SYNOPSIS: In “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” a new comedy heist flick, now playing in theatres, illusionist thieves The Four Horsemen—think Robin Hood types who use magic instead of bows and arrows—recruit three young magicians to stage their biggest heist yet. “I’m talking about a trick that is bigger and better than anything you have ever seen,” say head Horseman Danny Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg).
CAST: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, and Morgan Freeman, alongside new cast members Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, Rosamund Pike. Directed by Ruben Fleischer.
REVIEW: Midway through “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) tells the assembled magicians that in the magical house they’ve just entered, “Up is down. Left is right.” He‘s right about the house, it’s a topsy turvy place, but everything else about this movie is pretty much the same from the previous entries in the franchise, 2013s “Now You See Me” and “Now You See Me 2” from 2016.
That means loads of movie magic, but not the good kind. The magic word in this story of the world’s greatest magicians isn’t “Abracadabra,” it’s “CGI.” Because the magic is mostly computer-generated-imagery at its best it feels inorganic, at its worst, dull. There’s no childlike wonder, no astonishment on display, just cold pixels, polygons and texture maps.
I wasn’t expecting the cast to all become David Copperfield, but if Margot Robbie can learn to land triple axels for “I, Tonya,” and Tom Cruise can learn to fly a helicopter through a 360° death-spiral at 8,000 feet, Eisenberg and company can at least learn convincing sleight of hand.
When director Ruben Fleischer isn’t staging big CGI spectacles, he moves the story along with less than magical exposition that over describes the film’s most obvious details. Now you see it, now it is explained for you. The endless chatter slows the momentum and blunts some of the story’s thrills and surprises right up until the film’s sequel ready ending.
There is a generation gap spark between the younger magicians Charlie (Justice Smith), Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa) and June (Ariana Greenblatt) and the returning cast—Danny Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher)—but the twelve-year-old franchise’s magic has disappeared.
SYNOPSIS: In the animated family comedy adventure “In Your Dreams,” now streaming on Netflix, siblings Stevie and Elliot must navigate their dreams—and a snarky stuffed giraffe, zombie pamcakes and the queen of nightmares—in hopes that The Sandman will grant them their ultimate dream, saving their parent’s marriage.
CAST: Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Gia Carides, Omid Djalili, and SungWon Cho. Co-directed by Alex Woo, and Erik Benson.
REVIEW: A story of a fractured family wrapped up as a surreal adventure delivers some kid friendly thrills, but at its heart is a grounded story of acceptance and the understanding that not every family has to be perfect.
When perfectionist Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) learns that her mother (Cristin Miloti) is considering taking a job in another city, she assumes it means her parents are getting a divorce. In hopes of keeping them together she drags her rambunctious younger brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) into her dreams in the hopes of being granted a marriage saving wish from The Sandman (Omid Djalili).
In the dream they are thrust into a surreal world where they meet a disco-ball moon with trust issues, a glibly sarcastic stuffed giraffes and zombie pancakes who guard The Sandman’s filing system. If they are to get to the all-important Wish Desk they must learn to work together to solve their problems.
In its heart “In Your Dreams” is a kindhearted movie about reality, not dreamland. The dream sequences, from co-directors Alex Woo, and Erik Benson, are beautiful, populated with imaginative characters kids should enjoy, but Stevie and Elliot‘s journey is a personal one, not strictly an otherworld one.
The messages of accepting imperfection, teamwork and resilience are mixed with eye popping visuals and fun needle drops. It may be a little too intense in its representation of the nightmare scenes and the frankness of its depiction of divorce for the under 7 set, but it contains the kind of heart and soul usually associated with Pixar, which is enough to earn a recommend.
SYNOPSIS: “Sentimental Value,” a new Norwegian drama directed by Joachim Trier, and now playing in theatres, sees an acclaimed film director’s efforts to make a personal movie about their family’s troubled past starring his two estranged daughters,
CAST: Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning. Directed by Joachim Trier.
REVIEW: A portrait of legacy within a dysfunctional family, “Sentimental Value” is ultimately about the healing power of art.
The story begins at the funeral reception for Sissel, mother of estranged sisters Nora and Agnes Borg. The already fraught afternoon is made more so when Sissel’s charismatic ex-husband Gustav arrives after having little contact with the family for many years.
The sisters, Nora (“The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve), a serious theatre actor who puts her work before everything else, including personal happiness, the other, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) is a wife and mother with a stable job, have had only sporadic contact with Gustaf (Stellan Skarsgård) in the years since he left.
A once famous director, Gustaf abandoned the family as his career took off and has returned to try and convince them to be part of a new film he’s planning on making about the family’s darkest secrets.
Despite the title, “Sentimental Value” is not a sentimental film. Tender, but edged with steel, it’s not in search of easy reconciliation between the disparate characters. Director Joachim Trier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eskil Vogt, is more interested in an uneasy truce tinged by understanding between Gustav and his daughters.
