Day seven here in Toronto and the late nights and lack of sleep is slowly taking its toll on me. I could barely keep my eyes open during Joe Dante's The Hole yesterday afternoon (despite it being in 3D) and today I blew out a screening of Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising just so I could go home and get a couple of hours kip. I will try and catch up with the latter in the screening library on Friday, despite Ian warning me that it's not worth the bother!

Tiredness aside, I still managed to see three films today - with Michael J. Bassett's Solomon Kane still to come tonight - beginning with the new film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Micmacs is Jeunet's attack on the arms trade, centring on Bazil (Dany Boon) who has a bullet lodged in his skull and whose father was killed by a landmine. Bazil plots revenge on the two companies who supplied the weapons, pitting one against the other in this otherwise light caper movie which harks back to his early work of Delicattesen and The City Of Lost Children with its ensemble cast of odd characters. Visually inventive, Micmacs was a delight and is one of my favourite films of the festival so far.

Another solid film thsi morning was The Joneses, a sly satire on consumerism starring David Duchovny, Demi Moore (her best role for years) and Mandy Lane aka Amber Heard. Less good was Up In The Air, the latest Clooney vehicle, although the audience lapped it up and director Jason Reitman - who also produced Jennifer's Body - is a local favourite. It's a fairly safe comedy drama which could easily be in line for the People's Choice Award at the end of the festival, but didn't really do it for me.

[REC] 2 played well at Midnight Madness last night and I interviewed the directors Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza earlier in the day - a down to earth couple of guys who remember their FrightFest experience in Glasgow very fondly. The main reason for my tiredness though stems back to Monday night's Bitch Slap screening. Not the greatest film of the festival, but the girls were super lovely and it was a real thrill having Zoe Bell (stunt co-ordinator on the film - and you may recall she's the girl who does all the car stunts in Tarantino's Death Proof) present too. With the girls all partying at the Drake Hotel after the screening it would have been rude not to attend, hence Paul and I flying the flag for the FrightFest contigent until the bar closed at 5am. It's a tough job but someone has to do it!

Until the next time…..

Phill

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