Didn't get to catch any screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival over the first week? Looking for some tips on what to watch this week, or just want to know enough to impress your co-workers?

Special guest critic Matthew Price chimes in once again with his amazing reviews. This time, he takes a look at A Film With Me In It, It Might Get Loud, Vinyan, and Religulous.

Darren Aranofsky's The Wrestler may have picked up the Golden Lion at Venice, but it was LeBron James that was on the minds of Toronto cinephiles yesterday.

In town to promote the More Than A Game — a film that tracks the trials, challenges, and successes of a high school basketball team from Akron, Ohio, and which also happens to be the team where LeBron James first received national attention before his NBA stint — James took some time out to host a slam dunk exhibition in Dundas Square before Youssou Ndour's performance.

While everyone loves a slam dunk expo, the movie itself was actually pretty good, garnering a standing ovation from the crowd and causing LeBron James himself to greet the audience in tears.

TIFF '08 is off to a rocky start with rescheduled screenings, finicky projectors, and at least one pissed off Toronto Sun writer. Midnight Madness, however, continues apace after last night's ear-throbbingly awesome screening of Detroit Metal City.

Programmer Colin Geddes has been calling Wednesday night's Martyrs "one of the most controversial titles in the history of Midnight Madness," but it was this evening's Deadgirl that had the most on-the-ground buzz for its queasy, I-don't-know-if-I-want-to-see-that subject matter. Hardly surprising: the film's potentially awesome, potentially awful, definitely troubling premise concerns two teenage boys who discover the body of a dead, naked girl... and proceed to "take advantage of the situation."

Looking for some tips on what to catch at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, or just looking to be kept in the loop on some of the big film-related talking points in the city this week?

Special guest critic Matthew Price will be chiming in from time to time to give you the scoop on some of the films playing at TIFF. Today, a review of Achilles & the Tortoise, C'est pas moi, je le jure, and The Sky Crawlers. (Plus my own quick review of O'Horten.)

The first installation of the Short Cuts Canada programme kicks off at the Toronto International Film Festival later today, and one of the films playing tonight is Us Chickens by Toronto-based filmmaker Mark Van de Ven.

I had the chance to chat with Mark for a few minutes about his movie and what it means for him to be playing at TIFF this year. Here are his thoughts in three minutes:



(Yes, it was raining outside when we filmed this. Thanks to Mark for being a great sport and not minding a few raindrops on his head.)

Day three, and the Toronto International Film Festival is already getting immense attention from local Torontonians. A big reason for that may have been the arrival of Brad Pitt yesterday for the screening of Burn After Reading. At the screening of the film, co-director Joel Coen thanked Pitt and the rest of the A-listers in his movie: "We'd like to thank the amazing cast for induging in our nonsense."

Nonsense or not, Burn After Reading was one of the most buzzworthy movies to screen yesterday — but it certainly wasn't the only story making waves.

Wednesday's gala presentation of Fifty Dead Men Walking is running in to some trouble because the former British spy who is the subject of the film has not waived his moral rights to the story. TIFF programmers are assuring the press and public that the screening will happen, and filmmakers have retained local legal counsel to make sure everything goes off without any glitches.