These characters are unapologetically who they are, so don’t expect great epiphanies. Instead, we are dropped into their dysfunction, their ancestral home and all the baggage that comes with that. It’s a slice-of-life, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes funny, sometimes devastating. Most importantly, the artifice that usually clouds stories of floundering families is missing. What’s left is raw and real.
As the tightly wound actress and daughter Nora, Reinsve displays the remarkable ability to convey a range of conflicting emotions, often in the same scene. It’s award worthy work, delivered with the precision of a master artisan.
As good as Reinsve is, she is given a run for her money by Skarsgård, whose mix of charm and smarm is as compelling as it is repulsive. A vivid portrait of a man who prioritized his art over his family, it allows the actor to dig deep but never resort to theatrics. His work in the close-ups is subtle but reveals a deep well of emotion just behind the eyes.
With stellar performances and nuanced, grounded storytelling, “Sentimental Value” hits the heart in its portrayal of family bonds and the spaces that sometimes can bring people closer together.
Thanks to Disney and Searchlight for having me in to interview “Is This Thing On?” star Will Arnett onstage at TIFF last night. We talked about turning personal pain into stand-up comedy, working with pal Bradley Cooper and much more. Great night!
On the Saturday November 8, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet John Irving, an American-Canadian novelist and screenwriter. He achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of the 1978 novel “The World According to Garp.” He is an Academy Award winner whose other work includes “The Cider House Rules,” “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “Avenue of Mysteries.” Today we talk about his new novel “Queen Ester.”
Then we get to know celebrated actress, writer, and musician Elizabeth McGovern. You have seen her in her Academy Award-nominated role in “Ragtime,” and in iconic films like “Ordinary People” and “Once Upon a Time in America.” Her portrayal of Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, helped make “Downton Abbey” a global phenomenon. Today we’re talking about “Ava: The Secret Conversations,” which she wrote and stars in as Hollywood icon Ava Gardner. It is a poignant play about Hollywood legend Ava Gardner, which she’s brought to life in London, New York, Chicago and now in Toronto at the CAA Theatre in Toronto.
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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SYNOPSIS: In “Die My Love,” a new psychological drama now playing in theatres, Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson) leave the hustle and bustle of New York City in search of a quieter life on a rural Montana ranch. As the couple welcome a child, Grace begins to feel isolated, trapped and acts out in unpredictable ways. “I’m right here,” she says to Jackson, “you just can’t see me.”
CAST: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek. Directed by Lynne Ramsay.
REVIEW: A non-linear, stream-of-consciousness look at one woman’s breakdown, “Die My Love” is not a movie you “enjoy” in the traditional sense. Like the recent “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” a psychological drama that mined similar territory, “Die My Love” is a confrontational, difficult watch.
The difference is in the execution.
While neither film can be called pleasurable, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” displays a sense of purpose missing from “Die My Love.”
Both feature compelling, raw performances from their leads, but “If I Had Legs” gives the viewer something to hang onto story wise. “Die My Love” has a premise—woman has a breakdown after moving to the country—but is frustratingly shy about fleshing out a complete narrative. The result is a film that feels like a series of escalating events rather than a cohesive whole.
The glue holding the entire thing together is Lawrence, whose fearless and ferocious performance physicalizes the character’s inner turmoil in increasingly unpredictable and upsetting ways. Crushed by postpartum depression and isolation, her behavior spirals, captured by director Lynne Ramsay, who co-wrote with Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, in a series of loosely connected vignettes. With little-to-no narrative accompaniment, however, the incidents, while often shocking, become repetitive and drain away the film’s power as a portrait of postpartum and human frailty.
Lawrence’s portrait of psychological collapse is raw and challenging cinema but as a vehicle for the performance “Die My Love’s” mix of reality and delusion falters.
SYNOPSIS: A thoughtful retelling of Mary Shelley’s gothic science fiction novel, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” now streaminng on Netflix after its theatrical run, is an ambitious story of what it means to be human.
CAST: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Lauren Collins, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz. Directed by Guillermo del Toro.
REVIEW: Bold, bombastic and beautiful, Guillermo del Toro‘s “Frankenstein” is an emotionally charged story of father and son, of beauty and beasts and literary romanticism.
Del Toro is faithful to Shelley’s novel. He frames the story as Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) dying confession aboard the ship of an Arctic explorer, keeps Shelley’s empathetic take on The Creature (Jacob Elordi) and allows “the monster” a voice and the language to eloquently describe the heartbreaking tragedy of his life.
(MILD SPOILER ALERT) The most significant change comes at the end as del Toro opts for understanding over nihilism.
The Creature has always been a sympathetic character, but del Toro and Elordi humanize him in a way unlike any other portrayal. The hulking Creature is seemingly indestructible physically, but emotionally he’s a soulful character in search of family and love.
It looks like a Gothic horror movie but can’t rightly be called a traditional horror film. The horror of the story comes not from violence or gore, but from the abuses foisted upon the Creature by Victor his creator, but certainly not his protector. “If you will not reward me with love,” the Creature says to Victor, “I will indulge in rage.”
