It was quite a culture shock going from the peace and beauty of Telluride to the hustle and energy of the Toronto International Film Festival. My trip to Toronto involved numerous mishaps which seem a little more amusing after a solid night's sleep than they did at the time. First, flying out of Gunnison, I almost didn't get on my plane at all because I didn't have a passport, just my birth certificate (which is all you're required to have until December 31). The kid at the counter was flustered by my lack of a passport, however, and it took a very long time and him making several phone calls to finally figure out that no, I did not have to have a passport, and yes, there was a way to enter me in the system and print my boarding passes.

The flight to Denver was on a tiny prop plane (did I mention I hate small planes and that I'm claustrophobic?) and we had major turbulence for all 36 minutes and 23 seconds we were in the air, not that I was counting. Also, in spite of the fact that on the flight to Gunnison we had been provided bottled water, on the flight out, when someone asked about the water, the flight attendant rudely snapped that we weren't getting any and it was a short flight anyhow. You'd be amazed how thirsty and grumpy 40 people can get when they are deprived of water for half an hour.

Once we got to Denver, for some reason TSA pulled some guy out of the boarding line. I don't know why, and no one would tell us what the issue was, but it freaked a few people out. Finally got into Toronto at 9PM, and got flagged at customs for some reason and sent over to immigration, who very nicely drilled me about my business in Toronto and whether I was going to be taking any jobs away from good Canadian citizens. They also drilled me a bit over the two boxes of t-shirts I had shipped ahead -- were we selling the shirts? What kind of shirts? What were they for exactly? Apparently I gave the right answers because I wasn't detained for too long. I retrieved my luggage at last (why is baggage claim at Pearson International so slow? Anyone?), only to get flagged a second time and sent to another immigration guy, who asked me the same questions as the first, pretty much. Fortunately, I was cleared again. Whew.

On the cab ride to the hotel, my Indian cabbie informed me that he drives a cab because he wants to, not because he has to, and that he used to have a very good job, which he quit on purpose. He talked about his kids a while, then about why I was there. I mentioned the festival, and he said, "Movies, bah! Did you see Gandhi?" Yes, I replied, I had indeed seen that film. "And what did you think of it?" This seemed like a dangerously loaded question, so I picked what I thought was an innocuous response, "I thought Ben Kingsley was excellent in it." Wrong answer, apparently. The rest of the ride he told me all about how he hates Gandhi, how Gandhi was a liar, and how the truth about Indian independence has long been suppressed by the government. Not a lot to say to that, especially someone who's driving 100km/hr, so I just "mmm'ed" and "ohhh'ed" a lot.

Once at the hotel I went to change into my comfy jammies and suddenly saw a personal tag on my bag -- with a Canadian flag. Now, I am not Canadian, and this was not my tag, so I freaked. It was late and I was tired, hungry, and immensely grumpy, but James Rocchi (Cinematical's intrepid editor) gamely walked me to the shuttle stop three blocks away, paid my fare for me, and off I went back to the airport with the offending bag. Once there, I was heading to baggage security, when I glanced at the bag and noticed that it was missing a little emblem on the front zipper pocket ... just like my bag. Odd. I checked the airline tags ... MY name was on them (I thought I'd checked them when I pulled it off the baggage carousel, but when I saw the personal tag I thought I was mistaken). I zipped open the front pocket, and there, sure enough, were my books and hairbrush! Someone had put this woman's personal luggage tag onto MY bag (probably at Gunnison, because the name and address on the tag told me that she was the woman I'd been seated next to on the flight from there). How or why that happened, I will never know, but I hopped another cab back ($48 plus tip --twice in one night), reached the hotel, got into aforesaid jammies and slept for ten hours. And yes, readers, I know, many of you are thinking, "if you'd just checked inside the bag at the hotel..." But I honestly thought it was another woman's bag at that point, and I didn't want to violate her privacy by going through her personal things. Would you have looked?

Anyhow, none of that has anything to do with movies, really, but just in case you were thinking we lead the glamorous life here at Cinematical, well, sometimes it ain't so glamorous. Besides, now you can laugh behind my back at what a travel dork I am. Now that I'm here in Toronto and have gotten some rest, I'm very excited about the films on my agenda. Here are a few I'm looking most forward to and why:

Fido -- One of two films from the Canada First! section on my list, Fido is about a small town stuck in the 1950s -- where space dust has brought the dead back to life. Never fear, though, a company has figured out how to make zombies the workers for the regular people, and a little boy wants his very own zombie for a pet. Cast includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly and Tim Blake Nelson, so 'm hopeful that this will be fun. It's described as being in the spirit of Shaun of the Dead, which I loved.

Candy - I really enjoyed Australian actress Abbie Cornish in Somersault when I saw it earlier this year. Now she's starring opposite Heath Ledger in director Neil Armfield's Candy, about a heroin-addicted poet (Ledger) who falls in love with a painter (Cornish). Through him, she gets hooked on heroin too, and well, as you might expect, things go downhill from there. Geoffrey Rush costars. It's probably going to be depressing as hell, but I hope in a good way.

Penelope - Produced by Reese Witherspoon and starring Witherspoon, Christina Ricci, Catherine O'Hara, James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland), and Peter Dinklage, the film is about Penelope (Ricci), a aristocratic girl born under a family curse -- that the next daughter born would have the snout of a pig. Poor Penelope's curse can only be lifted if she marries someone of her own class -- rather difficult when you have the nose of a pig.

Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro's newest film is set in the aftermath of the 1936 Spanish Civil War. The film blends fantasy and reality through the tale of Ofélia, a young girl who lives in fear of her stepfather, a military man intent on destroying the rebel forces. The girl discovers a secret labyrinth near the house, guarded by a mysterious creature named Pan, who gives her three dangerous tasks to perform. Keep an eye out for our interview with del Toro later in the festival.

For Your Consideration - Why am I excited about this one? Quite simply, because it's the latest from Christopher Guest, and I love his films . Starring the usual actors Guest works with, the film is about Hollywood during awards season. Guest making fun of Hollywood's back-patting? Oh, yeah.

The Namesake - I missed seeing Mira Nair's film no less than three times at Telluride due to various conflicts, but I will be seeing it at Toronto. Based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, the film is about a young Indian-American man saddled with the name Gogol, who wants to change his name. As Gogol's family prepares for him to marry a good Indian girl, Gogol, chafing against his family and tradition, falls in love with a white girl (Jacinda Barrett). We'll have an interview with Nair later on in the fest as well.

Fay Grim - The long-awaited follow-up to Hal Hartley's 1997 film Henry Fool, this film focuses on Henry's wife, Fay (Parker Posey, reprising her role from the first film). Fay's poet brother, Simon (James Urbianak) , who helped Henry escape the country after Henry killed a vicious neighbor, realizes that Henry's dreadful attempt at a literary masterpiece, "Confessions," might just be a coded chronicle of atrocities of governments around the world. Political intrigue ensues, with Jeff Goldblum playing a CIA agent.