On the Saturday May 31, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet one of country music’s most exciting and dynamic new voices, Niko Moon. He first garnered attention as a co-writer for Zac Brown Band, contributing to hits like “Homegrown” and “Beautiful Drug.” He has also wrote songs for Dierks Bentley, Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flatts, and Morgan Wallen before breaking out as a solo artist with his 2020 multi-platinum single “Good Time”.
His debut solo album “Good Time” showcased his ability to write a catchy-hook and he continued to deliver the optimism and hope he’s been known for on 2024 album “Better Days” and on his latest releases, “These Are the Days” and “These Are the Nights.”
This tour follows Niko’s latest EPs “These Are The Days” and “These Are The Nights,” which features great tunes like “Money Can’t Buy” and “Summer Don’t Go”.
Then, we’ll get to know Pete Crighton. He came of age in the early/mid 1980s in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Growing up in Toronto, he was terrified that his friends and schoolmates would find out that he was gay at a time when being gay felt like a death sentence. He found comfort in music and eventually curated a massive record collection. That music, and his mid-life sexual awakening, from one-night stands to friendships resulting from app-based hookups, is the subject of his new book “The Vinyl Diaries: Sex, Deep Cuts, and My Soundtrack to Queer Joy.”
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!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
SYNOPSIS: Set three years after the events of “Cobra Kai,” “Karate Kid: Legends,” the sixth film in “The Karate Kid” franchise, sees teenage kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) and his mother relocate to New York City from Beijing, China after a family tragedy. Li befriends classmate Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley) and her pizzeria owner father, which puts him in the crosshairs of Mia’s ex-boyfriend, aggressive karate champ Connor Day (Aramis Knight). Challenged to a karate showdown, Li trains with kung fu teacher, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), and the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to prepare. “Li is to me what you meant to Sensei Miyagi,” Mr. Han says to Daniel LaRusso.
CAST: Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen. Directed by Jonathan Entwistle.
REVIEW: At a tight 90 minutes, the new movie in the “Karate Kid” franchise doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel. Essentially a remake of the original film, it treads a familiar path with a simple feel-good story of an underdog and a bully.
“Karate Kid: Legends” is formulaic, predictable and leans heavily into fan service, but in this case, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. Director Jonathan Entwistle rushes through the narrative, attempting to deepen the story with a tragic history for Li Fong and his mother, a budding romance and a shake-down gang story. None of them are particularly well developed—although as Li and Mia, Ben Wang and Sadie Stanley have good chemistry—and all serve essentially as McGuffins to point the plot in the direction of Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio and the film’s climatic showdown between Li and his nemesis, a one-dimensional Karate expert named Connor (Aramis Knight).
The presence of Chan and Macchio goes a long way to make up for the film’s complete lack of innovation. As Li’s mentors they bring humour and a warm nostalgic feel. Like so many of the film’s elements, they’re underused—Why wouldn’t they examine the parallel life paths of Li and the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso?—but when they are onscreen the movie perks up.
“Karate Kid: Legends” isn’t a great movie. Six movies in, it feels as repetitive as the endless “jacket on, jacket off” training Mr. Han subjects Li to throughout. It’s a film that could have gone directly to streaming, but its short runtime doesn’t overstay its welcome, and the classic underdog story still works, even if it feels a bit frayed around the edges.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Phoenician Scheme,” a new Wes Anderson film now playing in theatres, Benicio del Toro is Zsa-zsa Korda, a shady businessman who made his fortune through “unholy mischief.” On the verge of a new venture, he finds himself in the crosshairs, literally, of tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins. “Why do you need to keep assassinating me all the time?” he asks.
CAST: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Imad Mardnli and Hope Davis. Directed by Wes Anderson.
REVIEW: There was a time when I loved Wes Anderson’s movies. His holy trinity, “Bottle Rocket,” “Rushmore,” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” were all unconventional gems; movies with a singular point-of-view that examined the lives of misfits and oddballs.
