On the Saturday May 3, 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 (2024), which features great tunes like “Money Can’t Buy” and “Summer Don’t Go”.
Then, we’ll meet Keira Jang, star of Can I Get A Witness?” a Canadian eco-sci fi/coming-of-age film now on streaming sevices. It’s set in a future where climate change and world poverty have been eradicated. To mitigate these modern-day issues, travel and technology are banned and every citizen must end life at 50. Documenting the process are artists as witnesses, like the character Kiera plays, a teenager on her first day on the job.
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.
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the antiheroes of “Thunderbolts*,” the crime caper “Another Simple Favor” and the bio pic “Being Maria.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Thunderbolts*,” the new Marvel superhero movie starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan now playing in theatres, a team of mostly of reformed supervillains must confront their past deeds when they’re lured into a deadly trap by the manipulative Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
CAST: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Directed by Jake Schreier.
REVIEW: A popcorn movie that delivers big boffo action and introspective moments, “Thunderbolts* is a welcome return to form for Marvel after a rough couple of years.
Marvel has often examined ideas of responsibility within their superhuman characters, but rarely have they delved into mental health issues as they do here.
As Yelena Belova, a Black Widow assassin whose hands are stained by blood, Florence Pugh has the physicality to play the rough n’ tumble character, but it is her meditative side that makes her interesting. She can punch, kill and quip with the best of them, but in her work is tinged with an edge of loneliness and lack of purpose that are the result of her deadly, isolating work.
Handled with maturity, the examination of mental health is sensitive, especially so in the case of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who (SLIGHT SPOILER) becomes Yelena’s guide into “The Void,” a dark place where their trauma is endlessly enacted. These vividly rendered scenes of mental anguish are as vivid and suspenseful as any of the film’s battle scenes, but they also provide backstory that deepens the characters and relationships.
“Thunderbolts*” is meditative up a point, but this isn’t a Marvel movie à la Ingmar Bergman.
The character’s self-analysis fuels the gritty action as the entire misfit team—Belova, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (a very funny David Harbour), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)—learn they are stronger together than apart.
One for all and all for one.
It’s pop psychology, but it provides a welcome entryway into exploring larger themes of psychological trauma left from a lifetime of killing and personal loss.
Is it too soon to say that “Thunderbolts*” harkens back to “classic” Marvel on the big screen? It’s back to basics, doing away with multiverses and the onerous weight of crossovers with the other films, to deliver an entertaining, relatively straight-ahead blockbuster with action, humor and heart.
SYNOPSIS: “Being Maria,” a new French language biographical film now on VOD, is the story of Maria Schneider, the young actress who found fame and trauma after starring in the controversial “Last Tango in Paris” opposite Marlon Brando.
CAST: Anamaria Vartolomei, Céleste Brunnquell, Giuseppe Maggio, Yvan Attal, Marie Gillain, Jonathan Couzinié and Matt Dillon. Directed by Jessica Palud.
REVIEW: A story of exploitation, “Being Maria” is marred by a straightforward approach to a very difficult topic.
The instigating incident happens on the set of “Last Tango in Paris,” director Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 erotic drama about an anonymous sexual relationship between an American man who has an affair with a much younger French woman.
During the filming of one of the film’s scenes Schneider is subjected to an unscripted, humiliating sexual act. Despite Brando’s “don’t worry, it’s just a movie” admonition, she is left emotionally unsettled.
The film becomes an international hit, drawing raves for Brando and Bertolucci. Schneider, however, is subjected to ridicule and left with a festering sense of resentment.
Based on Vanessa Schneider’s memoir “My Cousin Maria Schneider,” “Being Maria” goes on to detail the actress’s struggles with addiction, depression and suicide ideation, all resulting from the scandal generated by her on-set exploitation.
At the film’s center is Anamaria Vartolomei’s sensitive portrayal of Schneider (who passed away in 2011). As Schneider personal life falls into disarray Vartolomei allows the character an interesting sense of agency. Her take on Schneider allows the character to have hope, even when she is at her most hopeless.
It’s a portrait of a naïve nineteen-year-old, victimized by people who had power over her on set, director Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio) and Brando, (played convincingly by Matt Dillon) who is presented as a creative mentor.
The emotional injury caused by Brando and Bertolucci reveals itself in bits and pieces, worsening over time. Vartolomei, seen recently opposite Robert Pattinson in “Mickey 17,” always feels emotionally authentic, even when the film itself dips into a melodramatic second half.
“Being Maria” is raw, with a terrific central performance, but stops short of fully exploring the power imbalance.
SYNOPSIS: Seven years after the frenemy mystery “A Simple Favor,” comes a sequel to Prime Video appropriately called “Another Simple Favor.” Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are reunited as Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson, with director Paul Feig, for another adventure.
The last time we saw them, vlogger Stephanie and Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) facilitated sending Emily to jail. Now, she’s out and asks Stephanie to be her maid of honor at her extravagant wedding on the Isle of Capri. Cue the murder and mayhem. “To old friends and new beginnings,” Emily says, toasting Stephanie with a martini. “And not getting poisoned,” adds Stephannie.
CAST: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Elena Sofia Ricci, Henry Golding, and Allison Janney. Directed by Paul Feig.
REVIEW: At oner point in the action Alison Janney says, “It doesn’t make any sense.” She is, of course, not referring to “Another Simple Favor,” but she could have been. A zig-zaggy sequel to the 2018 thriller, it features enough plot twists to give Agatha Christie whiplash. The sun-drenched island of Capri setting still allows for many dark corners for this story of murder, messy relationships and mafia to unfold.
Despite the ridiculous story swerves, it’s all played with a relatively straight face. The chemistry between Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively keeps things sparkly, but with a wink. It’s as if the characters know the things they are doing are implausible, but they’re happy to be along for the ride.
Kendrick brings her trademarked likability which plays in nice contrast to Lively’s charismatic screw loose take on Emily. Together they weather the script’s red herrings, holding the splintered story together with the sheer force of their chemistry.
The sinister tone of the original is missing, and it goes on a bit too long, but the sense of absurdity that drove the 2018 film is here in abundance. In other words, it’s a crime story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you.
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the glamorous mystery “Another Simple Favor” and suggest cocktails to match with the movie’s Italian backjdrop!
Listen to a special excerpt from my conversation with Sean Ono Lennon HERE!
Listen to some simple cocktail flavors inspired by “Another Simple Favor” HERE!
On the Saturday May 3, 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”.
