SYNOPSIS: In “Reminders of Her,” a new romantic drama based on author Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, Maika Monroe stars as a woman who must confronts her past to move forward.
REVIEW: “Reminders of Him” is a Nicholas Sparks style movie for those who find Nicholas Sparks too edgy. Although written by Colleen Hoover and Lauren Levine, it’s a roiling assembly of Sparksisms including forbidden romance, a nearly constructed dream house, kisses in the rain, a journal, a cute kid, a dead soulmate and the chance to start again.
“Reminders of Him’s” story stems from tragedy. “There was before you. There was during you. I never thought there’d be an after you,” Kenna (Maika Monroe) says after her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow) is killed a terrible drunk driving accident.
Jailed for seven years for her role in his death, she returns to their hometown in hope of reconnecting with their child Diem (Zoe Kosovic), a little girl being raised by Scotty’s parents, Grace (Lauren Graham) and Patrick Landry (Bradley Whitford). “I’m headed back to the place it all went wrong,” she says, “to see if I can get something right.”
She is not welcomed with open arms—“If it wasn’t for her, our son would still be alive,” says Paterick— until former NFL player and local bar owner Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers) offers her a job. “Do you know how to wash dishes,” he asks. “Seven years’ experience,” she replies.
When his compassion turns to romance, their relationship deepens the rift between Kenna and the Landrys, who disapprove of her dating Ledger, Scotty’s former best friend and surrogate father to Diem.
As Ledger is forced to choose between his new love and his loyalty to Diem, Scotty and the Landrys, Kenna faces the hardest decision of her life.
Big issues are raised in “Reminders of Him, not to be explored, but simply to be overcome.
A collection of clichés from the Big Book of Romantic Melodrama, the movie uses Kenna, a traumatized character misunderstood by the Landrys, and her sad eyes, as a vehicle for the story’s overwrought contrivances.
Monroe perseveres, convincingly playing Kenna as a woman picking up the pieces after her life was shattered by death and prison. It’s hard not to root for her and it is that quality that prevents the film from suffocating under an avalanche of sentimentality.
“Reminders of Him” is a sincere-if-slight movie whose romantic tentacles are meant to tug at audience heartstrings, controlling them like marionettes, but instead puppets predictable romantic prosaicisms about redemption and second chances that will remind you of other, better movies.
SYNOPSIS: In “undertone,” a new slow burn horror film now playing in theatres, a podcaster discovers the horrific power of sound. “It wants to be heard.”
CAST: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keana Lyn Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Sarah Beaudin, Brian Quintero. Written and directed by Ian Tuason.
REVIEW: A study of skepticism, grief and paranoia, “undertone” is an original and frightening film that uses audio to create sensory-driven scares.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” co-star Nina Kiri plays Evy, host of a paranormal podcast called “The Undertone.” “Welcome to the Undertone Podcast, where we talk about all things creepy.”
The “in-house skeptic” to true believer and co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco), she is drawn into a terrifying world of memory and sound when she returns to the house she grew up in to care for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet).
When files containing audio of a pregnant couple’s unsettling experiences with supernatural phenomena and distorted, eerie sounds in their home anonymously arrives in Evy and Justin’s inbox, they evaluate the files on their show.
The deeper Evy goes in her analysis, the more she is drawn into the audio. Her grip on reality loosens as troubling links between the recordings and her life emerge.
Has Evy’s isolation and grief overwhelmed her, or is there something malevolent embedded on the cursed audio? “I like it here in the dark,” a strange voice on the file whispers.
Silence is the new dark.
“undertone’s” atmosphere of loneliness and paranoia is heightened by writer/director Ian Tuason’s decision to lean into silence as much as the film’s eerie sound design. “Don’t be afraid of the dark,” Justin says, “be afraid of the silence.”
Psychologically, the lack of sound builds tension, creating a vacuum, that, when broken is jarring. Not like a jump scare, but like a shock that rattles body and soul.
A mix of tech and the uncanny, “undertone” is an exercise in style that makes great use of its sound design but has more questions than answers in its loose storytelling. As Evy and Justin record the podcast, and play the mysterious audio files, tension builds, even if the podcast itself, other than the strange recordings, isn’t exactly riveting. What is interesting is the how the digital files take on a malevolent tone the more Evy listens to them. Played backwards and forwards—the only thing creepier than creepy kids are creepy kids singing “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” in reverse—the audio becomes the soundtrack to Evy’s breakdown, an unexplained aural malevolence that pushes her to madness.
Very little is explained.
