Thirsty Travellers

@highlandertn posted a helpful matrix showing foot travel time between theatres for TIFF11.

As someone who is not getting any younger and needs a little pick me up between films I will share my short list of places to stop for a beer, between theatres. These are not places to see and be seen, but you can get served, get a seat and take a moment to reflect on your most recent film. Please add time to order, drink  and pay to recommended travel times.

AMC to Ryerson – The Imperial Pub at 54 Dundas Street East, just east of Victoria. Go upstairs, get a bottle of 50, play some foosball and bring your own hand sanitizer to the bathroom. It’s a bit sketchy but there is plenty of seating upstairs and occasionally hot popcorn.

Ryerson to Isabel Bader – 7 West on 7 Charles Street just west of Yonge. They are open 24 hours and you can get a bite before or after your midnight madness movie.

Anything at AGO – Village Idiot Pub at 127 Mc Caul Street. So many beers. Seating can get a bit tight, but the selection is worth the lack of personal space.

Isabel Bader to Scotiabank, Lightbox, Princess of Wales (POW) or Roy Thompson Hall (RTH) – The Charlotte Room at 19 Charlotte Street. Tiny streetlet between Spadina and Peter.  High quality pool tables, fantastic staff, and the best nachos you will ever have. You can get half beef, half chicken ALL delicious. They are closed on Sundays.

Lightbox (or POW or RTH) to Scotiabank – Town Crier Pub at 114 John Street. So much delicious beer. If you want something shandy-esque and light for daytime drinking try the Stiegl Radler – Grapefruit beer. For reals. We all miss Smokeless Joe’s, but this place has more comfortable and plentiful seating.

Honorable mention - South of Temperance - 20 Adelaide Street West. If you head south on Yonge from AMC and hang a right at Adelaide you can’t miss it. Yes, it’s full of bankers. Yes, the very competent wait staff wear tiny outfits forcing them to do a pseudo bunny dip for the low patio tables but you can get sun in during the day in the middle of the financial district. They have tasty beers on tap, a fruity white wine sangria, yummy brunch and delicious fish tacos. If you want to sit on the patio on a weekday  you need to reserve or get there by 11:30 AM, but it’s pretty fantastic. Allegedly they will be closed for part or all of a day/night early in the fest for the Alliance party, but the rest of the time they will be open for business. Sun-soaked, beer-flavoured business.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Box 20

So the advance order process begins for TIFF11 and they have drawn box 20. If you are in a “good” box – that would be 20 or close to 20 you can celebrate. Drink something strong, eat something fattening, make a bad decision with someone who is very attractive.

If you are in a bad box- 19 or thereabouts, all of the same rules apply. At this point it is out of your hands, and you still have  72 hours before you can even start to think about what you will do with your empty slots. You may get lucky. You may get nothing. The only thing you can control for the next few days is how you deal with the interminable wait until you find out how many of your first selections you may yet still get. Theatre capacity plays a large role in the outcome of the proceedings at this point so all is not lost. Wait until the day before pick up before you start  to panic and make other choices. If you go to the lineup early on advance order pickup day you could still have the opportunity to get a first choice from the box office or someone else with a conflict. Watch Legend. Or for the kids watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Unicorns can exist. Sometimes you can be in a crappy box number in the draw and still get exactly what you want. Or, like the year I had to switch a first choice coupon for Bella – you may get what you need.

TIFF 11 Box Office

This year the box office is in Metro Hall on the concourse (underground) level. It opens on August 23 at 7:00 AM for programme book and package pick up.  The great news about this is once again there will be some protection from the elements when it comes to a lining up to drop off and pick up. I’m a big fan of the subterranean box office locations – it’s nice to be able to get your programme book and bag and have a minute to catch your breath instead of being thrust out onto a busy street corner.

You can access the box office from the King St Metro Hall entrance close to John St and take the escalator down to the concourse. For people familiar with the PATH system you can also get there directly from St. Andrew Station without surfacing by following the path signs to Metro Hall. This location is mere minutes from Roy Thompson Hall, Princess of Wales Theatre and the Lightbox.

The Draft

People always ask me how I make my picks. Then they regret it because the process ends up taking so long to explain their eyes glaze over before I’m finished explaining.
So to keep it (somewhat) brief.
Directors – ones I liked before get on the maybe list for sure.

Actors – not just the talented and lovely like Ryan Gosling and Juno Temple but also frequent festival favourites. My list includes Mads Mikkelsen , Viggo Mortensen, Aaron Eckhart, and Kristen Scott Thomas.

Release Date – the Entertainment Weekly fall movie preview comes out around the same time my drop off coupons arrive in the mail. It lists the known release dates for many films between September and December and I occasionally drop an early pick if the movie is coming out very soon after the festival.

Distribution – if the film does not have a North American distributor listed in the Programme book it may or may not be released anywhere you can see it anytime soon. I tend to go for UK picks that may only end up airing on BBC but are actually awesome films, like The Trip, Mr. In-Between and The Last Hangman.

Programmer - year over year you will find that you may love films that were selected by the same programmer. If your sensibilities align with one or two it makes the elimination process easier. I tend to love the picks of Jane Schoettle and end up with at least 25% of her films in my final list.

And finally the schedule – when the actual times and dates come out inevitably I have many of my first picks in the same time slot. I have to go through all of the filter/narrowing options listed above to make my final selections. One must also consider the likelihood of waking up for a 9 AM film when building a schedule. Many bars are serving until 4 AM during TIFF – jus’ sayin’.  And even if you can wake up, you need to pick something that can keep you awake. Previous early morning picks include Easy Money, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and No Country for Old Men. Gunshots or music are good for keeping you up in the morning.