Back in 1999, I was a Kevin Smith fan boy. Not a big enough one to have wisely secured myself a ticket to the North American Premiere of
Dogma at TIFF, but a big enough one to have stood in the rush line a good 4-5 hours before, in hopes of getting in.
Dogma had not only the draw of Smith's fanbase, but also big time star power in Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Allan Rickman, Chris Rock, Emma Thompson, Salma Hayek and on and on and on. I didn't know who was going to be at the screening... and I never actually found out, because 4 hours early wasn't early enough to secure myself a ticket.
Not getting into the screening wasn't the biggest disappointment of that day, I later found out. You see, when I was waiting in line, an old classmate of mine who I hadn't seen in ages came up to me and said he had extra tickets for John Paizs's
Top of the Food Chain if I wanted them, and that it was going to be amazing. At the time, I didn't know who John Paizs was, so turned down his offer foolishly.
What does this have to do with anything, right? Well, a new restoration of Paizs' debut film,
Crime Wave is screening at TIFF this year (
on Friday, September 12th! FOR FREE!) as part of their Cinematheque program. So it's an odd sort of full circle back to that day in 1999 for me.
So there are 2 things to take away from this post.
A) Go see
Crime Wave! You'll love it! and
B) If you're planning to see
Tusk, you might want to get down to the Ryerson's rush line ASAP.
TUSK screening times:
Sat., Sept. 6th 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Sun., Sept. 7th, 9:45 PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Fri., Sept. 12th, 3:45 PM, SCOTIABANK 1
