The Sun newspaper inspires this modest demurer to the non-stop media rave about the Toronto Film Festival. The Sun offers its own love-hate check list and it is worth a read. For our part, it is a gratifying thing to know that the city is the focus of so much of the world’s attention and, to be frank, the spending of a lot of money. In many ways the TIFF is a kind of peek-a-boo smorgasbord. You have to hope that you find the things you like. Otherwise, news coverage is frequently just four or five days of wall-to-wall noise. Star-gazing? Maybe, but it has always been true that most people are not interested in standing on a street hoping to see a film star. Those who possess them know in their brains that this is true. Our final flick-off is shared by the Sun. In the end, TIFF is not a public event. Oh sure, there are films to be seen even though the terms on which tickets are sold seem abusive. No. TIFF is an convention of people who write, finance, produce, direct and star in Hollywood movies. Important work. To attend TIFF as a simple outsider however is like trying to crash the G20. They don’t know you. Toronto Sun
