Archive for December, 2023

2023 in review: my favourite movies of the year (in alphabetical order)

2023 was the year Taylor Swift ruled, while everyone else drooled. On the music charts, in arenas all over the world and even in movie theatres, the “Shake It Off” singer had the Midas touch in a year so stellar her home state of Pennsylvania declared 2023 the Taylor Swift Era.

She soaked up the lion’s share of attention and headlines, but the entertainment gods still found time to bless us with other forms of amusement.

They gave us many great movies that found their way to the few screens that weren’t playing “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie.

Here is my alphabetical list of my favourite films that screened while Miss. Swift entertained the world.

“Air” is a crowd-pleaser, a movie whose specificity, in this case the story of Air Jordans and Nike, becomes a universal story of inspiration, determination and risk taking.

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” perfectly captures Margaret’s tentative steps into adolescence and the life-changing power that comes along with each of her discoveries. Like the book, which runs an economical 149 pages, the movie is a small story that tackles big issues..

Director Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” asks why stereotypes of Black trauma are so prevalent in entertainment by not so subtly satirizing the process and the people who create the limited view of Black life in books and on screens.

“Barbie” has both style and substance, and while its story may get overactive and muddled in its last reel, Gerwig’s point of view on gender roles and the way that women are treated in society pulls few punches.

“Beau Is Afraid” swings for the fences, burrowing in on its grandiose emotional ideas even if it often feels like a three-hour panic attack. Unpredictable, unexpected and ultimately, unexplainable, it’s challenging cinema that connects on a subconscious level.

It is a blast to watch Jamie Foxx in full flight, but it is in “The Burial’s” quieter moments that Gary really comes to life.

“Creed III,” of course, leads up to a showdown between the two frenemies, but as a director Michael B. Jordan finds a way to make the inevitable fight more personal, more dynamic than the usual boxing movie finale. It’s a knockout climax to a sometimes formulaic, but always heartfelt and entertaining, story of ambition and regret.

“Dream Scenario” does feature some surreal dream sequences, but it’s not really about dreams. It’s about life as a modern, viral celebrity, on display in the unblinking eye of the public, social media and cancel culture.

At its core, “Flora and Son” is a love story, but it’s not a rom com. This is about the love of family, music and self and is a rousing crowd-pleaser that breathes the same air as director John Carney’s other films, Sing Street and Once.

“The Holdovers” is a warmhearted coming-of-all-ages movie that never succumbs to cheap melodrama. An uplifting tale of, as Armistead Maupin put it, embracing your logical family instead of your biological one, it avoids overt sentimentality.

Atmospheric and gothic though “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” may be, the movie is actually a tender-hearted story that uses the undead to celebrate life.

Part work-place comedy—think “High Fidelity” only set in a video store—part character study, “I Like Movies” is sweet-natured, funny film that digs deep to make us feel empathy for Lawrence, a socially awkward character who hides his real feelings behind a facade of bluster and pretension.

“The Killer” is a slickly made, stylish thriller, with an anxiety inducing score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, that uses the central character’s aloofness as a hook to pull you to the edge of your seat.

Robert De Niro has played dastardly characters before, but he’s never been as vile as he is in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” And this is an actor who played The Devil in “Angel Heart.”

“Leo” presents a kinder, gentler Adam Sandler than the one who got into an on-screen brawl with beloved game show host Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore.

“Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning” is the ne plus ultra of modern, big-budget studio filmmaking. Director Christopher McQuarrie manages the breathless, super-sized movies with an expert hand, blending old school action movie filmmaking with real stakes.

“Oppenheimer,” the brainiest blockbuster of the season is a period piece about a man who moral conundrums regarding power and the way it is wielded, that resonates just as loudly today as they did when the events took place.

“Perfect Days” is a contemplative movie that examines the simple pleasures in life. Music, literature and nature are showcased, but this poetic, profound film celebrates finding contentment in all aspects of life.

In “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Errol Morris doesn’t attempt to chip away at the façade and get at the underlying truth of John le Carré’s life, because he knows, in the hands of master storyteller, a good story is a good story, whether it is true or not.

An off-kilter “Frankenstein” story, “Poor Things” is a coming-of-age… a long strange journey unlike any other, but one with a strong message of female agency and a spectacular performance from Emma Stone.

“The Royal Hotel” isn’t a travelogue or a Shirley Valentine-style journey of self-discovery. What begins as a lark, an adventure in Australia, soon turns into a cabin-in-the-woods style horror movie, where the boogeyman is toxic male behavior.

Your spidey senses won’t be the only thing left tingling after “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”

It is the focus on Jones as a brilliant musician and not simply another rock ‘n’ roll casualty, that elevates “The Stones and Brian Jones.” The story has its sordid moments, but director Nick Bloomfield emphasizes the very heart of Jones’s being, the music.

