I join NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards to talk about a new study published in The Journal of Psychology that suggest watching superhero movies will make the viewer more empathetic.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 20:42)
I’ll be doing an on-screen introduction for the 30th anniversary of “Clerks” at Cineplex’s Classic Film Series this May.
“Years after Kevin Smith used his four years of experience working as a clerk in New Jersey convenience stores as the basis for his first film, he told me, ‘I didn’t make ‘Clerks’ wondering what the critics would think. I made it because I wanted to see it. I wanted to see what it would look like.'”
“Smith says he was inspired by Richard Linklater’s “Slackers” to make movies, so much so, he enrolled at the Vancouver Film School. After just four months he decided to quit, thinking that making his own film was a better use of money…” Buy tickets HERE!
On the Saturday October 19, 2024 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet director Ali Abbasi. His film “The Apprentice,” which is now playing in theatres, is a controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn. It paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.” Ali Abbasi joined me on the phone to discuss his six year journey to getting this film made and released and much more.
Then, Elijah Wood stops by. He began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back to the Future II” to “Internal Affairs” opposite Richard Gere. He became an international star after playing Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. His extensive filmography now includes “Bookworm,” an intriguing film about a 12-year-old named Mildred whose life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding — a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther. It’s a lovely film and it was lovely to speak with Elijah Wood about it and his secret regarding “Lord of the Rings.”
Finally, we’ll meet Jenny Heijun Wills. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Southern Ontario, and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the author of Older Sister. “Not Necessarily Related.: A Memoir.” As a self-described transnational and transracial adoptee, she has spent her life navigating the space between ethnicity and belonging, a subject she tackles in her new book “Everything and Nothing at All.”
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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Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less than a New York Minute! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the horror flick “Smile 2,” the Michael Keaton drama “Goodrich” and the political satire “Rumours.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a handstand! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the drama “We Live in Time,” the satire “Rumours” and the edgy family film “Bookworm.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) always put work ahead of family. But now, with his once successful gallery is on the verge of collapse and his wife in rehab for ninety days, his self-centeredness must take a back seat to tending to his rocky relationship with pregnant adult daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) and his nine-year-old twins.
CAST: Michael Keaton, Mila Kunis, Andie MacDowell, Carmen Ejogo, Kevin Pollak, Poorna Jagannathan. Directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer.
REVIEW: The success of “Goodrich” hinges on star Michael Keaton’s ability to milk humor and charm out of human drama. A wee bit sentimental, and more than a bit manipulative, the film is saved from melodrama by Keaton’s sure and steady hand.
The family drama emanates from the title character. During an argument, his grown daughter Grace calls him the “never available, never home, never ask you how are you? Goodrich,” and we see that guy, but we also see who he’s trying to be, and it is that arc that makes him, and the movie, interesting.
Keaton gives the character the cockiness of a man who is used to success, but as that fades, he becomes more appealing, more aware of his failures as a father and a person. He quotes a Buddhist saying about how the measure of a life can be tallied in how much you’ve loved, how gently you’ve lived and how gracefully you let go of things that weren’t meant for you. He botched all three but wants to make amends.
It’s not a new story but Keaton draws us in because he’s willing to change, particularly in the relationship with Grace.
“Goodrich” is a slight movie that tries hard to pull at your heartstrings. A little too hard perhaps, but the scenes between Goodrich and Grace do offer some unexpectedly hard-hitting moments. “I am then only person who loves you as much as you love yourself,” she says and her words land like a slap in the face.
Ultimately, Goodrich discovers that it is the small things in life that matter, and that everything, from a sunrise to the smile on your Grace’s face can be art, not just the artwork he devoted his life to. Simple messages but delivered with the kind of heartfelt conviction and mix of comedy and drama that recalls Keaton’s earlier work in films like “Mr. Mom.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Smile 2,” a new horror film now playing in theatres, strange happenings plague pop star Skye Riley on the eve of her world tour. As people around her die, their faces twisted into a horrifying “happy face” rictus, she digs deep to confront her dark past so she can get control and move forward.
CAST: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson, Kyle Gallner. Written and directed by Parker Finn.
REVIEW: Even if you’re not a fan of sequels, “Smile 2,“ the follow up to 2022’s “Smile,“ should turn your frown upside down.
The story of a metaphysical being that clings to a host – in this case a popstar named Skye Riley, played by a terrific Naomi Scott – asks some questions – What is real and what is not? Does a vomit leave DNA behind?– and delivers some truly creepy and inventive psychological thrills.
“Smile 2” specializes in jump scares, but director Parker Finn also stages several memorable scenes of psychological terror. A face that suddenly evokes Skye’s car accident is an unexpectedly cool image, but it’s a sequence of her persecution through her home that brings true horror. Staged somewhere between a mass zombie attack and a Broadway dance number, it’s one of the film’s best scenes.
