Note: maybe Derek Cianfrance can talk to Peter Jackson about how to pack multiple stories into one feature. Not hating, just not thrilled about The Hobbit being broken into three now.

Tangent. Gosling looks totally jacked, and once again turns in a performance that has you immersed in the story from the jump. His Handsome Luke is sort of a cross between his characters from Drive and Half Nelson – once again he plays a man who has trouble with his instinct for self-destruction.

The real pleasant surprise for me here was Bradley Cooper as Avery Cross. He manages to show us he conflict and ultimate resigned acceptance with his life choices maintaining that mask of camera-ready attractiveness. Of all the characters his is the one that is the easiest to identify with in the beginning of his story, and yet at times he is the most enigmatic and frustrating.

Some great naturalistic moments between the characters in each of the stories remind us that this is the guy that brought us Blue Valentine. I hope he keeps bringing his stories to the festival.

Alas I did not ask any of these as I was too busy freaking the frak out after seeing one of the most hilarious and – in my humble opinion as a former English major – entertaining adaptations of one of Shakespeare’s work for film.

One of the things that surprised me the most was that my favourite performance was that of Clark Gregg, who is a newcomer to the Whedonverse. His Leonato stole every single scene he was in – and his ability to shift from Polonius-esque comic relief to full on rage and recrimination was truly impressive. I always felt something about his character, regardless of what was happening in the moment.

In terms of tone this was like the opposite of Coriolanus, not just because of the subject matter, but also because of the cinematography, the obvious charisma of the cast and the intimate space. By using his home as the backdrop, not only did he likely save a crap ton of money, but you could feel the ease in the performances and the way they interacted with their environment.

Once again he rocked it #likeajoss.

Probably that second one. Whenever someone asks me, as they inevitably do, what movie I’m looking most forward to seeing I want to ask them if they have ever made a mixtape. Back in my day, the kids would use cassettes and record music, sometimes from other cassettes, sometimes from records, and even occasionally from the radio, carefully hunching over the buttons in order to filter out any commercials. Those were tough times. We had to really work for our entertainment back then. It didn’t leave a lot of time for shenanigans.

Tangent. So, mixtapes. Or to put it in more common parlance, a playlist. When asked about what film out of the approximately 30 I plan to see if my legs and liver make it to the end of the festival I must always ask the person to consider the mixtape playlist. When making a playlist you do not try to fill it crap and include one awesome song that will make you want to just skip through everything else. You want it to start off good, build up to something great, then awesome, back to great, then good , then epic and so on and you must always finish strong.

2008 was the year I took everything I had learned about picking films through trial and error over the years. Every year since I have tried to duplicate the level of enjoyment I got out of the festival in ’08. I opened with 9.99 – unforgettable if only for the stop motion animated coitus. Then Lovely, Still a movie so engrossing that even having a Weinstein sitting behind me constantly checking his phone  and kicking my seat could not spoil my enjoyment. I followed those up with More Than A Game where a still cavalier LeBron cried during the Q&A and Every Little Step where everyone cried during the Jason Tam audition for Paul. There were a few ups and downs in the week but that year, more than any other year is why I keep doing this. I had the first screening of Slumdog where the entire audience at the Ryerson rose and clapped along for the end credits. In one of the daytime holes my friend convinced me to add the Wrestler – and that was also the year of Flame & Citron, Deadgirl, Apron Strings, The Brothers Bloom and Medicine for Melancholy.

I can’t pick a favourite before the festival starts. I can’t even pick a favourite after it’s over. If I did it right it’s all good. So today, with two more sleeps until it all begins as far as I know I have the perfect mixtape queued up and all I have to do is hit play.

I recommend a PC with a modern version of Internet Explorer. The people at the box office use PCs and it just seemed safer – I have doubts about the amount of Mac+Safari or Chrome regression testing.

First – if you have time organize your picks by alphabetical order with the date, time, location and number of tickets (ideally in a spreadsheet with columns).

Create a second spreadsheet with the picks organized chronologically.

