There's a key visual metaphor in Hunger, when Bobby Sands creates a circular work of art on his cell wall out of the only medium available to him, his own excrement. Making art out of shit is the goal of this film, one that it achieves quite dramatically.

The film revels in its ambivalence, painting the final days of Sand's hunger strike, his relationship with the guards (and their own views on the matter) in great strokes of grey. This is no dogmatic script or sycophantic polemic, but a subtle, convincing look at an egomaniacal and delusional leader of men who holds on to his moral convictions through the most heartwrenching travails, and the sometimes sadistic and other times compassionate prison guards that he sees as his enemy. The tour-de-force scene, where Sands has a conversation with a priest, is simply riveting, a single shot that seems to go on forever, performances ratcheted up to an electric degree.

The film is a study in meditation and ambivalence, a fine achievement by this first time director.

Who would have thought that a dark Irish comedy with a fairly significant body count would be TIFF 2008's purest example of farce?

Unapologetically silly and fun, A Film With Me In It takes a story of accidents and turns it into a clockwork-like structure of bad news followed by worse. Continuously trumping the "can't get any worse" ethos, the fine performances by Mark Doeherty (also the writer) and comedy stalwart Dylan Moran make this a giddy, morbid yet terrific little film.

Man fucks computer through hole drilled on side of case. Man experiences pleasure, making him addicted to plooking every computer in his office as they prepare for Y2K.

Canadian drivel, an embarrassment to our industry, and the type of crap that would never play this fest if it weren't from the Great White North. Awful.

Linklater tells the tale of a young kid Richard (Zac Efron) who finds himself under the wing of Orson Welles (Christian McKay) as he puts on his rendition of Julius Caesar. As Richard falls for Welles's assistant (played by Claire Daines), he finds that he must share the affections of his girl with his new mentor.

This is a cute, quirky coming-of-age film, hardly groundbreaking, but deftly executed. For the most part Efron keeps his head above water (a cringe-worthy musical scene is one major exception), but McKay's bombastic take on Welles, and Daines's usual competent self keeps the whole thing rolling along nicely.