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Star gazin' in Toronto.

A lowdown of the weekends events.

Friday: We scooted up to Toronto right after work. There was sluggish traffic outside of the city, which was made worse by me needing to go wee. I was a little suspicious when we pulled up to our hotel and noticed its five star cooshiness. We had a really good rate, so we thought maybe we were at the wrong place, but it turns out it was the AAA discount that made it so affordable. I knew I had that membership for more than the maps.

We arrived too late to check the ticket office, so we just walked down Yonge Street thinking maybe we would trip over a celebrity. The stars just finished going down the red carpet at the Elgin for "State and Main" so we saw Sarah Jessica Parker posing for photographers just inside the theatre doors. Seeing celebrities makes me hungry so we ate at Mache Movenpick. It's set up like a supermarket with stations where different dishes are being made. The only problem was... I was afraid I would get a dish and then go around the corner and find something better. I wandered about in circles with a dazed look on my face. I ended up getting a little bit of everything. The mango, peach and banana crepe for dessert was the highlight of the evening.

Saturday: Grabbed some brunch and then hotfooted it around town trading our passes in for tickets. On our way to lunch, we saw a movie being filmed down a side street. A man with white hair was choking another guy hanging out a window. I think the chokee may have been John Cusack, but I am not sure as it was hard to get a good look at him since he was being choked. Patrik was lagging behind us looking for a place that sold beef jerky, and he was pretty sure that it was him..

That evening we went to the Stephen Frears tribute at Roy Thompson Hall and saw John Hurt, Jack Black, and Natasha Wagner. Kristen was all melty in the seat next to me because John Cusack attended and we could see him in the front row clutching a Snapple. Frears asked them all onto stage at the end and John was rather tall and kinda frumpy. I think that endeared him to her even more. On our way out Aaron stepped on Tia Carrera.

A quick cuppa at Starbucks and then to the Elgin to see the "You Can Count on Me" with Mathew Broderick and Laura Linney. Mathew didn't make it, but we saw Laura, Rory Culkin and the some other stars of the movie. It was a really nice film, one of the best I have seen in awhile. The character Terry, played by an actor I didn't know, had some really great deadpan lines.

We bolted out of the theatre and took the subway to the Uptown theatre to see a South Korean serial killer/police thriller "Tell Me Something". It was pretty gorey, but a good movie to be watching at midnight. Lots of glinting knives, cold stares, rainy streets and the team of detectives dressed like Miami Vice that always show up minutes after the someone gets wacked. And thanks to my extensive exposure to the Korean language (via Mom)... I could understand the dialogue when they said "hello".

I wore my berry/wine colored outfit (hot fall colors!) and my new black boots in hopes of being mistaken for a star, but all I got for my efforts were gooshy blisters on each of my pinky toes. I slapped some Winnie the Pooh band-aids on 'em and was ready to hit the pavement again.

Sunday: Checked our bags and then scooted back up to the Uptown to see the Mexican film "Amores Perros". It was a pretty heavy film with three intertwined stories of people and their different predicatments with (unknowingly) each other and with their dogs. I was pretty upset at some of the scenes that showed dog fights and dead dogs. I am not sure how they filmed it because it looked so real. Since it was in Spanish I couldn't read any "no animals were harmed...." statements in the credits.

The movie was good, but it was a bummer movie to see last, right before Kristen had to leave to fly back to Boston. You don't exactly skip away laughing and singing after this flick. Aaron and I ate at Spring Rolls...yummm... and then headed back to Rochester through a heavy downpour.

I had no idea how popular the Toronto Film Festival was. All of the big name movies were sold out and then even the smaller name ones filled up. Once all the ticket holders were seated, the volunteers would bring rush line folks in to sit in the odd empty seat here and there. I had ordered a pass book early on but wasn't able to go up to fill out a schedule for the movies I wanted to see. I got the scoop that next year I can fax my list in, since I am from out of town. One of the girls at the box office said she had another person from Rochester send in his list of 150 movies and got them all. Its a strange process, but they say it works. So this was practice for next year.