You can select your films by title, which will involve you selecting the letter of the alphabet the English name of the film starts with in the schedule/programme book. If the film starts with ‘The’ put that after the rest of the title in your spreadsheet so when you alpha sort it is in the correct order. Example ‘Thieves, The’.

When you select the title of your film, you will get a new page where all showings available for your package are listed. Select the correct showing.

Then you get to select the quantity and add to cart.

Lather, rinse and repeat.

You can also select your films by date. You click the date on the calendar, and then scroll through a page listing the films showing on that day. Select the film, and then your quantity.

A couple of minutes before your start time get your email, package ID and password entered in the form.

Copy the package ID to your clipboard as you will need to enter it again at the end of the process before you submit your order.

If you are expecting a call or have a text-y friend turn your phone off – you will not want to be interrupted.

Wait and hit login when your time window starts. You will not be able to login until your time window.

Calm the f**k down. Breathe.

Try not to look at the countdown. It will drive you insane.

Do not click checkout until you are finished. Just keep going back to select films.

You will need to select your picks one at a time. You can go either by date or by film title.

If you select a film and it doesn’t appear to be off sale but you don’t have the ability to select any quantity from the drop down, try again by selecting the film by the other method (title  or date). Or go back to that film at the end of your order and try it again.

If you wait too long on the page where you are supposed to select quantity the browser may refresh – just verify if your tickets were added to your cart.

Relax – it is unlikely you will run out of time.

Overall it was stressful, but that is more because it was a change to the process, not because the site had many problems. There were a few moments when I swear I could actually feel the load on the site getting heavier – and the response time got a little sluggish. About halfway through my order entry I got a crazy refresh that make it look like I needed to login again – I just clicked ‘Select Films’ at the top and it sent me back to the cart view. I may have soiled myself slightly, but except for that little blip it was ok. Even if I had to start over again I probably would have had enough time.

If you have ever had a job that involved data entry or were a cashier you will be thankful for your ability to zen out and click your way through the process.

Best of luck to everyone and happy festival.

G+ Link  St. Andrew Subway stop via TTC or King streetcar to John.

Never take the streetcar to John if you don’t have to. Get off at York if you are approaching from the west or Peter if you are approaching from the east. The blocks between the Hyatt and University are a hot mess for traffic and walking will likely be faster for most.

Last year I saw the PJ 20  the most excellent documentary by Mr. Cameron Crowe at this venue.

The sound is excellent in this venue and the seats are quite comfortable.

However – last year it did not appear that there were enough orange shirts to deal with the volume of humanity that arrives for a TIFF event. The very professional and polite and well-clad staff on site may not have anticipated the energy and enthusiasm a crowd of plaid-and-flannel wearing pre-middle-aged hipsters would have after lining up for hours on a sunny afternoon. This was not the slow processional of the afternoon matinee crowd. I have never appreciated the orange shirts more when they were not around in force to make sure people were in the right line. As for the onboarding process, well I have to give them props for letting us in the theatre and out of the sun – but the doors were to the seating area were not open prior to letting the line in and that resulted in… well you can see from the picture it resulted in shenanigans.

I do have to give this venue a special commendation for being the best smelling TIFF venue ever – if only because there were hardly any films screened here so festival-funk had not permeated the seats.

It’s a great location as it is close to many bars, transit, the box of light and Scotiabank (Festival Hall) but if you have a film here ask at least three people if you are in the correct line for ticket holders and get ready to scramble when you get inside.

If the rumors are true this may also be a red carpet venue this year – so the good news is there should be more volunteers and headsets to work the line, however they may not have the logistics of the space sorted out so if you go with a group be prepared to split up if you want a good seat.

Art Gallery of Ontario – Jackman Hall – 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4 (416) 979-6648

G+ Link -  Museum subway stop via TTC

Here is what little I know about the new process. Please bear in mind that I washed most of this information down with about three quarters of a bottle of wine (thanks tofilmfest) and then to stop panicking I tossed another couple of beers and a shot of  JD down the gullet shortly after to settle my nerves. So you may want to go to the TIFF site and verify any or all of this information.

If you have a membership, I would strongly suggest trying to log in to the site before Monday June 25 – there have been challenges with this and if you need help they will be slammed after Monday.