The website Movieweb rounds up ten movies from before 1980 everyone should watch at least once. Included in the list is “The Devils,” the Ken Russell film and the subject of my book “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils,” which gets name checked in the article.
Read the whole thing HERE!
On the Saturday August 30, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet Lauren Holly. You know her from television shows like “Picket Fences,” “NCIS” and “Motive,” among many others. On the big screen you’ve seen her as Mary Swanson, the wealthy but troubled heiress, in the comedy “Dumb and Dumber,” as trophy wife Cindy Rooney opposite Dennis Quaid in “Any Given Sunday,” and many others in a career that spans forty years, and includes comedies like “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane” and “What Women Want,” action movies like “Crank: High Voltage” and dramas like “Chicago Hope.”
She joins me today to talk about “Loathe Thy Neighbor,” a new project very near and dear to her heart. The film, which begins in theatres on August 29, follows Will Larkfield, played by Brennan Clost, a young man forced to relocate to his late father’s farm as part of an unexpected inheritance. What begins as a simple missing package soon spirals into a battle of wills with Lauren Holly’s character, the neighbor from hell, Wanda Bellerose, reminding us that sometimes the smallest problems cause the biggest messes.
Then, guest James Webb tells his an incredible story. Hailing from Australia, he’s a competitive eater, ranked fourth in the world. He has shattered records, by devouring 59.5 donuts in one sitting and taking on the biggest names in the sport.
After overcoming a near-paralyzing illness, James has risen to become the “Champion of the Southern Hemisphere,” with his sights set on dethroning the legendary Joey Chestnut at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Today we’re talking about competitive eating as a sport, how he prepares and the documentary “James Can Eat,” his story of resilience, obsession, and jaw-dropping feats will leave you hungry for more!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
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I chose the Toronto International Film Festival movie I am most excited to see for Toronto Star film critic Peter Howell’s annual TIFF round-up.
“When I first heard Guillermo del Toro talking about wanting to make his version of Frankenstein, I was excited. That was twenty years ago. Now that the long wait is over, I’m still excited to see the classic story brought to life through del Toro’s unique lens.”
Read the whole thing HERE!
I join “Free for All Friday” host Amanda Galbraith to talk about my three top TIFF picks.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the 1981 novel “The War of the Roses” by Warren Adler, and the 1989 film with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, “The Roses” sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as married couple Theo and Ivy. Their picture-perfect relationship dissolves into resentment when Theo’s career takes a dip while Ivy’s own ambitions take off.
CAST: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, and Kate McKinnon. Directed by Jay Roach.
REVIEW: This story of the thin line between love and hate begins with love at first sight. British architect Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) and chef Ivy (Olivia Colman) have instant chemistry and soon find themselves living in San Francisco with their two kids, Hattie and Roy.
Life is good.
Even though Ivy’s restaurant, I Got Crabs and I Loved It is struggling, Theo’s bold design for a new maritime museum is just about to celebrate its grand opening. “We want to be the couple who supports one another completely,” she says.
When a storm hits their coastal town, closing off the main road, traffic is diverted to her failing restaurant. For the first time ever, the place is packed. On the other side of town, the same storm tears the roof off Theo’s latest design, collapsing the building and his self-worth.
The next morning, he is unemployable, crushed and embarrassed. “It was everything to me,” he says. Her business, however, is bolstered by a rave review in the paper from a food critic who was stranded by the storm.
As Ivy’s culinary empire blossoms, Theo’s jealousy and resentment grows.
Unemployable, he stays home with the kids as Ivy buzzes around in private jets, consumed with growing her restaurant empire.
When he designs a beautiful home for them—which she pays for—their discontent ripens, pushing them to extremes. “Someone has to sacrifice themselves on the altar of our marriage,” she says. “But who is it going to be?”
“The Roses” is top loaded with laughs. In the film’s first minutes Cumberbatch and Colman set the tone with their edgy back and forth—”In England we call that repartee,” Theo says—tossing off one-liners in response to a therapist’s suggestion that they list ten things they love about one another.
“I would rather be with her than a wolf,” he says.
“He has arms,” she says.
The scene is fast, funny and establishes their tetchy, witty banter as the couple’s love language. In a departure from the original film, Ivy and Theo actually seem to like one another, even when they don’t.
Theo’s treatment of their children—he weans them off Ivy’s homemade sweets in favor of hardcore exercise—is a major source of tension in the couple, but it’s the kids who are also, in many ways, the glue that holds them together.
That dynamic makes for a more realistic look at a couple near the breaking point, but it also slows down the “endlessly whirring machine” the couple finds themselves trapped in. The propulsive vibe of the film’s first act fades as the story sits at a slow simmer for much of its latter half.