We learn small biographical details of Evy’s life—she quit drinking, perhaps has a troubled romantic relationship, is pregnant and was raised by a religious mother who now lies (mostly) comatose in the upstairs bedroom—but much is left to the imagination, which adds to the mystery.
Why do these audio clips appear to echo Evy’s life? Is it some form of evil? Hallucination? Madness? Pareidolia (the brain’s habit of finding patterns/meaning in random noise)? Whatever the answer, and there isn’t a clear one, the effect is undeniably and elegantly eerie, especially in the film’s final moments.
The star of “undertone” is David Gertsman’s sound design. Visually the film owes a debt to the elevated horror of the late teens and early 2000s and it may test the patience of horror fans hoping for more visceral thrills, but not since religious types accused Led Zeppelin of hiding Satanic messages in “Stairway to Heaven” have reversed sounds caused so much panic.
SYNOPSIS: “Nash the Slash Rises Again!,” a new documentary now playing at Hot Docs, unwraps the story of an enigmatic musical pioneer who borrowed his name from a Laurel and Hardy silent film and hid his face but not his talent behind surgical bandages.
CAST: Jeff Plewman, Iggy Pop, Gary Numan, Youth, Gary Topp, Owen Pallett, Paul Myers, Valerie Buhagiar, Don McKellar, Danielle Dax, Steve Hillage, Nathanael Chadwick, Jaymz Bee, Jeanne Beker, Marilyn Burns, Corpusse, Michael Dent, Rodrigo Gudiño, Gunnar Hansen, Oliver Hardy, Cameron Hawkins, Randy Johnston, Stan Laurel, Tony Malone, Ron Mann, David Marsden, Paul A. Partain, Tom Plewman, Stephen Pollard. Directed by Tim Kowalski.
REVIEW: Nash the Slash, a.k.a. Jeff Plewman, is one of the most singular musical acts to ever emerge from Toronto, or anywhere. A multi-instrumentalist with a focus on electric violin and electric mandolin, he wrapped his face in surgical bandages, à la The Invisible Man, wore dark glasses, and a tuxedo finished off by a top hat.
His theatrical music, usually performed solo when he wasn’t touring with the band FM, was an unholy blend of prog rock, new wave, experimental electronic influenced by everything from Beethoven and Krautrock to Hawkwind and old horror movies. His music, often augmented by synths, drum machines, harmonica, glockenspiel and other sounds, was unclassifiable, groundbreaking and destined for cult status.
A new documentary, “Nash the Slash Rises Again!,” fondly remembers the man behind the mystery, the musician Iggy Pop called “unusual and brilliant.”
Director Tim Kowalski understands that to get to know Nash, you first must understand where he came from. He paints a picture of Toronto, circa 1970s and 80s, as an outwardly staid city, unfriendly to outsiders, particularly the LGBTQ+ community, but with a vibrant underground art scene.
It was from this incubator of rebellion that Nash emerged, a product of classical training, rock ‘n roll and an artistic temperament. Through archival footage, interviews with the man himself and exciting performance footage, Kowalski places Nash in context as a musician who walked his own path, strove for fame but never at the cost of his artistic integrity.
It’s a loving portrait that doesn’t shy away from the darker details, like Nash’s bad temper and an arrest for domestic incident, but it succeeds best as a nostalgic celebration of a trailblazer who didn’t get his due during his lifetime.
The internet spent a week asking a very serious question:
Was that actually Jim Carrey… or someone wearing Jim Carrey?
When the comedy legend appeared at the César Awards in Paris, conspiracy theories exploded online. People compared eye colour, hand dominance, and facial features, trying to prove that the man on the red carpet couldn’t possibly be the real Jim Carrey.
Because obviously the most logical explanation is… a clone.
This week on Entertainment Is Broken, Sarah Hanlon and I unpack the strange online reaction and what it reveals about celebrity culture. Why do fans feel betrayed when stars change their appearance? Why did Jennifer Grey’s nose job derail her career? And why does Hollywood still pressure actors to look permanently 30 years old?
Along the way, Richard shares stories from meeting Jim Carrey before he was famous, interviewing Jennifer Lawrence early in her career, and why the new film Sweetness might be one of the year’s most interesting indie surprises.
What starts as a celebrity conspiracy theory quickly turns into something bigger:
A conversation about beauty standards, fame, identity… and why the internet thinks it owns your face once you’re famous.
