Kristal Cooper, Author at We Got This Covered - Part 8

Kristal Cooper

Kristal Cooper has been a film buff since the age of two when her parents began sneaking her into the drive-in every weekend. Since then, she's pursued that passion by working for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Film Centre. She currently acts as Toronto Film Scene's Managing Editor, writes reviews and celebrity interviews for We Got This Covered and continues to slog away at her day job as a small cog in the giant machinery of the Toronto film community.

Kristal Cooper - Page 8

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Straw Dogs Review

The best that can be said about Straw Dogs is that it’s watchable: and that’s due to Alexander Skarsgard’s stellar abs.

Butter Review [TIFF 2011]

Not quite salty enough to make this cinematic experience sweet, Butter is a wannabe dark comedy that may or may not be a veiled metaphor for the Republican Party’s bid for presidential office. It’s an intriguing idea to parallel the cut-throat world of butter carving competitions (yes, they do exist in real life) with the no-holds-barred arena of politics. Sadly, the comedic elements of Butter are just too soft to compare to other far funnier films of its ilk like Drop Dead Gorgeous, Election or To Die For.

The Descendants Review [TIFF 2011]

It should be no surprise that a collaboration between everyone’s favourite big screen charmer George Clooney and Alexander Payne, the man behind such recent classics as Election and Sideways, is great. What is surprising is that The Descendants manages to even surpass those stratospheric expectations most fans will have walking into the theatre and cement its spot on many people's Top 10 films of the year list.

The Awakening Review [TIFF 2011]

Following the Spanish flu epidemic and World War I, it makes sense that, as the opening moments of The Awakening tell us, “This is a time for ghosts.” We’re talking bump in the night, see a dark shadow out of the corner of your eye ghosts that stalk the hallways of gothic stone buildings, wailing and menacing any living creature that dares set foot in their territory. This is the world in which Writer Stephen Volk and Writer/Director Nick Murphy have chosen to set their creepy and only slightly derivative supernatural spook fest.

Drive Review [TIFF 2011]

Nicolas Winding Refn's atmosperic direction, Gosling's sheer presence and a soundtrack that's perfection make Drive a fantastic film.

Contagion Review

Contagion may be a case of feverishly good filmmaking (and an excellent, if slightly more high brow, addition to the disaster movie genre), but ultimately it will leave you with little besides an admiration for Soderbergh’s artistry.

The Debt Review

It seems us cinephiles are doomed to live in a world of remakes. Why, over the last two years alone we’ve had to contend with Hollywood "re-imagings" of both foreign films and past American movies reaching into the double digits. Most of them are just pointless and bad (I’m looking at you, Arthur) but occasionally, one comes along that does great justice to the source material.

For everyone who’s grown tired of the summer onslaught of superheroes, save-the-world plots and explosions, Hollywood finally offers some decent counter-programming in the form of the brainy romance One Day.

Press Conference Interview With Kevin Smith On Red State

Kevin Smith is sick and tired of the game. The game of making movies, that is. Yesterday, at a press conference held at Toronto Underground Cinema, mere hours before the sold-out Toronto premiere of Smith’s latest film Red State, Smith waxed poetic on everything from career burn-out and film marketing to Michael Bay and Walter Gretsky.

International Trailer For We Need To Talk About Kevin

Unless you attended Cannes this past May (or are a member of a particularly edgy book club), you may not have heard of the buzz surrounding We Need To Talk About Kevin.