Then I stopped loving and stared merely liking Anderson’s movies as his signature whimsical style began to squeeze the life out of his stories of self-discovery and community. Still, his stop-motion “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” for example, was mannered but also hilarious and poignant.
These days, I long for the days of the relative restraint of “The Darjeeling Limited” and “Moonrise Kingdom.” Perhaps it’s a case of familiarity breeding contempt (although think that is too harsh a word), but to me Anderson’s films have lost the humanity of his earlier work. They still cover much of the same thematic ground, commenting on family dysfunction, failure and redemption, but they now feel as though they arrive covered in bubble wrap like precious museum pieces.
Such is the case with his latest, “The Phoenician Scheme,” a stylish story of big money, attempted assassinations and family, it features a topflight cast, who all seem to be having a swell time slotting themselves into Anderson’s carefully crafted, artisanal film. But there is an air of artificiality that settles over the movie like a shroud which sucks way much of the emotional depth.
“The Phoenician Scheme” is pretty, occasionally amusing and the commitment to deadpan performances is unparalleled, but even though I’ll watch anything with Benicio del Toro, it is more concerned with style than substance. As a result, its well-worn take on the evils of capitalism, as personified by del Toro, feels academic rather than authentic.
SYNOPSIS: A gripping movie about grief and loss, “Bring Her Back,” now playing in theatres, stars two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins as a foster mother of two young people who hides a sinister plan behind her sunny smile.
CAST: Sally Hawkins, Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips. Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou.
REVIEW: “Bring Her Back” is a horror film with some very disturbing images. Think self-cannibalization and you’ll get the idea, but it isn’t only the visuals that pack a punch. Co-directors Danny and Michael Philippou bring a tragic sense of loss and grief that hangs over every frame like a shroud. That dark sense of haunting embeds itself like a hook in a bass’s mouth in the viewer’s consciousness and will not let go until long after the end credits have rolled.
It’s a slow burn, squirmy watch filled with surprises and unsettling performances.
Set in current day Australia, the story of stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) begins with the death of their father. The two are close, with Andy helping the strong-willed Piper navigate the world as a sightless person. Forced into foster care—Andy is just three months away from turning 18, the legal age when he can apply to become Piper’s guardian—they are welcomed into Laura’s (Sally Hawkins) home. A mother still grieving the loss of her daughter, there’s something sinister lurking behind Laura’s sunny disposition.
If Andy is to become Piper’s guardian, he must prove to Laura that he is “safe and reliable.” But first Andy must decide, before it’s too late, if Laura, and the odd, seemingly feral child Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips) who lives with her, are eccentric or dangerous.
From the opening frames “Bring Her Back” has a sense of anxiety, like everything is tilted 180 degrees. It builds over time, before exploding in a climax so twisted (NO SPOILERS HERE) it leaves one horrified as it explores the extremes that grief and loss can push a person.
Hawkins is remarkable as Laura, a woman whose deep wounds make her a tragic figure, but one capable of great menace. She is unpredictable, able to change from dangerous to doting with just the flick of an eyebrow.
Fine work from Barratt and Wong delves deep into the psychological aspect of the horror. Andy earnestly tries to do what is best for Piper, but his secrets, once revealed, erode the trust his stepsister once had for him. That heartbreaking rupture in their relationship, manipulated by Laura, is key that opens the door to the horror. Once ajar, any sense of normalcy that may have existed goes out the window, leading up to an unforgettable climax.
“Bring Her Back” has graphic moments, but it doesn’t rely on jump scares to make its point. It is the psychological horror, the very core of the film’s exploration of grief, that disturbs and devastates.
On the Saturday May 24, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Farren Timoteo, star, Co-Creator and Co-Executive Producer of “Made in Italy,” a tour-de-force solo show packed with disco, fantastic singing and a host of hilarious character, which plays at the CAA Theatre in Toronto until June 8, 2025.