The 4K “Stop Making Sense” restoration of the four-decade old movie is a joyful, high-energy revisiting of a classic. A document of a band working at the top of their game, it captures the love of music and performance in a way few other have.

The movie doesn’t break much new ground, the break-up-and-make-up story beats are predictable, but the sweet and sassy performances and genuine family vibe make “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” a welcome addition to the Sandler Family catalogue.

Confident in its uneasy, experimental execution, unblinking in its representation of the facilitation of evil, “The Zone of Interest” isn’t an easy watch, but will resonate long after the end credits have rolled.

IHEARTRADO: “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Airplane!” FEELGOOD Special

On the Saturday December 30, 2023 edition of the Richard Crouse: As we approach the end of another year, I wanted to lighten things up a bit, so today we’re having an and have a look at two movies guaranteed to make you laugh.

First, we’ll meet Jon Heder, Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez, the stars of “Napoleon Dynamite,” the movie Jim Carrey said “changed comedy movies.” The story of a listless and alienated teenager who decides to help his new friend Pedro win the class presidency in their small western high school, while dealing with his bizarre family life back home, is one of the most quoted movies of all time. We go deep on the legacy of the movie.

Then, I welcome brothers David and Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, the writers and co-directors of “Airplane!,” the 1980 hit spoof about which David Letterman said, “film comedy became different after that movie.” the Zuckers and Abrahams have a new book, “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!,” available now wherever you buy fine books, will stop by in just a bit to tell all about the making of the movie and the film’s lasting impact.

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 Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!

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NEWSTALK 1010: MOORE IN THE MORNING ROUNDTABLE: ROUND ONE!

I join Moore in the Morning guest host Jason Agnew and panelists Vass Bednar and Anne Marie AStkins to talk aboput some of the biog pop culture stories of the year.

Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 26:07)

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THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: 3 STARS. “plays tug-a-rope with your heartstrings.”

There are underdog sports movies, and then there is “The Boys in the Boat,” the new film from director George Clooney, now playing in theatres. Set during the Great Depression, the characters in this film fight expectations and fascism.

Based upon Daniel James Brown’s book of the same name, “The Boys in the Boat” centers on Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a struggling University of Washington student who, unable to pay the balance of his tuition for the semester, signs up for the school’s rowing team because it comes with a part-time job and a place to live.

“The depression hit everyone hard,” he says. “No jobs. No food. We were broke.”

Under the tutelage of coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) and boatbuilder George Pocock (Peter Guinness), Rantz and the Washington Huskies, his team of inexperienced, working-class student rowers, are pitted against the richest schools in the country.

“We rowed out of need,” Rantz says. “The need to stay in school. The need to eat. To sleep.”

Through need and determination, the Huskies earned a run at the gold at the 1936’s Nazi-overseen Berlin Olympics.

“They said we couldn’t compete with the richest schools in the nation,” Rantz says. “They said we couldn’t beat the Germans. But they didn’t understand who we were.”

An old-fashioned story of grit and perseverance, “The Boys on the Boat” is a mix of stoicism and sports. Of course, the sport is simply the vessel by which the characters glide through the story. The movie spends a fair amount of time on the water, but rowing is secondary to the rush of inspiration that fuels the story. It’s a story of team work, of young men coming together to overcome not only the economic hardships of their lives and illness on the eve of their big row, but also the Nazis.

Unfortunately, the movie also attempts to play tug-a-rope with your heartstrings. It works its way through to the inevitable happy ending with crowd-pleasing beats that will seem very familiar to anyone with a knowledge of 1990s era sports flicks.

Still, it is a handsomely mounted movie with several intense competition scenes that will set your pulse racing, even if the overly sentimental presentation doesn’t.

THE COLOR PURPLE: 4 STARS. “sure to entertain and inspire in equal measure.”

The glitzy new musical version of “The Color Purple” maintains the talking points of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Stephen Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film adaptation, but adds in a touch of old Hollywood glamor and rousing gospel, blues and jazz songs.

Set in Jim Crow era rural Georgia, Fantasia Barrino reprises her role from the Broadway stage to play Celie Harris, a timid young woman whose life is marred abuse and separation from loved ones. Impregnated by her father when she was just a teen, her baby is given away. Later, when she is shipped off to live with the abusive Albert Johnson (Colman Domingo), a man she is forced to call “Mister,” she is disconnected from her beloved sister Nettie (Ciara).

The cruel and overbearing Mister tells his terrified wife she’ll never see her sister again and blocks any communication between the two. “Whatever I say, go,” he tells her.

Isolated from everything she has ever known, she perseveres through strength of will, the power of imagination and the friendship of the indomitable Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and flamboyant blues chanteuse Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson).

