The Ups and Downs of TIFF

It's September in Toronto. That means:

• Labour day weekend
• My birthday
• The return of sweaters and boots (yay)

and:

• The Toronto International Film Festival

Mostly, it means that for two weeks, I will sleep too little, drink too much, and see some neat films.

...but...

It also means that with those ups, there are corresponding downs. The film fest's atmosphere of glitz and glam (imagined or actual) elevates the egos of some to dangerous heights, putting all those around at risk of being crushed...

On Friday, I donned my red pants ('cause, awesome sauce), a neat embroidered top, and my badass leather boots and went to a party that I had SENT OUT A MASS INVITE. <---key point right here.

Awesome boots are punk-chic and awesome.

I am one of the first to arrive to the "style party" being held in a "glamorous" alley way. I walk in, get my name checked off the list, am handed a gift bag, and make my way into the alley for food and drinks...

Immediately a demon-woman in a red dress appears in front of me (there may have been a puff of smoke)...She looks me up and down, and out of her breathtaking, botox'd maw comes:

"Oh...are you here for the party?"

"Er...yes...?" I manage.

"Oh..." and she saunters off.

On three separate occasions, her elbow somehow has conjugal visits with my shoulder blades. I am too insulted and annoyed to be angry. Inwardly chanting the mantra of "everybody poops, everybody poops", I reflect on the fact that she'll probably die before me, and this brings me a small amount of inner peace (fig 1).

fig 1: small amount of inner peace.

The party continues, in its awful, pretentious way. People float past on hot wind, fellating each other's egos to a climax of douchbaggery not seen outside of The Jersey Shore. I eat my free sandwiches and drink my free champagne, and blog in my head.

WHO IS THE REAL WINNER HERE?!! (no, seriously.)

But beyond the overinflated egos, the frenemies, the subtle jabs, the not-so-subtle-jabs, and the condescending "oh hey kiddo!"'s of the film fest, there are some fantastic films, and some generally awesome people.

I got to see this fabulous film:

And I got to meet this fantastic chap. Who has every right to be full of himself and rude, but wasn't. He was simply fun and silly, and generally wonderful:

It helps to have a moment like this at every TIFF... A moment where you've just watched something new and interesting and different, you've shared the experience with the filmmakers, and then someone you've admired for ages turns out to be a fantastic person.

...and that makes up for all those done-up botox queens.