Based on his Italian family, in particular his father, it’s the story of an Italian teenager growing up in Jasper, Alberta in the 1970s, caught between two worlds and determined to make his mark. Farren and the show are the winners of a shelfful of awards, including the Calgary Theatre Critic’s Award for Outstanding Performance in a One-Person Show.
Then we’ll meet Christophe Lebold, the professor of literature, performance studies and rock culture from Strasbourg, France whose book, “Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall,” is being called “an extraordinary piece of work, at every level” and the best book ever written on Leonard Cohen.
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!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
SYNOPSIS: In “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” the eighth instalment in the franchise now playing in theatres, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team attempt to save the world from a “truth eating, parasitical AI known as The Entity.” If Hunt and his IMFers (Impossible Missions Force) can find The Entity’s original source code they just might be able to “deceive the Lord of Lies” and save the world. “The whole world is in trouble Ethan,” says former pickpocket-turned-IMF-agent Grace (Hayley Atwell), “and you’re the only one I trust to save it.”
CAST: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
REVIEW: “I need you to trust me one last time,” Ethan Hunt says to his team in the new film, but he could be speaking directly to the audience.
For almost thirty years we have come to trust that the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise will deliver sky-high thrills—like Tom Cruise hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building—good looking people in exotic locations and convoluted, exciting stories of espionage, ripe with twists and MacGuffins. Sometimes the movies were needlessly confusing, but they were always entertaining and, “Look! Tom just rode a motorcycle off a 4,000-foot cliff!”
Given the track record, it’s easy to trust Ethan Hunt one last time. It’s easy to believe Cruise and Co will offer blockbuster entertainment for their last time in the clandestine world of the IMF. But, as Ernest Hemingway said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
In other words, buy the ticket, take the ride. Your trust will be rewarded with a ponderous, overlong movie that goes out of its way to break the golden “show me, don’t tell me” rule. Endless exposition weighs down scene after scene as Hunt as his team explain their every move and every convoluted plot twist, as if vocalizing the movie’s wild tangents makes them less preposterous.
It’s a talky movie that leans heavily into nostalgia—the first hour is basically a recap with flashbacks—and self-congratulation. It’s disappointing because this series has always valued entertainment over set-up. They haven’t always made sense, but the movies have never failed to make our collective eyeballs dance with big action sequences.
“The Final Reckoning,” however, does give Cruise a chance to indulge in his daredevil tendencies.
An ambitious underwater sequence is a testament to the franchise’s commitment to practical stunts over CGI enhanced imagery. As Cruise swims through the wreck of a sunken Russian submarine the danger and claustrophobia are tangible, and it raises the stakes for Hunt and the movie.
After that, director Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the script with Erik Jendresen, settles back into the film’s talky, laborious vibe until a third reel aerial sequence finally delivers the kind of wowser eye candy we trusted Cruise to deliver. Set 10,000 feet in the air, the death-defying scene sees the star jump between biplanes to thwart the film’s villain, a painfully underused Esai Morales. It’s wild, high-flying action even by Cruise’s superhuman standards.
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” asks for your trust, and, if you’re patient and willing to sit through pages of dialogue to get to the heart-pounding action you expect from a film like this, it earns that trust. But, overall, this explosive franchise goes out with a whimper not a bang.
SYNOPSIS: This live-action animated remake of Disney’s 2002 animated film, “Lilo & Stitch” tells the story of Lilo, a lonely girl who befriends a mischievous, koala-like alien named Stitch. Despite Stitch’s genetic disposition to causing chaos, Lilo’s belief in ohana, the Hawaiian concept of family, helps Stitch com e to believe in love.
CAST: Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Hannah Waddingham, Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, and Courtney B. Vance, Tia Carrere, Amy Hill, Jason Scott Lee. Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp.