Added to that are some very funny moments – mostly courtesy of Dylan Gelula as Gemma– that provide breaks from the mounting tension.
As Skye’s BFF Gemma, Gelula brings relatable, charm, while Ray Nicholson, as the pop singer’s deceased boyfriend does a very credible impression of his famous father Jack’s “Shining“ era.
Scott, however, Is the film’s MVP. On screen for 99% of the runtime, she sells the terror of someone who can’t be sure what is real and what is not.
The extreme ending may suffer by comparison to the recently released “The Substance,” but caps the movie with a sequence that’ll keep the gore hounds happy.
“Smile 2” is the rare sequel that outdoes the original, and actually made me curious about where the franchise—and if it makes bank this weekend, it will become a franchise—will go next.
SYNOPSIS: Part rom com and part essay on what lingers after we’re gone, “We Live in Time” stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as a couple who learn to cherish the short time they have together.
CAST: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Adam James, Marama Corlett, Aoife Hinds. Directed by John Crowley.
REVIEW: Told with a broken chronology, jumping to-and-fro in time, “We Live in Time” begins as a light and frothy rom com but becomes a touching story of love and loss.
Before it becomes a four-hankie tearjerker, however, it acts as a showcase for the chemistry and charisma of its leads Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, as it captures their meet cute and the initial spark of their love. Those sections are playful, imbued with a sense of hope and expectation at where this relationship may take them.
When Almut (Pugh) is diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer, the film becomes less about the romance, and more about the transcendental nature of living life on a deadline. “Let’s just say I’m not sure I can go through all that again,” she says. Having gone through chemo once before—“All I did was go bald and puke my guts out,” she says—she opts for quality of life versus quantity opting to have six great months, rather than get treatment and live twelve “passive” months.
It sets the couple, and their young daughter Ella (Grace Delaney), on a journey to live as fully as possible in the time they have left together.
The film’s unconventional puzzle structure goes a long way in preventing the story from becoming a maudlin tale of a young mother’s demise. It can take a few minutes to acclimatize to the time travel, but once the film’s rhythm makes itself clear, the shifting between good times and bad tempers the movie’s innate tragedy.
Tempers, but doesn’t erase. When Almut says, “I don’t want my relationship with Ella to be defined by my decline,” it is as devastating an admission as we’re likely to hear in a movie this year.
Cue the Kleenex.
“We Live in Time” is funnier than you might imagine it will be, but it is still a weepie, although one that skirts easy sentimentality. That’s because of the richness of the characters, courtesy of Pugh and Garfield, the intimacy they create on screen, and director John Crowley’s insistence that a movie about death can still be life-affirming.
SYNOPSIS: “Rumours,” a surreal new satire starring Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander and now playing in theatres, sees a group of clueless G7 politicians attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis during some sort of apocalyptic event. Not even the presence of a Volkswagen-sized brain and mysterious bog people can distract from their writing their meaningless manifesto.
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira, Zlatko Burić. Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson.
REVIEW: Poking fun at self-serving politicians could be low hanging fruit, but “Rumours,” the new film from directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, doesn’t just pick the fruit, it picks it and hurls it at it subjects with great, gleeful comic force.
A surreal satire set against the backdrop of a G7 summit in Germany—starring Cate Blanchett (the German chancellor and host), Roy Dupuis (the Canadian PM), Takehiro Hira (the Prime Minister of Japan), Nikki Amuka-Bird ( the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Rolando Ravello as Antonio Lamorte (the Prime Minister of Italy), Charles Dance (the US president with a pronounced English accent), and Denis Ménochet (the French leader)—it’s a candy-coloured tale about calamity, lust, ineptness and self-importance.
The heightened performances are a bit of fun, given texture by a script that provides each character with enough oddball personality to match the film’s bizarre story.
The lovelorn Canadian Prime Minister, for instance, is a tortured soul who allows his crushed romantic dreams to get the best of him as events spiral. “I love strong women!” he bellows, apropos of nothing, before dashing off into the woods, as if he is ruled by passion above all else. “I love them too much!”
It’s a funny, ridiculous moment, one among many, in what is essentially a one joke movie about political ineptitude. The ineffectiveness of the politicians in almost every aspect of the action, from doing their government jobs to surviving the strange circumstances swirling around them, is wacky political satire, amplified to reveal the truth of political incompetence.
Self-important politicians have always been easy targets—Aesop wrote about political speeches that promised more than they could ever deliver and that was in late to mid-6th century BCE—but it is satisfying to poke fun at authority. Every generation demands their own stick in the side of those who walk the halls of power, so even if the themes and tropes are familiar “Rumours” is that sharpened stick. Unlike the politicians it depicts, it delivers on what it promises.
