the movie becomes sublime in its execution - http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/tiff-report-m-review1/

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Interesting little ‘outside of TIFF looking in’ statistics.  The reviews that have been accessed on Twitch the most number of times:

1. EASTERN PROMISES (Cronenberg)
2. MOTHER OF TEARS (Argento)
3. LUST, CAUTION (Lee)
4. DIARY OF THE DEAD (Romero)
5. FLASH POINT (Yip)

Favourite film this year would be Juno, but Son of Rambow and No Country For Old Men were close seconds.

the titles aren’t in any specific order…

Awesome:
-Mongol
-Weirdsville
-Run, Fat Boy, Run
-Battle in Seattle
-Sukiyaki Western Django
-Frontiere(s)
-A L’interieur (Of all the films at this year’s TIFF, I enjoyed this one the most)
-Silk
-Chrysalis
-Flash Point
-M
-The Devil’s Chair (The Q&A;at the ROM was a RIOT!)

Really Good:
-Nothing is Private
-Vexille (Fan of Appleseed, story was kind of weak and they still haven’t figured out a way to fix those shadows!! - Twas a fun ride nonetheless though!)
-The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (This one would really rank higher, if I wasn’t so tired from lining up 8:30 in the morning for free tickets in rush - well, worth it though!!)
-The Mother of Tears (Loved everything except how the witches looked)

Okay:
-Le Deuxieme Souffle
-Angel
-Defecit
-Glory to the Filmmaker (I think he should do another gangster film...)

Bad:
-Blood Brothers (The story itself offers nothing new)
-Mad Detective (30 minutes into the movie - BANG! The headache strikes!)
-Dainipponjin (I really, really, really wanted to like to this one, but the movie’s horrible pacing ruined it for me - although there were plenty of funny parts)
-Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge (I’ve seen Hou’s films Cafe Lumiere and Three Times, but this movie felt so slow that I believe it may have caused time to freeze for about an hour during the film - I love Juliette Binoche, though)

What I missed:
-No Country for Old Men (My friend went to go see this, after I came from the Mongol screening, while I held our 1st and 2nd place spots in the rush line for “Jesse James” - I’m damn jealous that I didn’t get to see it, but I guess the free tickets make up for it)
-Eastern Promises (TIFF has a knack of conflicting the schedules of the films I want to see...this prevented me from catching this Cronenberg flick and many of the other films listed below)
- The Orphanage
- Rendition
- Une Veille Maitress (An Old Mistress)
- Sad Vacation
- Ploy
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- Sleuth
- Cassandra’s Dream
- Michael Clayton
- Disengagement
...i think I can go on for a while with this list so I’ll stop there. I can’t wait for TIFF’08, especially the Midnight Madness block.

chromega - September 26, 2007, 6:08pm

the titles aren’t in any specific order…
the Midnight Madness block.

Have to say that the selection this year (particluarly the later half of them) were particuarly adventerous this year (and that says something!) - in hindsight, MM07 was one of the most ambitious and upscale entries in the 9 years I’ve been going.