REVIEW: The latest live-action remake from Disney is an entertaining family film that may give fans of the 2002 movie déjà vu, but there’s just enough new stuff here to please older, nostalgic fans and win over new converts.
The new version, directed by “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” helmer Dean Fleischer Camp, follows the template set by the 2002 animated movie.
When we first meet Stitch he is known as Experiment 626. He’s the brilliant, but destructive creation of mad scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis). Born in a lab to be an agent of chaos, he is deemed too dangerous to stay on his home planet. As he is about to be exiled, 626 makes a run for it, hijacking a space craft and ultimately crash landing in Hawaii, where he is adopted by a lonely six-year-old named Lilo (Maia Kealoha) who thinks he is a dog.
In reality, he’s more of a cross between Keith Moon and Wile E. Coyote.
Since the death of her parents Lilo has been taken care of by her older sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong) who struggles to make ends meet and is now under the watchful eye of a social worker played by Tia Carrere.
With agents from his home planet and a determined CIA agent with the unlikely name of Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance) on the search for him, Stitch remains a troublemaker but soon learns the importance of feeling safe with Lilo and Nani, his new, adopted family.
The heightened family relationships give this otherwise run-of-the-mill alien tale a great deal of heart. It unapologetically slips into sentimentality, but the bond between Lilo and Nani, and later with Stitch, is the stuff of good kid’s cinema. The story doesn’t have the depth that Camp was able to infuse into every frame of “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” but he does a good job with the simple message of finding family in whatever form they appear.
Add to that Stitch’s hijinks, which are gently chaotic and likely to appeal to kids more than adults, and you get an entertaining kid’s flick that doesn’t improve on the 2002 film—it lacks the visual beauty of the original’s mix of hand drawn and watercolor animation and adds about twenty minutes of story that feels like padding—but reshapes the original with high-spirited humour and heart.
SYNOPSIS: In the bilingual romantic comedy “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” Agathe (Camille Rutherford), an awkward bookseller at Shakespeare & Co in Paris and wannabe writer, is signed up for an English writer’s retreat, hosted by distant relatives of Jane Austin. “I’m Jane Austin’s great, great, great, great nephew,” says Oliver (Charlie Anson), “I just think her work is a little overrated.”
CAST: Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson, Annabelle Lengronne, Liz Crowther. Directed by Laura Piani.
REVIEW: An old-fashioned literary rom com, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is about Agathe (Camille Rutherford), a wannabe writer whose lessons in love come directly from the pages of the 19th century English novelist’s works.
So, no dating apps for Agathe.
When she starts, but can’t finish, a new story, her friend and sorta, kinda love interest Felix (Pablo Pauly) signs her up for the Jane Austen Residency in England. Reluctantly, she agrees to the trip, and, once there, attempts to find her literary voice while navigating a “Pride and Prejudice-y” love triangle between herself, the womanizing Felix and Jane Austin’s great, great, great, great nephew, the Hugh Grant-esque Oliver (Charlie Anson).
It’s a classic “enemies to lovers” situation—Oliver and Agathe don’t exactly hit it off at first sight—but one that plays out with the subtlety of a Regency rom com.
Paced at slower speed than most modern rom coms, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” thematically strides the line between Austin and modern-day romantic comedy.
References to “Pride and Prejudice,” “Persuasion” and other Austen novels are there for the taking, but so do finely crafted rom com banter, some screwball comedy and there’s a barfing scene that would make Austen flee from the theater.
At the heart of the story is Camille Rutherford. As Agathe she balances some wacky rom com traits—she’s afraid to ride in cars and knows, in her heart, that Felix isn’t a good match for her—with the real-life trauma that drive her into a fantasy land of Austen’s creation. It’s Rutherford’s performance, in a movie that leans into rom com tropes, that feels refreshingly human.
She ably supported by Anson, whose Hugh Grant impression is a scene stealer.
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” doesn’t plough new thematic ground, but charismatic performances earn it a recommendation.
