On the Saturday July 19, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse we meet Louise Pitre. Often hailed as Canada’s first lady of musical theatre, she is a Tony-nominated actress renowned for her powerful performances on Broadway and across North America and Europe. Best known for originating the role of Donna Sheridan in “Mamma Mia!,” she has also played Fantine in “Les Misérables” and Edith Piaf in “The Angel & the Sparrow” among many others. Today we talk about “Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812,” an innovative musical from Mirvish that follows Natasha’s scandalous affair and Pierre’s existential crisis amidst the backdrop of 19th-century Moscow, drawn from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”
Then, we’ll meet British author, academic, and adventurer Robert Macfarlane. A Cambridge University fellow, Macfarlane’s work often reflects his deep engagement with wild places, from ancient pathways to subterranean realms, earning him acclaim for his evocative prose and environmental advocacy. Today we talk about his new book “Is a River Alive?” a book that suggests rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings, who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law.
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 in the coastal town of Southport, North Carolina “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” the rebooted slasher film now playing in theatres, sees a group of friends menaced by a serial killer a year after they accidentally killed a man and covered up the crime. When they realize the killer is imitating the deadly hook-wielding fisherman who plagued the town in 1997, they ask Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), the two survivors of the 1997 Southport massacre for help. “Nothing holds people accountable like a good old fashioned Fisherman murder spree.”
CAST: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt. Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
REVIEW: You can’t keep a good serial killer down. “Scream’s” Ghostface and “Halloween’s” Michael Myers both recently made bloody comebacks and later this year “Saw’s” Jigsaw will be up to his ole tricks once again. Its’s nostalgia for the colourful villains of days past, but sometimes, as Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) declares in “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Nostalgia is overrated.”
She’s right.
There’s never been that much going on in the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” movies.
From the 1997 original through its sequels and the 2006 reboot, (“I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” and the reboot “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer”), the films have consistently seemed like lesser versions of “Scream,” lacking its self-aware tone, meta commentary, and compelling characters.
The new trip down memory lane, a legacy sequel that unites new characters with returning members of the original cast, stays true to the franchise. There’s a new spin on the death that kicks off the action, a fresh crop of young victims and a deadly fisherman who is certainly nobody’s friend.
But none of it adds up to much.
The new characters are essentially bait for the serial killer without enough personality to make the audience care about what happens to them. In an effort to avoid the hook they scurry around the screen, with concerned looks on their good-looking faces, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the movie values nostalgia over actual thrills. The kills, and let’s face it, that’s why we watch movies like this, aren’t grisly enough to be memorable, and neither are the characters.
When Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) says, “This whole experience has been, like, zero out of five stars,” it’s hard not to agree with her.
Strangely, the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” mid-credit scene (NO SPOILERS HERE) sets up the movie for a sequel, and, in two or three minutes, is more entertaining than the movie that came before it.
SYNOPSIS: In the new animated movie “Smurfs,” starring the voice of Rihanna and now playing in theatres, what begins as No Name Smurf’s (James Corden) search for identity becomes a more traditional rescue mission when Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is abducted by the evil wizard Razamel (JP Karliak).
CAST: Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Kurt Russell, and John Goodman. Directed by Chris Miller.
REVIEW: A fun but ultimately underwhelming addition to the “Smurf” film series, the fourth franchise instalment “Smurfs” brings the whimsy and some good messages for kids but mostly feels like a rehash of their other films.
The action, which is pedal to the metal, begins with No Name Smurf’s (James Corden) identity crisis. Rather, his lack of identity crisis. Like the Seven Dwarfs, all the other Smurfs have names that reflect their personality. There’s Brainy Smurf (Xolo Maridueña), Vanity Smurf (Maya Erskine), Worry Smurf (Billie Lourd) and so on. When No Name suddenly develops the ability to summon magic from his fingertips, he feels he has found his purpose.
Problem is, his new powers attract the attention of evil wizard Razamel (JP Karliak) who kidnaps Papa Smurf (John Goodman) to get his evil hands on a magical book hidden in Smurf Village.
That sets off a rescue mission. Led by No Name and Smurfette (Rihanna, who produced the film plus wrote and recorded an original song for the soundtrack) the merry band of Smurfs travel the world. From a crazy claymation world and the inside of a mirror ball to real world (i.e. not animated) hotspots like France and Germany, they leave no stone unturned in their search.
To use Smurf vernacular, “It’s a load of smurf.”
