SYNOPSIS: In the new thriller “A Working Man” action hero Jason Statham, and his perfect stubble, return to the big screen as Statham Character #2. That’s the “loner with a past who must protect a youthful innocent.” (As opposed to Statham Character #1 in which he plays “a loner with a past who must protect a loved one.”) This time around he’s a former Royal Marines commando who currently works as a construction worker in Chicago. When his boss’s daughter is forced into human trafficking, he uses his special set of skills to rescue her.
CAST: Jason Statham, Michael Peña, and David Harbour. Directed by David Ayer, written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone
REVIEW: I enjoy Jason Statham’s movies, though they often feel repetitive, like a single story stretched over many films.
I had my usual sense of déjà vu while watching “A Working Man” and when I sat down to write this review it occurred to me that, just as Statham has been making the same movie over and over again, I’ve been writing essentially the same review over and over again.
In that spirit I made a new review out of my previous Statham writings by only changing a title or two.
(From my review of “The Mechanic,” 2011) Jason Statham isn’t so much an actor as he is a brand. When you go to McDonald’s you know you can expect the two all-beef patties, special sauce and the sesame seed bun to taste the same whether you’re in Toronto or Hong Kong. It’s that kind of brand management that has made Statham a star. You know what to expect from his movies—rippling abs, some high kicking action, his trademarked facial stubble and loads of explosions. It’s a simple formula but one that works for his fans. Perhaps the advertising slogan for his new film, INSERT TITLE HERE should be “New, But Not Improved.”
(From my review of “Killer Elite,” 2011) Statham plays INSERT CHARACTER NAME HERE, an ex- specials ops agent. He’s mad, bad and dangerous to know but trying to cool it on the whole killing people thing. But like Michael Corleone, every time he thinks he’s out they pull him back in. He’s convinced to strap on a gun once again when his INSERT CHARACTER HERE is kidnapped.
(From my review of “Wrath of Man,” 2021) Gone is the jokey Statham of “Spy” and his over-the-top “Fast and Furious” work. This is a back-to-basics performance that sees him settle on one facial expression, as though his chiseled face is encased in amber, to convey the character’s one deadly motive. The taciturn thing has worked for him before, and it works well here.
(From my review of “Parker,” 2013) “INSERT TITLE HERE” is a Jason Statham movie, with all that implies. The good is a brooding physicality he brings to his roles. He looks like he could snap your neck with his steely glare, so when he does it on screen, it works.
(From my review of “Homefront,” 2013) [In other words] I liked INSERT TITLE HERE when Statham was punching people. I liked it less when he wasn’t.
SYNOPSIS: Near the beginning of “Death of a Unicorn,” a new horror comedy now playing in theaters, father and daughter played by Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, hit a unicorn with their car on the way to the home of terminally ill pharmaceutical CEO Odell Leopold. They bring the roadkill to Leopold who wants to exploit the animal’s magical, curative powers. “It’s an opportunity for immortality,” he says. As the research begins, however, the unicorn’s parents seek revenge on those responsible the death of their foal.
CAST: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant. Directed by Alex Scharfman.
REVIEW: The “divine monsters” of “Death of a Unicorn” are vengeful creatures who toss their victims around like human piñatas and use their horns to disembowel those who get on their wrong side.
In other words, “Unicorn Academy” this ain’t.
What it is, is an uneven movie that folds family dynamics into a slasher style flick. It begins as a story about a father (Paul Rudd) and daughter (Jenna Ortega) navigating the rocky relationship left between them after the sudden death of their wife/mother but soon turns satiric in its condemnation of the super wealthy/pharmaceutical industry, and ultimately, a moderately gory display of blood and guts.
Imagine a cross between “Aftersun,” “The Menu” and “Jurassic Park” and you’ll get the idea.
The disparate parts are held together by a talented cast. Rudd brings his trademarked charm as the goofy dad, a guy willing, but unprepared, to risk everything to save his daughter. Ortega brings echoes of her “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” performance, but, as a character named Ripley, delivers a pretty cool “Alien” tribute.
Like the film’s other elements, their relationship is kind of one note, but it’s a pretty good note and they spark off one another.
The comedic trio of Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni and Will Poulter as the ruthless pharmaceutical family embody the charitable gentility of the ultra-rich, a guise that quickly falls away when the chips are down. Somehow Grant even manages to take the persnickety rich guy character of “Saltburn” up a notch or two here.
The five of them—plus an underused Anthony Carrigan—form a fun ensemble but are let down by a script that offers a few funny lines, but not enough connective tissue between its daddy/daughter storyline, the morally corrupt Leopold family and nature attacks ingredients to really come to a boil.
SYNOPSIS: In “Holland,” a new Nicole Kidman thriller now streaming on Amazon Prime, Nancy suspects her husband of having an affair. Her self-styled investigation hints that nothing, and no one, may be what they seem.
