Before I get started on my reviews for all the rest of the films I've seen, I thought it might be wise to mention Why We TIFF. The past two days have been an excellent example of it, and most of my reviews are going to be heavily slanted by that.
We shall now compare the movie-going experience to a boxing match, where it's the film in one corner, and your mental state in the other corner. I started out with Breaking News, which was an action-paced warmup to start the day (at high noon). We can liken this to not much happening in the first round, a lot of movement but no important action from either fighter. From there I moved on to Shorts Program #4, a collection of shorts which can be likened to watching the opposing fighter make a lot of dumb mistakes. The total effect of which was to make me seriously underestimate my opponent in the next round. Meaning I moved in close, and encountered Primer. Which we could call either the haymaker, or the strong right hook. I was definitely reeling after that one. From there it was a mere hour till I was in my next film, Z Channel, which can only be seen as a spectacular flurry of attacks, leaving me all but defeated.
With just the one more round in me, I stood up and prepared for my next film... Rahtree finished me off, laying me full out on the floor.
Each of these films, seen individually, would never have had the effect they had being seen collectively. Z Channel especially, I'm not sure that that film would have anywhere near the same impact outside of a Film Festival. The two are strangely linked.
Every day is like this. Some days a lot more so than others, but any day can be the day where it all comes together. The more movies you can pack into a single day, the more likely it is to happen on that day. The combined weight of several fantastic pieces upon your psyche...
So sure, I could skip the TIFF and catch the movies when they hit the theatres or the video store (as many as 1/3 might do so!) but I would be missing out entirely on The Festival Experience.