Richard wrote about the connection between rock n’ roll and Cadillacs in the Toronto Star.
“In music mythology, the Cadillac looms large. Consider the fact that the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, was such a fan of the automobile that her family arranged to have 100 pink Cadillacs fill the streets outside the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit on the day of her funeral in 2018…” Read the whole thing HERE!
Feeling lonely? “Are You Home” is a virtual party and everyone is invited. Tune in, drop by, hear a few stories and spend some time with us.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
A high school, coma comedy with a fish-out-of-water twist, “Senior Year,” a new Netflix movie starring Rebel Wilson, plays like a mix between “While You Were Sleeping” and “Billy Madison.”
Stephanie Conway (Angourie Rice as teenager, Wilson as an adult) was on track to have a perfect life. A high school star, she was a cheerleader, president of the fashion club and prom queen candidate until a head injury, caused by a tumble off the top of a cheerleading pyramid, put her into coma for twenty years.
Waking up at age 37, it is like no time has passed. As far as she knows, it’s 2002, words like “shiznit” and “bomb diggity” are still hip and she still wants to be prom queen, the pinnacle of high school success. “It’s more than just a crown to me,” she says.
But she is a relic. Social media is a new-fangled thing, political correctness is like science fiction, cheerleaders now do routines about the climate crisis and gun control, and her former classmates are now the parents of high schoolers.
To get on with her new life, its’s time for some adult education… in high school. “I can’t move on to the next chapter in my life,” she says, “if I am still stuck in the old one for twenty years.”
With just a month before graduation, she enrolls, trying to pick up where she left off. But she finds times gave changed. “I had more fun in the coma,” she sighs.
“Senior Year” is a comedy with a scattergun approach.
The coming-of-age story is meant to be a poignant look at Stephanie as she matures and comes to understand that there is more to life than cheerleading and being prom queen. The power of friendships and loyalty are examined—”It doesn’t matter who has the most friends, or likes, or followers,” says Stephanie. “If you just have one or two great friends, they will support you. Then you have got it all. That is worth fighting for.”—butted up against the notion of being true to yourself and the idea that who you are in high school doesn’t define you.
Doesn’t sound that funny, does it?
That’s because it isn’t. At least, not all the way through. “Senior Year” takes a one joke premise and milks it for humor in the first couple of acts. Funny, situational lines are sprinkled throughout the first hour or so. “You survived twenty years without solid food,” says Stephanie’s dad (Chris Parnell), “you can make it through a weekend without your phone,” but they dry up as the movies goes on.
It also goes for laughs from the culture clash between 2002 and 2022. Stephanie has much to learn about political correctness and world events, but to its credit, the film doesn’t treat the teens as woke zombies, spouting catchphrases, but as decent kids who care about their friends and the future.
It sounds like a lot, because it is a lot. Wilson does what she can to keep things moving along, but when the feel-good messaging begins, she is saddled with prosaic, by-the-book truisms that suck away the whatever fun had been established in the film’s first part.
Talented comic actors like Mary Holland and Zoë Chao bring both humor and heart to their roles, but “Senior Year” still feels messy. Too long, it toggles back-and-forth between the sincere and the silly like it is changing gears in a high-speed Formula One race, but, unfortunately, never finds its pace.
It’s unclear whether or not a remake of the blistering 1984 Stephen King movie “Firestarter” is a burning concern for audiences, but here we are with a new version of an old story, in theatres now, about a young girl with pyrokinesis.
All parents think their child is special, but Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) truly know their daughter has a gift. “You’re going to change the world,” he tells her.
Years ago, Andy and Vicky were injected with an experimental serum whose side effect left them with telepathic abilities, which they passed down to the daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) along with the talent for conjuring up heat and fire when angry or in pain.
For a decade they have been on the run from a secret government agency who wants to kidnap Charlie and study her superhuman power. Up until now they have trained the preteen to control her fiery ability, but as she grows up it becomes harder and harder to manage. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Charlie says, “but it feels kind of good.”
When the family’s location is accidentally revealed, a mysterious government operative (Michael Greyeyes) is sent to bring her in as Andy and Charlie look for sanctuary.
The big question about “Firestarter 2.0” is whether or not it improves on the 1984 original. That movie was unfavorably compared to “The Fury,” a 1978 Brian De Palma film that treads, more successfully, similar ground. Looking back now, the original “Firestarter” isn’t a great movie but it does have George C. Scott in full-on menacing mode and a cool soundtrack from Tangerine Dream amid the flames and fire.
Does the new movie bring the heat?
In another cinematic multiverse (which is o-so-hip right now) Charlie could have been a member of the X-Men Jr. or the Preteen Fantastic Four, so it makes sense, particularly in today’s superhero happy market, that the new movie leans into the science fiction and allegorical aspects of the story over the horror. It’s just too bad it doesn’t do much with either approach. Charlie spits fire, and things burn but, cinematically, nothing really catches fire.
The paranoiac feel of government interference is gone, replaced by long boring stretches of exposition and Greyeyes’ underused villain. Set to an interesting score by legendary director John Carpenter (with Cody Carpenter and Daniel A. Davies), who was supposed to helm the original film, the new version gets the soundtrack right, but most everything else feels like a backfire, rather than a “Firestarter.”
