So I just saw 29 movies over the last nine days.  Good times.  Some highlights:

Up in the Air -- This was just as good as the awesome trailer would lead you to believe.  Maybe better, even.  The trailer makes it out to be a flat-out drama but it's actually surprisingly funny -- but the humour never comes at the expense of the characters.  George Clooney gives what is quite possibly his best performance ever.  Jason Reitman has definitely come a long way since the enjoyable but overrated and smug Juno.  This is tied for my favourite movie of the festival with...

Enter the Void -- Sprawling, bizarre and amazingly visceral, this is definitely not a film for everyone, but I thought it was pretty mind-blowing.  I've heard it described as the last 20 minutes of 2001 stretched out into a whole movie, which I think is somewhat apt.  It was quite possibly one of my most memorable movie-going experiences ever, and a film that absolutely needs to be seen on the big screen.  Seriously -- I don't think they should even bother releasing this on home video.  You need to watch this on a gigantic screen and just let it surround you and draw you in.

The Loved Ones -- A really well made horror film that just gets more and more twisted as it goes along.  Kinda reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original, not the awful remake).  

Harry Brown -- This is a movie about Michael Caine as a badass vigilante -- if that's not a sure thing, I don't know what is.  The director would have had to really work hard to mess up this concept, which he thankfully did not.  Michael Caine was amazingly good.  Plus, there was a scene involving Michael Caine buying a gun off a shifty drug dealer that was one of the best things I've seen in a while.

[REC] 2 -- Just as good as the original [REC] if not better.  Pure, unadulterated awesomeness.

Perrier's Bounty -- An Irish gangster movie starring Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and a scene-stealing Jim Broadbent.  Funny,well made and almost ridiculously fast-paced, this was definitely one of the better entries in the gangster genre of late.  

There were some other gems as well -- A Serious Man was bizarrely hilarious, Last Ride featured a great performance from Hugo Weaving (A.K.A. Agent Smith from the Matrix), and Leaves of Grass was yet another winner from Tim Blake Nelson.  As for the duds, the Dirty Saints was so pretentious it almost came off as a parody of strange foreign art-house films, Making Plans for Lena (a "mystery screening" that didn't actually play in the festival proper) was unpleasant and boring, and Kamui (a movie featuring both ninjas and shark-hunting pirates) wasn't nearly as good as the premise would lead you to believe.  There was also Air Doll, which, while not a dud by any means, was a pretty big disappointment.  

Can't wait for next year!