Richard sits in on the CTV NewsChannel to have a look at the weekend’s big releases including the boundary pushing “Birds of Prey,” the #MeToo drama “The Assistant” and the giddily gory “Come to Daddy.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
A weekly feature from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest and most interesting movies! This week Richard looks at the emancipation of Harley Quinn in “Birds of Prey,” the timely messages of “The Assistant” and the father complex(ities) of “Come to Daddy.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
This week on The Richard Crouse Show “The Assistant” director Kitty Green stops by. The film is a re-creation of a day in the life of Jane, played by “Ozark” star Julia Garner, an assistant to a Weinstein-esque figure at the height of his power.
Green is an award-winning Australian filmmaker. Her debut documentary feature, “Ukraine Is Not a Brothel,” explored a provocative feminist movement in Ukraine. After making its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2013, the film screened at more than 50 film festivals internationally and won the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award for Best Feature Length Documentary. Green’s follow-up project, “The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul,” won the Short Film Jury Prize for nonfiction at the Sundance Film Festival. Her latest feature documentary, “Casting JonBenet,” was acquired as a Netflix Original, premiered at Sundance in 2017, and screened at the Berlinale before receiving the AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!:
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.
Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
The most nominated film at the 2020 Oscars is “Joker” with 11 noms.
There’s a three-way tie for second, at 10, with “The Irishman,” “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” and “1917.”
Netflix led the nominations with 24, followed closely by Disney at 23 and Sony Pictures at 20 nominations.
John Williams was nominated for his 52nd Oscar nomination — making him the most nominated single person after Walt Disney and the most-nominated living person. Williams has won the Oscar five times — the original “Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List,” “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial,” “Jaws” and “Fiddler On The Roof” — and this becomes the sixth time he has been nominated for a “Star Wars” film.
With His 9th directing nomination, Martin Scorsese is the Most-Nominated living director. The late William Wyler was nominated for best director 12 times.
“Parasite” made history with its six Oscar nominations. Bong Joon-ho’s thriller is the sixth film to be nominated for both Best Picture and International Feature Film, joining the ranks of last year’s “Roma,” France’s “Z” (1969), Italy’s “Life Is Beautiful” (1998), Taiwan’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), and France/Germany/Austria’s “Amour” (2012). “Parasite” is only the 11th foreign-language film to ever be nominated in the top category. A foreign-language title has never won the Oscar for Best Picture in the ceremony’s history.
Saoirse Ronan is the second youngest 4-time acting nominee for “Little Women.” The current record-holder, Jennifer Lawrence, beat Ronan by mere months — she was also 25 when she earned her fourth Oscar nomination for “Joy” in 2015.
Bong Joon-ho made history as the first South Korean director to receive this nomination
THE PREDICTIONS:
BEST PICTURE
“Ford v Ferrari”
“The Irishman”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“Little Women”
“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
“Marriage Story”
“Parasite”
“1917”
WILL WIN: 1917
SHOULD WIN: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
Scarlett Johansson, “Jojo Rabbit”
Florence Pugh, “Little Women”
Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”
WILL WIN: Laura Dern
SHOULD / COULD WIN: Florence Pugh
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”
Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
WILL WIN: Brad Pitt
SHOULD WIN: Everyone else can stay home, this one goes to Pitt
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”
WILL WIN: Joaquin Phoenix
SHOULD WIN: Joaquin Phoenix
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”
Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”
Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”
Renée Zellweger, “Judy”
Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”
WILL WIN: Renée Zellweger
SHOULD WIN: Renée Zellweger
DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite”
Sam Mendes, “1917”
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
WILL WIN: Sam Mendes
SHOULD WIN: Quentin Tarantino
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
South Korea, “Parasite”
Spain, “Pain and Glory”
France, “Les Misérables”
North Macedonia, “Honeyland”
Poland, “Corpus Christi”
WILL WIN: Parasite
SHOULD WIN: Parasite
IN CONVERSATION WITH… BILL NIGHY : SAT | FEBRUARY 8 | 7:45 PM | THE VIC
Join us for an intimate evening of lively conversation with one of the greatest British actors working today–Bill Nighy. From Love Actually to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to Harry Potter and many, many other notable works, this multi-award winning actor is sure to entertain with his hilarious dry wit and incredible experiences both on and off set. Following the conversation, there will be a special screening of Nighy’s 2019 UK indie hit Hope Gap.
Hope Gap is the heartbreaking and heartwarming tale about the intricacies of the dissolution of a marriage between Edward (Bill Nighy) and Grace (Annette Bening) – and the ensuing emotional fallout their divorce has on their only grown son, Jamie (Josh O’Connor)
Host of In Conversation is Richard Crouse
Richard Crouse is the host of the CTV talk show Pop Life, and the regular film critic for the 24-hour news source, CTV’s News Channel, and CP24. He is also the author of nine books on pop culture history including Who Wrote the Book of Love, and the best-selling The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and its sequel. From 1998 to 2008, Crouse was the host of Reel to Real, Canada’s longest-running television show about movies, and is a frequent guest on many national Canadian radio and television programs.
MORE INFO HERE! READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENT HERE! EVEN MORE HERE!
Here’s a quote about the show from “Times Colonist“:
It has been a big year for the 26th annual event, which opened last week. Among the early highlights was a much-celebrated appearance by Bill Nighy, who attended a festival party on Feb. 7 before sitting for an hour-long chat with critic Richard Crouse in front of a sold-out audience at the Victoria Conference Centre on Feb. 8.