On the Saturday March 7, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet hip-hop artist, motivational speaker, author, and community advocate D.O. Gibson. He set a Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle rap. It’s wild. 8 hours and 45 minutes in 2003 at a Toronto car show, he tours internationally, and has sold tens of thousands of CDs independently, hitting #1 on U.S. college hip-hop radio charts. He runs his own label and does youth-focused work like his “Stay Driven” school tours, illustrated children’s books (e.g., “The Story of How Young Duane Gibson”). He’s also been recognized as a Top Outstanding Black Canadian and received awards for his impact.
His latest single “Learned from the Greatest” is streaming everywhere, and the key tagline from his promo is: “I learned from the greatest — now it’s my turn to pass it on.” The song leans into themes of legacy, mentorship, influence, and paying it forward—fitting for an artist who’s been in the game for decades and now focuses on inspiring the next generation.
Then, we get to know writer, actor, and graphic designer Ann McDougall. Her book A Ghost in the Room – provides a very Canadian history of ghosts and the paranormal by combining intriguing stories from individual museums with her own personal research into how believers, practitioners, and charlatans alike all engage with the spirit world today. She made it her mission to explore as many supernatural activities as possible first-hand!
She researches Toronto’s Mackenzie House, the site of a well-documented ghost, the hoax that is nevertheless known to this day as “Canada’s most haunted house,” the first Canadian radio broadcast of a séance in 1936 and travels to a Niagara Falls Casino to see a celebrity TV medium who claims to speak to “the other side” live on stage among many other stories.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!
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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Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to reanimate the dead. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers” and the hockey drama “Youngblood.”
SYNOPSIS: In “The Bride!,” a new gothic story of love and crime loosely inspired by “The Bride of Frankenstein,” and now playing in theatres, a lonely Frankenstein’s monster finds companionship with the recently murdered, reanimated Bride. “What do you want with a dead girl?” she asks. “I’m the same. Born from the dead,” he says. “I am… a monster.”
CAST: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz. Written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
REVIEWS: A mix of classic horror and “Bonnie and Clyde,” with a side of “Wild at Heart,” “The Bride!” is a modern and monstrous, but messy, take on what it means to challenge expectations just by being alive.
Set in the 1930s Chicago, “The Bride!” begins with a lovelorn monster (Christian Bale) asking scientist Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) for a cure for his loneliness. He wants a companion; someone to love.
The pair dig up the dearly departed Ida and jolt her back to life as the fragmented Bride (Jessie Buckley), a woman possessed by the spirit of her former persona, a take-no-prisoners flapper (“I would prefer not to,” is her catchphrase.), and the ghost of nineteenth century English novelist Mary Shelley, author of the Gothic novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”
“The bride… of Frankenstein,” “Frankie” calls her. “No,” she replies, “just The Bride.”
Rebellious and powerful, she’s far from a demure monster’s mate. As romance blossoms, they connect during a chaotic crime wave that turns The Bride into an accidental folk hero. Their monstrous crime spree inspires women nationwide to break the law, coming together as a community of vigilantes marked with The Bride’s distinctively stained lips and cheek trademark.
On the run from detectives Det. Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz) “Frankie” says, “There is nothing left to do now, except live.”
There is no shortage of ideas in “The Bride!” Director Maggie Gyllenhaal, who also wrote the script, packs the movie with thoughts on bodily autonomy, identity, feminist reclamation, loneliness and what it means to be truly alive.
Unfortunately, these notions feel stitched together as randomly as the roughhewn sutures and staples that bind Frankenstein’s creature together. A more-is-more take on the story of a woman living a second life, an existence forced upon her by Dr. Euphronius and the creature, the film becomes muddled in a sea of ideas that ultimately feel unsupported by the nuts-and-bolts of the story.
At the film’s heart is Jessie Buckley’s uninhibited performance. As a vessel for Ida, Mary Shelley and The Bride, she flip-flops between the characters randomly, spitting out rapid fire lines in various accents, often nonsensically, depending on which of her personas is in the forefront.
Buckley’s commitment to it will be seen as brave, or annoying, depending on your tolerance for over-the-top theatrics. Either way, channeling the three characters doesn’t really work, even in Buckley’s skilled hands.
Gyllenhaal and Bale lend a more restrained hand to the creature. The lovesick “Frankie” is both tender and volatile, and Bale, under an inch of make-up, brings real humanity to the character.
“The Bride!” is an audacious movie. The title’s exclamation mark suggests a movie made with urgency, and Gyllenhaal embraces that sense of excitement in her reimagination of The Bride character, but her enthusiasm for the topic overwhelms the film’s storytelling.