Reimagined as a period drama with a healthy dose of magic realism, the new “The Color Purple” is a journey of self-discovery and triumph over adversity as Celie opts to take agency over her life and not be a docile victim. Despite her trauma, she has an eye to the future, hope and, above all, resilience.

Barrino plays Celie as soft-spoken, allowing the songs, like the moving “Superpower,” to stand out, fuelled by cathartic, powerhouse performances. The role is a weighty one, a stand-in for the evolution of many marginalized people, but this version of “The Color Purple” is an emotional Broadway-style crowd pleaser that turns Celie’s ordeal into a journey of empowerment.

The addition of musical weaves joy into the story.

Director Blitz Bazawule allows Celie’s flights of imagination to temper the story’s built-in oppressive tone. The film’s opening scene, featuring Mister playing banjo, while his horse’s hoof clomps keep time, is subtle, while a scene in which Shug, (a terrific Henson), takes Celie to the movies, becomes a luscious Art Deco fantasy reimagination of the song “What About Love?” It is lavish and lovely.

In terms of staging, one show stopping scene sees Celie sing to Shug while perched atop of spinning gramophone record. It’s a blast of old-school Hollywood glamour that cleverly demonstrates Celie’s use of imagination as a coping mechanism.

This isn’t the “The Color Purple” of old. Boldly stylized, it embraces humor, music, imagination and leaves some space for Mister’s redemption and a slightly more explicit depiction of the relationship between Celie and Shug than in the previous film version. More than anything, though, it is a tuneful, joyful journey from powerless to empowered, from heartbroken to healed that is sure to entertain and inspire in equal measure.

FERRARI: 3 ½ STARS. “Driver and Cruz put the pedal to the emotional metal.”

“Ferrari,” director Michael Mann’s long gestating look at the summer of 1957 and the existential crisis that plagued Italian motor racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari, both personally and professionally, goes flat out, even when it isn’t on the racetrack.

When we first meet Ferrari (Adam Driver) he is a cultural hero in Italy, but his company and marriage are falling apart. His advisors tell him he must take on a partner, like Ford or Fiat, and

Increase his consumer car sales by four times if he hopes to stay afloat. Trouble is, Ferrari wants complete control of his company, and that means no partner and concentrating on race cars, not street vehicles.

At home, his infidelity pushes his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) to extremes. She doesn’t care if he sleeps around, just so long as nobody knows about it. When he arrives home after the maid has served coffee, Laura expresses her displeasure by taking a potshot at him with a gun she carries for protection. That is, unfortunately, the extent of the passion left in the marriage.

Unbeknownst to Laura, who is grieving the loss of their young son, Enzo has a long-term relationship, and has fathered a son, with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley), a woman he met, and fell in love with, during the war. As their son’s baptism approaches, Lina wants to know if the child will carry the name Ferrari, but Enzo has other things on his mind, like the imminent collapse of his company.

His financial advisor Giacomo Cuoghi (Giuseppe Bonifati) suggests entering the grueling, 1000-mile open road race, the Mille Miglia. A win would establish Ferrari supreme over their main rival Maserati, and hopefully encourage sales. “Win the Mille Miglia, Enzo,” Cuoghi says. “Or you are out of business.”

Working from a script by Troy Kennedy Martin, who wrote 1969s “The Italian Job,” Mann’s film feels like two movies on one. On one hand there’s the drama with Laura, Lina and the company. On the other is a piercing look at the dangerous world of racing, circa 1957. “It is our deadly passion,” Enzo tells racers Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone), Peter Collins (Jack O’Connell), and Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey). “Our terrible joy.”

The racing scenes are exciting, shot with verve and style, with a couple of unexpected turns (literally) that vividly capture the dangers of racing. But the racing scenes feel conventional when stacked up against the more complex portraits of Enzo and Laura.

Driver plays Enzo as a charismatic man of action, a physically imposing person haunted by the voices of those who have gone before him, his father, his son and racing colleagues taken too soon. It reveals a rich inner life hidden by his stolid façade. Driver doles out Ferrari’s personality in dribs and drabs; the contented lover with Lina, the hard driving boss with his racers and the stoic husband no longer in love with his wife. All aspects of this performance come packaged in the form of a man treated like a deity—a priest even refers to him as a “god”—but prone to real world failings. Driver captures the public and personal to create a complex portrait of a man driven by a variety of forces.

He is at his best when opposite Cruz. Laura is a supporting character in the story over-all, but her agony/rage for a loveless marriage, a son she was powerless to save and a company she co-founded but is unable to have a say in, is palpable.

You can’t make a movie about Enzo Ferrari and not include racing, particularly the career defining Mille Miglia, but Mann wisely keeps the focus on the interpersonal. “Ferrari” has race scenes, several very effective ones, but the memorable moments happen when Driver and Cruz put the pedal to the emotional metal.