Victor’s existential quest, fueled by his sense of powerlessness over his mother’s passing, drives him create a life to defy death. In his success, however, comes the ultimate cruelty; the creation of a life, complete with deeply felt human emotions, but one unable to make a human connection.
It’s here, in this philosophical, reflective film, that del Toro amps up the empathy, weaving in notes of hope and questions about existence and one’s purpose in the great big world. The director loves monsters and that affection is infused in every frame of the film.
At 149 minutes del Toro allows himself the time to dig deep. He balances the story’s existential aspects with a touching sequence involving a blind man (David Bradley) who shows the Creature kindness, some adventure, colorful characters and even some superhero style action.
Del Toro’s movie is “Frankenstein” on a grand scale but in its reanimated heart, it is a simple story of father and son, of connections and family ties.
SYNOPSIS: In “Train Dreams,” a new drama set in the early 20th century and now playing in theatres, Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, a logger and railway construction worker who plays witness to the decline of the old frontier as the world as world is transformed by trains, automobiles and changing times. “It’s all going by so fast,” says Grainier’s wife Gladys (Felicity Jones).
CAST: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon and William H. Macy. Directed by Clint Bentley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar.
REVIEW: Based on the novella by Denis Johnson, “Train Dreams” is an elegiac look at nature, love, life and the passage of time.
Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, an itinerant worker as a logger and on the railway in the Pacific Northwest. Orphaned at a young age, his life is changed forever when he meets and marries Gladys (Felicity Jones), who brings stability to his life. Despite long, money-making stints in the logging camps, he becomes a devoted father to daughter Kate.
When tragedy strikes, Robert is left alone, “waiting to see what we were left here for.”
“Train Dreams” moves at its own speed. The lovingly considered, deliberately paced story of a man of few words, it’s a quiet movie that speaks loudly on the connectedness of the earth and the people who live on it.
Edgerton hands in a career best performance as the stoic Robert. He’s a tough man, unambitious, but unafraid of hard work. Happy with simple pleasures, his innate understanding that life is a series of moments to be savored reveals the heart of a poet. It’s that spirit that gives the movie its soul as Robert navigates his journey of joy, sadness and healing.
Beautiful cinematography by Adolpho Veloso captures the land’s ruggedness, creating a lyrical backdrop for the story’s beauty and brutality. As Robert comes to understand his connection to the land, the forest he helped decimate as a logger becomes a character in this man’s life story of loss and love.
“Train Dreams” is a lovely, contemplative movie about the attempts to understand the ephemeral aspects of life. There’s no spectacle, no grandstanding, just intimate, poignant grace notes of one man’s existence.
SYNOPSIS: In the sport biopic “Christy,” now playing in theatres, Sydney Sweeney plays a successful professional boxer who faced her biggest battles outside the ring.
CAST: Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Katy O’Brian. Directed by David Michôd.
REVIEW: Boxing movies are never about the big match. Instead, they’re about the journey, which, in “Christy’s” case, is a story of the real-life triumphs and traumas of former professional boxer Christy Martin.
The action begins in late 1980s West Virginia when a gay coal miner’s daughter named Christy Salters discovers an innate talent for beating the heck out of other women in the boxing ring. Her skill catches the eye of a $500-a-fight promotor who offers her to hook her up with trainer James V. Martin (Ben Foster). Initially reluctant to work with a woman, James is won over by Christy’s ferocity in the ring. “Maybe there is something to this lady boxing business,” he says.
Leaving high school girlfriend Rosie (Jess Gabor) behind, much to the relief of her controlling mother Joyce Salters (Merritt Wever), Christy steps back into the closet, marries the unpredictable James and, in a few short years, becomes a champion, the first woman to sign with flamboyant promoter Don King and the first female boxer to appear on the cover of “Sports Illustrated.”
Her rise to the top, however, comes at a great cost, physically and mentally. Forced to subvert her sexual identity and submit to Jim’s will inside and outside the ring, she compromises every aspect of her life. “If you leave me,” Jim says, “I will kill you.”
Part “Star 80,” part “Raging Bull,” “Christy” is a gritty, if overlong, story of struggle and resilience, of compromise and abuse. Director David Michôd, who co-wrote the script with Mirrah Foulkes, tackles every aspect of Christy’s life. Christy’s rise to fame is pure by-the-book underdog sports biopic material, amped up with sometimes brutal boxing scenes, which are very convincingly played by Sweeney and her various opponents.
Sweeney’s transformation to pitbull, win-at-any-cost fighter in the ring is impressive, but it is her work in the film’s family drama sections that showcases her best work. The emotional brutality she experiences at the hand of James surpasses any punishment she suffers in the ring. She convinces as Christy the athlete and as a person trying desperately to keep her head above water. It’s remarkable work in a movie that, unfortunately, doesn’t live up to its central performance.
As a movie “Christy” is on the ropes, but is elevated by a transformative, knockout star turn from Sweeney.