Still, even though this iteration of the story doesn’t lean into the farcical elements, or much of the nastiness of the original, it’s a pleasure to watch Cumberbatch and Colman effortlessly cut through this material like a hot knife through butter.
SYNOPSIS: In “Caught Stealing,” a new dark comedy from director Darren Aronofsky, and now playing in theatres, Austin Butler plays Hank, a bartender whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to look after his neighbor’s cat. Drawn into the soft underbelly of 1990s era New York City, Hank finds himself fighting for his life (and the cat’s well-being) at the hands of various gangsters who believe he has something they want. “These guys you’re messed up with,” says Detective Roman (Regina King), “they’re scary monsters.”
CAST: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny, Carol Kane. Directed by Darren Aronofsky.
REVIEW: “Caught Stealing” is a departure for director Darren Aronofsky. His movies have essayed everything from addiction and apocalypses to isolation and psychological turmoil, and while many of them, like “Black Swan,” “The Wrestler,” “The Whale,” and “Requiem for a Dream,” have been critical and commercial hits, they haven’t been what you would call crowd-pleasers.
His latest film, “Caught Stealing,” starring Austin Butler as a bartender who gets drawn into the criminal underworld of Giuliani-era New York, however, is a crowd-pleaser, but only in the most Aronofsky-esque of ways.
A violent, dark comedy that plays like a cross between Guy Ritchie’s quirky criminal dramas and the Kafkaesque absurdity of “After Hours,” “Caught Stealing” is an adrenalized, twisty trip typical of the genre, but seen through Aronofsky’s edgy lens.
Hank, the charming bartender played by Butler, is not your genre typical everyman who gets in over his head. Aronofsky and screenwriter Charlie Huston, who adapted his own 2004 novel, give Hank layers. He’s a wild child who dances on pool tables and greets the day with a Miller Light. Tormented by nightmares of an alcohol fueled accident that took the life of his best friend, he repeatedly wakes up in a sweat. As his situation spirals out of control his survival is driven by a mix of fear and desperation.
So, he’s the hero, but in true Aronofsky fashion, he’s a morally ambiguous one whose quest for survival comes with a high body count and a trail of destruction. He may not be as relatable as “After Hours’” Paul Hackett, played by Griffin Dunne, who makes an appearance here as coke snorting dive bar owner Paul, but the charismatic Butler keeps him compelling with a combo of vulnerability and steeliness.
Aronofsky populates the rest of the story with a variety of colorful characters, like observant-but-deadly Jewish mobsters Lipa and Shmully (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio), a throwback punk rocker (Matt Smith), gangster Colorado (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny) and no-nonsense cop Elise Roman (Regina King), but this is Butler’s show.
“Caught Stealing” has the character complexity of an Aronofsky film, but it’s way more fun than he usually has on screen.
SYNOPSIS: “Loathe Thy Neighbor” sees a recently relocated city slicker in a battle of wills with his new country neighbor. “Lost my father, lost my job,” says Will Larkfield (Brennan Clost), “and now I’m losing my mind.”
CAST: Lauren Holly, Brennan Clost, Shaun Benson, Brittany Raymond, Paloma Nuñez, Jessica Greco, Luke Humphrey, Patrice Goodman. Directed by Sergio Navarretta.
REVIEW: A dark riff on “Green Acres,” “Loathe Thy Neighbor” is more than the standard fish-out-of-water story. What begins as a “citidiot” in the country tale, slowly reveals itself to be a lesson in community and personal growth.
When Will Larkfield (Brennan Clost) inherits his estranged father’s rundown farm he sticks out like a sore thumb in the rural community. Vegetraian, allergic to everything and anxiety-prone, the locals don’t quite know what to make of him. They refer to him as him an “aristocrat,” and regard him with suspicion. No one more so than his next-door neighbor/bee-keeper Wanda Bellerose (Lauren Holly), who takes an instant, intense dislike to the city slicker. “He moved here a couple of days ago and he’s already ruining my damn life,” she says.
As a dispute over the mis-delivery of an EpiPen escalates, Will takes to referring to Wanda as a deranged lunatic,” while she calls him a “Yuppie on a stick,” and threatens to “roast [him] like a holiday ham.”
And that’s before things turn really ugly between the two.
Character-driven, “Loathe Thy Neighbor” plays on established tropes—the neurotic city guy vs. the tough-as-nails country person—to set up the story of petty grievances, nasty neighbors and, ultimately, growth and resilience.
Clost and Holly embrace their edgy characters. Constant conflict fuels their behavior, pushing them to extremes, but, as good as they are, it plays as one dimensional. It’s a clash of cultures, city vs. country, and when the insults are flying, it’s a bit of fun, but the level of animosity is never truly examined. They fundamentally just don’t like one another, and the film doesn’t dig much deeper than that before setting up its rushed redemption arc.