“The Last Victim,” starring Ron Perlman as a sheriff on the hunt for some ruthless killers, now streaming on VOD, is a throwback to gritty neo-westerns like “Hell or High Water” and “No Country For Old Man.”
Beginning with a calculated but brutal slaughter at a small-town Southwest American diner, “The Last Victim” follows Jake (Ralph Ineson), the vicious ringleader of the restaurant slaughter as he attempts to dispose of the bodies at the ramshackle, and seemingly closed-for-the-season, Yaj Oolal Overlook Nature Preserve.
Jake’s plan is interrupted by Susan (Ali Larter), an anthropologist with OCD, and her husband, Richard (Tahmoh Penikett), who stumble across the place on a cross country drive. The killer makes short work of Richard, shooting him on sight. Susan is luckier, disappearing into the woods. “Go see if she was dumb enough to make a run for it,” Jake tells his henchmen as their deadly game of cat-and-mouse begins.
As Sheriff Hickey (Perlman) and Deputy Mindy Gaboon (Camille Legg) begin their investigation into the diner murders, Susan must stay one step ahead of Jake to avoid becoming the last victim.
In his directorial debut Naveen A. Chathapuram has made a stylized, tense story of survival. The film has an aura of dread, that builds as the story ticks down to the inevitable climatic showdown.
Chathapuram is aided by a menacing performance from Ineson, who oozes evil, Perlman, whose presence evokes a certain, special kind of gravitas, and Larter’s authoritative work. They make up for some of the movie’s weaknesses, like some o-so-serious voiceover, a somewhat too leisurely pace in the film’s mid-section and a tacked-on ending sequence that adds little, except for a few minutes to the overall running time.
“The Last Victim” is a very strong directorial debut that packs excitement into the storytelling, including a rather surreal climax, with enough twists to keep the story of survival compelling throughout.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we revisit an interview with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. As you probably already know, the legendary comedian passed away last month at the age of 67. I saw him perform just two weeks before his died, and while he looked frail, he delivered a show that was sweet, funny and incredibly rude, sometimes all at once, and that was Gilbert’s magic. There was no one else quite like him, no one as fearless as he was on stage, or as funny.
This conversation dates from the release of the 2017 documentary Gilbert. We talk about the beginnings of his stand-up career, why he doesn’t want his kids to follow in his footsteps and his legendary telling of The Aristocrats, the filthiest joke ever told, in the weeks following 9/11 and how that brough laughter back to New York City.
Then we’ll meet Professor William Irwin of the Philosophy Department of King’s College in Pennsylvania. He is a philosophy professor, literary critic, and heavy metal scholar whose new book “The Meaning of Metallica: Ride the Lyrics,” takes a serious look at the lyrics of metal’s biggest band, disentangling double meanings, explaining stories, uncovering sources, and illuminating themes such as hope, despair, rage, resilience, power, liberty, justice, love, death, and insanity.
Do you have young kids at home? If so, a new series might be just the thing you’re looking for. “Luna, Chip and Inkie: Adventure Rangers Go” is a new series for 3-6 year olds will be available free and commercial free across Canada on the Knowledge Kids app and website. Within British Columbia, the series will also be available to watch on television on the Knowledge Network station.
Creating the music for the series is my guest Daniel Ingram. He is one of the top songwriters working in Children’s/Family entertainment and he has written songs for Emily Blunt, Zoey Saldana, Kristin Chenoweth and even Weird Al Yankovic. He has scored hundreds of episodes of television and most popular songs on YouTube have over 100 million online views, with a cumulative catalogue approaching one billion views.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
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.
Listen to the show live here:
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Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
It’s time to go hunting for Horcruxes once more: part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ in Concert is nearly here!
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs Alexandre Desplat’s epic score as the franchise’s seventh film is projected onto a giant screen at the Meridian Hall (formerly the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts) in Toronto. Join all your favourite characters—and not-so-favourite ones!—as they encounter familiar dangers, new threats, and powerful friendships in this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Richard will host the preshow talk on Thursday May 5, Friday May 6 and Saturday May 7, 2022.
Ticket info available HERE!
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we have a look at a new series on Prime Video that reunites one of Canada’s favorite comedy troupes. From 1989 to 1995 the Kids in the Hall, comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson, bounced around the dial, with their eponymously named television show, bringing with them subversive comedy and loads of laughs.
These days there is a Kids in the Hall renaissance of a sort happening. A biography by Paul Myers titled “The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy” is available wherever fine books are sold, a two-part documentary called “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks” will feature archival footage from the quintet’s earliest years, behind-the-scenes clips from their sketch series and in-depth interviews… most excitingly, there the Kids are back together in front of a camera for a new eight-episode season on Amazon Prime, executive produced by Lorne Michaels. The revival is set to broadcast on May 13, 2022.
Joining me to talk about the Kids in the Hall, past and present is co-founder Dave Foley and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet drummer Don Pyle, whose song “Having an Average Weekend”, was used as the theme to original Kids TV show.
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.
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
Richard hosted the May Giller Power Panel, exploring how books are adapted to the big and small screen, how the writer is involved (or not) in the process, how much control they can exert over the final product, how a book gets optioned, and more.
The panel featured Margaret Atwood, Emma Donoghue, Sarah Polley and Clement Virgo.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