That is to say, there’s a lot going on, often at a pace that resembles a blue streak smeared across the screen. Many of the sequences are imaginative, bordering on psychedelic—I think I now understand why the Smurfs live in magic mushrooms, er… make that mushroom houses—that entertain the eye and display a level of craft, but it’s as if director Chris Miller and screenwriter Pam Brady amped up the action to supersonic speeds to distract from the fact that story wise this is as basic as it gets.
Tone wise, it’s a different story. There’s a handful of heartfelt, radio friendly pop songs, and while they’re good tunes, there’s not enough of them to be able to call this a musical.
There are laughs, although at least some of them are of a decidedly adult nature. The film’s biggest giggle, for the grown-ups anyway, comes near the end with some judiciously applied censor bleeps courtesy of Sound Effects Smurf (Spencer X).
Like I said, “It’s a load of smurf.” A hodgepodge of music, gentle mayhem, intergenerational humour and good messages about respect, community, resilience and being yourself, it’s well performed by an interesting array of voice actors (Rihanna, John Goodman, James Corden, Nick Offerman, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Kurt Russell to name a few) but the scattershot storytelling may leave you feeling blue, but not in the way the filmmakers intended.
SYNOPSIS: Set in a small, dusty New Mexico town, the satirical neo-Western “Eddington,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal and now playing in theatres, sees a humiliated man pushed to extremes in the early days of the pandemic.
CAST: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone. Written and directed by Ari Aster.
REVIEW: No one will accuse writer-director Ari Aster of a lack of ambition. “Eddington” throws a handful of genres—neo-Western, political satire, dark comedy, and thriller—into a blender to tell a chaotic story of the early pandemic era. At 145 minutes Aster digs deep into a specific time in the summer of 2020 when the world was turned up-side down by COVID, social distancing, George Soros conspiracy theories, Bitcoin, post truth and any other number of hot button topics. It was a time of ideological whiplash that Aster essays in a film that addresses those powder-keg topics without completely lighting the fuse.
Joaquin Phoenix is Joe Cross, sheriff of the sleepy little town of Eddington, New Mexico and husband to Louise (Emma Stone), a complex woman who suffers from anxiety. Her fragile mental state is exacerbated by her mother Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), a conspiracy obsessed who never met a bit of misinformation she couldn’t embrace.
Joe’s anti-mask stance—”There’s no COVID-19 in Eddington,” he says—puts him in conflict with Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), Eddington’s incumbent mayor now running for re-election.
As outside influences take hold in Eddington, anti-racist protests break out on their lone main drag in response to the death of George Floyd, and calls to de-fund the police ring in Joe’s ears.
As Joe and Ted’s personal and professional animosities grow, the sheriff takes matters into his own hands and announces his bid to run for mayor. With slogans like “Joe Cross for Air! Joe Cross for Mayor!” and “Try No Corruption for a Change,” Joe’s run at public office leads him to down a dangerous and deadly path.
The action described above plays out against a background of news and social media reports of the turbulent social, political, and economic climate that were the earmarks of the era, adding to the film’s unsettled feel.
Unlike most Westerns, even recent neo-Westerns, this isn’t a story of good guys vs. bad guys. In “Eddington,” everyone is morally ambiguous, and while you may like some characters over others, all are damaged, driven by ego, selfishness, greed or ideology.
As Sheriff Joe, Phoenix is a weak man in a job that requires strength and decisiveness, qualities that seem foreign to him until he is pushed up against a wall. A flip on the usual, stoic main figure in a typical Western, this is a guy whose character flaws make up his character. Phoenix isn’t afraid to make him pathetic, and in doing so, delivers another interesting, edgy performance. He’s a walking metaphor, an emasculated man emblematic of the fears and concerns that defined the uncertain, divisive summer of 2020.
He’s a complex guy, an attribute that can’t be said of any of the film’s other characters.
As the smooth-talking mayor, Pascal’s laid-back performance is an antidote to the film’s intensity, but the character doesn’t give him much room to maneuver. Ditto Emma Stone, whose limited screen time reveals a committed performance but little else.
On the plus side, “Eddington” is a confrontational experience, a provocative recreation of the unsettling chaos of the pandemic years and its effect on humanity. On the debit side of the leger, Aster’s reluctance to dig beneath the film’s unsettled surface puts a dull edge on the film’s satire.
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to talk about what to expect when the Emmy Award nominations are announced later today. Will the streamers overtake the networks? Will “The PItt” and “The White Lotus” dominate?