Kay said Nighy’s appearance at the opening gala “was a nice surprise.”
“When he came out on stage [at the conference centre], there was a standing ovation, and the same again when he finished,” Kay said. “People were so excited.”
Hope Gap
Director: William Nicholson
UK 2019 100 min
hopeful + tender + brilliant cast
After 33 years together, Grace and Edward’s marriage is on the rocks. Their blissful, bohemian lifestyle, on the Southern English coastline, has reached a cliff edge. When Edward urges their son Jamie (God’s Own Country’s Josh O’Connor) to return for the weekend only to reveal to all that he’s had enough and his bags are packed, it’s clear that an almighty storm is about to descend.
Hope Gap, Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Nicholson’s second film as director, tracks the unravelling of three lives through stages of shock, disbelief and anger, to a resolution of sorts. Though Jamie attempts to act as a mediator between his parents, his own relationship struggles are a reminder of how silence breeds silence down through the generations, how gaps echo from parents to their children.
Annette Bening gives a barn-storming performance as the acidic and often unreasonable Grace, firing out snappy one-liners whilst undergoing an emotional apocalypse, and Bill Nighy is superb as a quiet, though unacceptably cowardly man, who just wants to update Wikipedia in peace…
Shot with a ravishing sense of design and colour, making the most of the lush English coastline, this is an emotionally astute portrait of a marriage at the end of its life; of regrets uncovered, decisions made too late and the precariousness of hope. But in the end, it is also a story of survival. A story of hope.
As “Joker” sweeps through Awards Season, scooping up a motherlode of Best Actor gold for Joaquin Phoenix, along comes the standalone story of the Clown Prince of Crime’s former female sidekick. “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” sees Margot Robbie revisit her unpredictable “Suicide Squad” character in an R-rated film that is part action, part comedy and all attitude. More in tune with the antics of “Deadpool” than the serious tone of “Joker,” “Birds of Prey” is a fourth-wall-breaking story that doesn’t feel like other superhero movies.
Picking up after the events of “Suicide Squad,” Gotham City has become a cesspool of crime. Batman has flown the coop leaving the city unprotected from the likes of crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). The baseball wielding Quinn has rid herself of her former “partner in madness,” the Joker—” I am so over clowns!” she says—and now travels with a new squad of vigilantes. “As it turns out, I wasn’t the only dame in Gotham looking for emancipation,” she says. Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) come together to help Harley protect Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a young pickpocket who had the bad luck of coming into possession of a diamond ebcoded with a valuable secret, a secret Black Mask desperately wants. “I’m back on my feet,” Harley says, “ready to embrace the fierce goddess within.”
“Birds of Prey” is a story of survivors, of feminism, of tough women out on the town and it is the most fun DC has offered up at the movies. The stripped-down story sheds “Suicide Squad’s” nihilistic nonsense in favor of empowerment and general kick assery.
It gets off to a slow start, establishing the characters and situation, but erupts in the last third with bombastic action choreographed by director Cathy Yan and “John Wick” fight maestro Chad Stahelski. Forget the CGI finales of the Marvel Universe, this is blood-soaked up-close-and-personal stunt action with a wicked sense of humour.
Robbie has a gleeful, cheeky commitment to the character that sets the tone for the movie’s 80s new wave kaleidoscopic aesthetic. With a habit of settling disputes with a baseball bat to the groin she isn’t a role model but is unpredictable, scrappy fun to watch on screen. Ditto McGregor who actually seems to be having fun wearing Black Mask’s hyped-up wardrobe after a series of movies that have left his charisma relegated to the backroom.
“Birds of Prey” is loads of fun but manages to weave some serious ideas about not needing men to survive into the chaos. Most of all, though, it feels like a welcome antidote to the monotony of so many comic book inspired films.
Family reunions are often fraught with tension. Old wounds are opened by familiarity bred by contempt but few reconciliations have turned as dark and twisted as the father and son get together in Elijah Wood’s new thriller “Come to Daddy.”
Wood is Norval, a self-described music industry big deal, raised by his single mother in Beverly Hills. After receiving a letter from his estranged father requesting a face-to-face meeting, he makes the trip to a remote California home to meet a man he barely knows. He’s met by Brian (Stephen McHattie), a flinty, drunken older man with a sharp tongue. When Brian tries to impress the older man by dropping Elton John’s name, Brian calls him out in an embarrassing and cruel way. The situation doesn’t improve with the introduction of alcohol and soon the situation becomes dangerous.
That’s it! No spoilers here. Trust me when I say that unless your family gatherings include torture and excrement dripped shivs, you haven’t experienced a father and son situation quite like this before.
Darkly humorous and disquieting, “Come to Daddy” is a gonzo thriller that revels in the off-kilter nature of the escalating intrigue of the story. As the running time clicks through to the end credits the stakes for Noval surge in increasingly outrageous ways. It’s all good, gory fun that plays up the absurdity of the situation while still maintaining the complexity of the father-son relationship. It’s a mish mash of revenge, squeamish violence and surreal family drama that should please midnight madness fans but leave others reaching for a barf bag.
Richard joins Canada’s number one mid-morning show, “The Marilyn Denis Show” to talk Oscars, who will win and who should stay home.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the BIll Carroll morning show on CFRA in Ottawa to talk about the long career of the late Kirk Douglas.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:17)