Still, as a story of putting aside our differences and learning to co-exist, “Loathe Thy Neighbor” spreads some good, neighborly vibes.
SYNOPSIS: “Lurker,” a new psychological thriller now playing in theatres, sees an obsessed fan drawn, like a moth, to the flame of fame.
CAST: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Wale Onayemi, Daniel Zolghadri, and Sunny Suljic. Directed by Alex Russell.
REVIEW: The thin line between fandom and obsession is examined in “Lurker,” a new show biz thriller starring Quebec-born actor Théodore Pellerin and “Saltburn” star Archie Madekwe.
We first meet Matthew (Pellerin) when he’s working at a retail store frequented by celebrities. When up-and-coming singer Oliver stops by, he’s so impressed by Matthew’s take on his music and influences, he invites the awkward shop clerk to hang out at his Hollywood Hills home.
Seduced by the power of fame, he becomes a hanger-on, doing joe jobs around the musician’s home until Oliver asks him to become a photographer on a documentary essaying his creative process. Matthew loves basking in Oliver’s reflected glow, and, despite his insecurities, makes himself an integral part of the entourage.
When a newcomer becomes Oliver’s shiny new dime Matthew feels isolated until the singer behaves carelessly, opens himself up to blackmail, and gives Matthew a way back into the inner circle.
As a story of shifting power dynamics and the allure of fame, “Lurker” is tense, edge of your seat stuff as Matthew’s behavior shifts from fan to desperate and obsessive hanger-on.
Pellerin plays Matthew as a star-struck cypher, a blank slate, waiting to be colored by Oliver’s fame. His identity, or lack thereof, is so closely tied to his relationship with Oliver, that when that bond is broken, he’s lost and unpredictable. That quiet volatility gives “Lurker” an unnerving edge.
Madekwe brings pop star swagger to Oliver, a guy with a deep emotional connection to his music, but few of the interpersonal skills to make meaningful connections with people. As Oliver’s relationship with Matthew crumbles, he uses his hip aloofness like a cudgel. Madekwe’s casual cruelty cuts to the quick but sets up an interesting character reversal when Matthew’s blackmail plot changes their power dynamic.
Despite muddled storytelling as the film approaches its end credits, “Lurker” is still an interesting, incisive commentary on fame and power with, unlike so many other movies about pop music, great tunes that cleverly comment on the action. When Oliver sings, “What’s the difference between love and obsession?” he’s not simply waxing poetic, he’s tunefully, and authentically, getting to the heart of writer-director Alex Russell’s story.
SYNOPSIS: A screwball take on the rom com, “Spiltsville” begins when Ashley (Adria Arjona) blindsids her husband, the good-natured Carey (Kyle Marvin), by asking for a divorce. Looking for support, the heartbroken Carey turns to his best friend Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), a move that inadvertently turns all their relationships upside down.
CAST: Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Marvin, Covino, Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, O-T Fagbenle, Charlie Gillespie, and Simon Webster. Directed by Michael Angelo Covino.
REVIEW: “Splitsville” uses a fiercely funny look at modern relationships as a vehicle for a close-up examination of self-discovery and acceptance.
Married for fourteen months, Ashley (Adria Arjona) and Carey’s (Kyle Marvin) marriage crumbled in just ten tumultuous minutes. She is a podcaster and life coach who says things like, “If it isn’t said, it can’t be put to bed,” he’s a laid-back guy with a penchant for Dad jokes— Still wanna go to the beach house? Are you shore?—who dreams of starting a family.
She’s looking for excitement, he’s booking pottery classes for them.
On the way to a beach house owned by their rich friends Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and Julie (Dakota Johnson), they inadvertently cause a car accident, an event that prompts Ashley to admit that she’s been having affairs and no longer wants to be married.
At the beach house Paul and Julie offer up a mix of condolences, jabs—“You married a life coach, what did you expect?”—and a startling confession. The secret to their seemingly perfect union, they say, is an open relationship.
Over the next several years, bonds are tested as the four main characters discover the enduring nature of love and relationships, even when they go wrong.
If Neil Simon wrote about love in the 2000s, he might have come up with something like “Splitsville.” It’s silly and sophisticated, unafraid of male nudity but willing to seriously contemplate messy relationships with a mix of heartbreak and humor.
One sequence, an extended fight between Carey and Paul, is hilarious, but at its heart it’s fueled by raw, unchecked emotion, the consequences of jealousy and insecurity. It’s absurd, and knee slappingly funny, but it also hits the heart.
“Splisville” is a comedy, and often a farcical one, but underneath its comedy veneer is a carefully observed look at desire vs. romance.