On the Saturday July 12, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. You know the Canadian Screen Award winner as family patriarch Appa on “Kim’s Convenience,” and as Inspector Albert Choi, the new head of Station House No 4, on “Murdoch Mysteries” and as Captain Carson Teva on the Star War series “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka.”
We’ll also meet a guest who began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back tio 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. He’s Elijah Wood, and 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.
Then, we spend time with Gabrielle Drolet, a journalist, essayist, and cartoonist based in Montreal. She regularly contributes cartoons to The New Yorker and the Globe and Mail and is the first woman to receive a National Newspaper Award nomination for Editorial Cartooning. In 2020, she developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It only worsened over time, and as a writer and artist, she had to learn new ways of creating and expressing herself. She placed her first cartoon in The New Yorker—and then was unable to draw for a full year. She has since found ways around this using graphic design software, exercises, and many, many breaks, but the experience has completely changed her life.
She writes about her experiences in her new book, “Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic Pain Memoir,” an often funny but profound book on chronic pain, accessibility, and young adulthood.
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: “Look, up at the IMAX screen! It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s the rebooted Superman!” Set in the DC Universe, the new film is the story of 30-year-old Metropolis journalist and Kryptonian Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman (David Corenswet) and his commitment to the old-fashioned values of truth, justice, and kindness. “My parents sent me to serve the people of Earth and be a good man,” he says. His benevolence has left the cynical public skeptical of his motives, including tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) who is tired of being overshadowed by the Man of Steel, and is steadfast in his belief that Superman’s unrestricted power is a threat to humanity. “Superman is not a man,” he says. “He’s an ‘it’ who somehow became the focal point of the entire world’s conversation. Nothing has felt right since he showed up.” Capitalizing on the fear of the “other,” Luthor uses technology and disinformation to dehumanize and destroy Superman.
CAST: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell, and Milly Alcock. Directed by James Gunn.
REVIEW: The new “Superman” is a state-of-the-art movie with whiz-bang special effects that nonetheless feels old-fashioned. The moody, sombre vibe of the Zack Snyder films has left the building, ushering in a heartfelt story that harkens back to the optimistic, earnest tone of the 1950s and ‘60s comics.
Where Snyder portrayed the Man of Steel as a modern god, new DC head honcho James Gunn frames him as an extraterrestrial with human foibles. “They’ve always been wrong about me,” Superman says, “I love, I get scared… but that is being human. And that’s my greatest strength.”
It’s a throwback, but there’s a timeliness to it as well.
Gunn’s “Superman” reflects a polarized public, poisoned by tech billionaires, the government and on-line toxicity. Hope is a rare commodity, and anger is the new normal.
Sound familiar?
You don’t have to look further than your X feed to see the real-world inspiration for Gunn’s Metropolis. He weaves hot button references to the Russia–Ukraine war, grooming, Fox News and even bot farms that stoke outrage 24/7 into the story’s fabric. Shows like “The Boys” and the animated “Invincible” have used similar methods to essay the world’s current cynicism, with often grim results, but Gunn flips the script, opting for optimism.
Is it corny or is it heartfelt and hopeful? It’s all that, and proudly so.
Under the superhero’s S-shield is a beating heart, brimming with compassion for a world in which goodness is as rare as a hair on Lex Luthor’s head. It’s a gear shift from Snyder’s dark, introspective storytelling; not necessarily better, just different. It’s more surface, but it’s a pretty good surface. The messianic messaging is gone, replaced by a Clark Kent conflicted by his dual identity as an alien and a human, raised on a Midwestern farm. Mix in some of Gunn’s trademarked goofy humour, and a riff on John Williams’ classic “Superman” theme and you’re left with a character-driven film that values uplift over angst.
David Corenswet brings both nostalgia and a modern sensibility to his charismatic take on the Man of Steel. His heroics recall the Supermen of the past, but his Clark Kent is of the present day. In a less cartoonish performance than the exaggerated take of some earlier movies, his Clark is grounded in reality.
He shares great chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. Whether they’re sharing intimate moments as Lois and Clark, challenging one another as journalists and love interests, or in action as the movie leans into the big set pieces of the final third, Brosnahan’s dynamic Lois easily sits on the shelf next to Margot Kidder’s beloved performance.
Every superhero movie needs a villain, and Nicholas Hoult delivers a cold, calculating tech billionaire framed as a modern-day baddie.
