I always try and check out the Hungarian and Romanian films at the VIFF, since it's pretty much the only time I get a glimpse of "the homeland" outside of dinners with my extended family. So imagine my delight that this year there's a film about the Romanian Revolution. 12:08 East of Bucharest, which won Camera d'Or for best debut at Cannes, is hailed as the next big thing in the European New Wave and is full of bitingly funny deadpan humour. Um, no, sadly it isn't.

A black comedy starring Vancouver's Fred Ewanuick and directed by Newfoundland's Mary Walsh. Ewaniuk portrays Newfoundland Ranger Andrew Hepditch in something of a Dudley Doright fashion, being both naive and clumsy. He's the butt of his unit's jokes, and they figure that they really got him when he's sent out to remote Swyers' Harbour to investigate a sheep shagging incident.

This is a surprisingly charming film at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. If nothing else, it's the height of this year's non-angst-ridden English language features. Mrs. Palfrey checks into the Hotel California Claremont, and she never leaves... She finds adventure and romance living in this hotel that has definitely seen better days.

I went into this screening expecting Close to Home to be another Israeli border patrol documentary, only pointing the camera at female recruits. This fictionalization follows two women in their required national service and depicts them as being pretty much normal people with normal concerns.

This sort of film is the sort of thing that makes people hate the French.

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People have been calling this "Douglas Coupland's love letter to Vancouver" and going on and on about how this quirky film represents Vancouver in all ways. Well, that's what I was hearing from Toronto residents in the aftermath of the Toronto International Film Festival. As someone who has lived in Vancouver for the past decade, I'm not sure "love letter" is really appropriate.