Oh dear!

After reading another Torontoist's reappraisal of Frankz, while dashing to the Ryerson to catch Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn we stopped in to pick up a couple of hot dogs, thinking it would take less than 15 minutes, and found ourselves trapped for what felt like hours. Despite being quiet, the few customers in front of us had their orders confused, which took far more dialogue between staff and customers than it really required. By the time they reached our order, they chose to have (despite being literally begged to just give us two hot dogs with ketchup) a lengthy discussion about the next order after ours, before putting mushrooms on both of our dogs (this was the only thing they managed to do speedily, sadly.) Once we got our wrong dogs, a task that would have taken literally seconds at a comparatively busy stand (for at several dollars less), we had no time to eat them, and couldn't (we didn't want mushrooms!) We gave them to a homeless person, so someone got something out of it.

We feel rather sorry for Frankz, the customer service industry is very hard, we just don't anyone else to try and grab a dog mid-festival and have to rush off with an empty stomach either. Stick with the stands!

Post Rescue Dawn we managed to hit the Film Circuit party. While it's true Torontoist chose to hit perhaps the least flashy tickets in town (we'd choose Herzog over the media circus surrounding Brad any day) we did see Jean-Marc Vallée (director of C.R.A.Z.Y.) having a lovely time. We did too, though we arrived too late for any food...

So, day three's viewing:

Taxidermia: György Pálfi's latest is perhaps the most repulsive film we've ever seen, but never have we seen such disgusting things (sex with a dead pig, speed eating followed by copious vomiting, taxidermy) displayed in such an astoundingly beautiful way. As a history of three generations of men, this is an amazing piece of work, but do you have the stomach for it? 4/5

Shorbus: Perhaps the only hardcore film to also be an examination of post-9/11 New York, this is an rather disjointed exploration of the search to discover our personal needs (mostly sexual). The characters were created by the cast over a year or so of improvisation, but most of the plot threads seem to peter out, making the triumphant final scene questionable. The sex scenes actually seem rather unnecessary too, with the heart of the film most apparent when characters bare their souls, not their asses. 2/5

Rescue Dawn: Werner Herzog is a filmmaker almost beyond classification, but it initially feels rather a shock to see this, a hollywoodization of his earlier documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. So harrowing (and then so feel-good) that it's almost impossible to believe, you still get wrapped up in a note perfect narrative and astounding performances. On the basis of what Christian Bale goes through, that dude has to be some sort of masochist or something. 4/5