There are fun supporting turns from Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific and Nathan Fillion as the abrasive Green Lantern Guy Gardner, but the film’s scene stealer is the CGI, scruffy-but-loyal superdog Krypto.
It would be easy to be cynical about a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve as loudly and proudly “Superman” does, and while it gets a little supermanic in its final half hour, it delivers an up-to-the-minute feel filtered through the nostalgic lens of a vintage comic book.
SYNOPSIS: Based on real events, “Sovereign,” a new psychological true crime drama now playing in theatres, sees a Sovereign Citizen father and his teenage son (Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay) travel the country doing anti-establishment seminars. On their journey to sovereignty, a routine traffic stop brings tragedy. “Power is in the people,” Jerry tells his son Joe. “Always remember that.”
CAST: Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Thomas Mann, Nancy Travis, Martha Plimpton, and Dennis Quaid. Written and directed by Christian Swegal.
REVIEW: A tragic portrait of radicalization and manipulation, “Sovereign” features fine performances from Nick Offerman as an anti-establishment father and Jacob Tremblay as his son. “He says he wants me to be an independent thinker,” Joe Kane (Tremblay) says.
Offerman is best known as Ron Swanson in the sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” a character that echoes “Sovereign’s” Jerry Kane’s endless distrust of government. Both are no-nonsense and skeptical of authority but that’s where the comparisons end.
Offerman played Swanson for laughs, but Kane’s behavior is no laughing matter.
In “Sovereign,” Offerman ups the paranoia and pedantic anti-government wordplay to create a character ground down by the system, a man who would rather die as a “sovereign citizen” than surrender any of his tightly held beliefs. “What we’re after here is not fighting” he says, “it is conquering. I don’t want to have to kill anybody. But if they keep messing with me than I’m afraid that’s what it is going to come down to. And if I have to kill one, I’m not going to be able to stop, I just know it.”
He’s a walking, talking conspiracy theory, a frustrated result of the pain of falling between the cracks and, in his search for autonomy, Offerman gives him a quiet intensity. As he slowly becomes unglued, he’s a coiled spring, ready to pounce, and in his conviction Offerman makes him tragically compelling.
In a mature performance, Tremblay breathes life into Joe’s predicament, stuck between his father’s ideology and his want for a normal teenage life. As his situation spirals out of control Tremblay sees to it that Joe coming-of-age has depth.
The provocative performances are “Sovereign’s” strong point. It’s a slow burn, driven by character and ideas, not by action. Along the way the story drifts, splintering off to include plot shards that distract from the film’s main focus but the chilling portrait of extremism ushers the story along to a tragic and inevitable conclusion.
SYNOPSIS: Six years ago Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa detailed her country’s unstable political climate in her Oscar-nominated documentary “The Edge of Democracy.” She returns to selected theatres on July 12 and Netflix on July 14, with “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” a film that asks, “When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin?”
REVIEW: In its exploration of the rise of evangelical Christianity’s influence on Brazilian politics, “Apocalypse in the Tropics” continues the story begun in director Petra Costa’s Oscar nominated documentary “The Edge of Democracy.”
Costa, who also does the film’s firsthand narration, paints a vivid picture of 2019 Brazil, as a country bedevilled by economic and social turmoil. 30% of the population identify as evangelical, and televangelists, like Silas “exercise your faith” Malafaia hold great sway.
A popular Pentecostal figure, Malafaia’s embrace of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro, whose platform opposed same-sex marriage, abortion, affirmative action, drug liberalization, and secularism, helped push the controversial and polarizing politician to the country’s top office in 2019.
His presidency brought with it a shift away from democracy to a government whose policies leaned toward theocratic ideology. Costa’s access to Bolsonaro, Malafaia and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, provides and unflinching account of the political upheaval that followed the blurring of the line between church and state.
Laser focussed on the evangelical movement, Costa provides an impassioned cry for democracy but gives short shrift to other political moments in favor of Bolsonaro and Malafaia’s zealous biblical ideology.
Integrating the apocalyptic visions of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel paintings, she visualizes Bolsonaro and Malafaia’s fiery, hell and brimstone rhetoric in striking fashion. It occasionally feels over-the-top, but as the movie contextualizes the imagery with archival news footage of Bolsonaro’s supporters storming federal government buildings, the inclusion of the nightmarish paintings becomes justified.
“Apocalypse in the Tropics” suffers from dodgy dubbing from Portuguese to English, but in its specific story of Brazil’s recent past it becomes a chilling, universal and caurionary tale of democracy vs. theocracy.
