By the time next week rolls around and I am sitting down to write another of these pieces the film loving part of Toronto will be deep in the throes of TIFF - the monstrous Toronto International Film Festival, which will screen roughly three hundred films from around the globe in the span of ten days. The arrival of TIFF, coming as it does at the end of summer movie season, is normally a time to talk about the split between so called 'art' film and the souped up pulp that fills screens in the summer mutliplex but, more and more, that difference is becoming hard to see.

Opening at the multiplex this week? Machete, like Piranha 3D before it a seemingly critic proof exploitation of sex and violence for entertainment and profit. Frankly, it looks like big bags of fun which means it's precisely the sort of thing that 'serious' critics are supposed to hate. What they're supposed to love is all the serious art film playing at TIFF.

But what's actually playing there? Well, there's Ben Affleck's latest thing, for one. There's a new Will Ferrell movie, for another. Then there's a doc stuffed with as many naked breasts, decapitations and bizarre creatures as they could possibly pack in, linked together with interview pieces from John Landis, Joe Dante and last year's Lifetime Achievement Oscar winner Roger Corman. Heck, go a bit farther afield and you've got Korea's I Saw The Devil, a film briefly banned in its native country, cuts forced upon it due to graphic violence and the general degradation of humanity. This from one of the most respected directors in the world, using two of the biggest box office stars in all of Asia. And all of this is without even touching on the Midnight Madness program, where the populist fare is supposed to be tucked away from the 'serious' audience.

My point? We love to segment stuff off, to categorize it into handy classes and say we like one class of thing but don't like another. But it's all bullshit, really, the product of millions of dollars in marketing money spent to convince you that you like one thing but don't like another. Kids are told they like pulp. Grown-ups are told they're too advanced for that. But all that really matters -- regardless of where something comes from or how 'serious' it's supposed to be -- is whether or not you enjoy it. So I recommend doing what I plan to do. Go out this week and maybe take another look at some underwater nudity in Piranha 3D, then watch Danny Trejo carve people to a pulp in Machete, and then jam in as much foreign language stuff as I possibly can while I've got the chance. Toronto is about to be flooded with a wave of cinematic riches, people, so take advantage if you can.