Progress report from TIFF: Hello, I must be going

Hey, didn't I just get here? Then how come it's already time to start packing? Alas, it's no longer feasible, for various reasons, for me to stay until the very end of the Toronto Film Festival. I'll have a more detailed wrap-up to offer after I return to my H-Town home base. To tide over my readers (both of you) until then, here are links to my Variety reviews of Men at Lunch, Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (pictured above) and The Tortoise, An Incarnation.

TIFF 2012: Ed Burns talks about The Fitzgerald Family Christmas

Veteran actor and indie filmmaker Ed Burns talks about his latest movie -- The Fitzgerald Family Christmas -- and the current state of indie film distribution in this interview I taped with him and long-time producer Aaron Lubin for Variety at the Toronto Film Festival. (Don't worry -- I don't actually appear on camera. In fact, you don't even hear me asking questions. Frankly, you'll just have to take my word that I had anything to do with this.)

At TIFF: Partying like it's 1999 (with Ice-T)

Have not been to a Toronto Film Festival post-screening party in... well, a long time. But I think I made up for it last night, hanging behind the velvet rope and getting close to the action with Ice-T. The highlight of the evening, of course, was when Ice-T blowtorched his way through an electrifying set just a few feet away from me. And I made an amazing discovery: Sometimes, pretty ladies like to party with older dudes. Let the good times roll, eh?

Live from TIFF 2012: Coke and condoms

Today, I found a bottle of Coca-Cola and a package of condoms in my 2012 Toronto Film Festival goodie bag. I'm grateful for both gifts -- honest! -- but I suspect only one will come in handy this year. BTW: I thought of joking about the goodie bag contents with the young lady -- actually, the very young lady -- who gave me the bag and my press credentials this afternoon. But I didn't, because (a) the volunteers at the TIFF press office are the salt of the earth, and I didn't want to make one of them feel uncomfortable, (b) thinking a creepy old man is coming on to you likely can make a very young woman feel very uncomfortable, and (c) hey, that's how rumors get started.

TIFF 2012 Wanna-See No. 3: Bad 25

Reason No. 1: It's a Spike Lee documentary about the classic Michael Jackson album. Reason No. 2: It's documentary about the classic Michael Jackson album directed by Spike Lee. Any questions?

TIFF 2012 Wanna-See No. 2: Men at Lunch

Reason No. 1: Ever since I first glimpsed the above iconic photograph years ago, I've wondered: Geez, who were those guys? And what were they doing up there? Reason No. 2: Director Seán Ó Cualáin obviously had the same questions on his mind -- and discovered, while making Men at Lunch, that many of these dudes were Irish immigrants. Which, being an Irish immigrant's son, does not surprise me at all.

TIFF 2012 Wanna-See No. 1: Capital

Reason 1: It's directed by Costa-Gavras (whose classic Z, by the way, inspired another promising film that will be on view at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival). Reason 2: The tagline -- "We'll keep on robbing the poor to give to the rich" -- is well-nigh irresistible.