CAST: Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jude Hill. Directed by Mimi Cave.
REVIEW: “You think you know someone, then you don’t,” says Holland, Michigan suburban home economics teacher Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman).
Intruding into her perfectly curated world are nagging suspicions that her optometrist husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) is having an affair. When she finds Polaroid film, she tells her friend Dave (Gael García Bernal), that Fred uses it to “take kinky sex photos with his lover.”
As Nancy’s distrust grows, she and Dave begin a homegrown investigation into Fred’s behavior. As they dig deeper and deeper to find proof of his infidelities, they develop feelings for one another.
As their relationship bears fruit, so does their investigation, and for the first time Nancy imagines a life outside of the one she has always known.
File “Holland” under the Suburban Anxiety category. The seemingly perfect small Michigan town is, of course, less than perfect, let alone wholesome, and director Mimi Cave, working in concert with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, infuses the film with a sense of undefinable unease.
That vibe is continued in Kidman’s performance. Nobody does off kilter like Kidman. Her resume is dotted with eccentric characters, like Nancy, who present a polished veneer but soon reveal a darker underbelly. But Nancy isn’t completely quirky. She is simply a person who allows her dissatisfaction to dictate her extreme actions. Kidman masterfully finds the humanity in her and never overplays her hand, no matter how deep down the rabbit hole she falls.
Unfortunately, Nancy is placed at the heart of movie that is short on thrills. The action unfolds slowly without enough twists and turns to fully immerse the audience in the strange world of Nancy and Holland, Michigan.
SYNOPSIS: Based on a true story, “The Penguin Lessons,” a new drama starring Steve Coogan and now playing in theatres, a British teacher has a personal and political awakening after adopting a penguin amid the political unrest of 1976 Argentina.
CAST: Steve Coogan, Björn Gustafsson, David Herrero, Jonathan Pryce, Julián Galli Guillén, Aimar Miranda. Directed by Peter Cattaneo.
REVIEW: Are penguins the most cinematic of all birds? Sure, “Chicken Run” was a giant hit and Alfred Hitchcock made avian menagerie of “The Birds” memorable, but penguins, despite being flightless, really soar at the movies. From documentaries (“March of the Penguins) and musicals (“Happy Feet”) to comedies (Mr. Popper’s Penguins) and adventure movies (“My Penguin Friend”), their paddle-like flippers have touched almost every genre going.
Now add socio political thriller to the list.
Set in 1976, “The Penguins Lessons” sees Steve Coogan play Tom Michel (Steve Coogan), a disillusioned Brit who takes a job as a schoolteacher in Buenos Aires. He’s a misanthrope, with a socially awkward sense of humor—“I’m like Ernest Hemingway, but with no money, and I haven’t written any books.”—looking for a quiet life in a quiet town.
What he discovers is anything but quiet. His students are a spoiled bunch of brats, and the country is in turmoil. President Isabel Perón is on the way out, soon to be replaced by a military dictatorship. “It’s a ghastly business,” says the school’s headmaster (Jonathan Pryce). “We try to keep out of it.”
When the coup is announced Michel hightails it to Uruguay for some R&R. There, on a romantic beach walk with a woman he met in a bar, he finds a penguin, later named Juan Salvador, covered in oil. The woman convinces him to take the penguin back to his hotel, leaving him stuck with a bird he has no idea of how to look after.
Back in Argentina, Michel and Juan form an unlikely bond. “What happened to you?” asks the headmaster, noting a change in Michel’s behavior. “I met a penguin,” says Michel.
A story of compassion and empathy set against the inhumanity of a political coup, “The Penguin Lessons,” although based on a true story, feels like two movies grafted together.
Still, Coogan is in fine haughty form. He delivers what we expect, sarcasm used like a weapon and razor-sharp comedic timing, but, as the story acquires more weight—as people close to Michel get disappeared and his friendship with Juan blossoms—he digs deep. He’s still the reserved, almost rude character he always was, but the rough edges have been slightly sanded down as Juan Salvador, a name that literally means John Saved, helps him regain his humanity.
Seen in the macro, “The Penguin Lessons” doesn’t really work. The political backdrop feels like a plot device rather than an integral part of the story. But when it focusses on the relationship between man and penguin it pulls at the heartstrings.
SYNOPSIS: In “Darkest Miriam,” a new romantic drama starring “Severance’s” Britt Lower, and now playing in theatres, the title character’s emotional fog is lifted when she begins an unexpected relationship with an artist she meets in the park.
CAST: Britt Lower, Sook-Yin Lee, Jean Yoon, Jaimara Beals, Clyde Whitham, Susannah Hoffmann, Scott McCulloch, Igor Shamuilov, Joshua Odjick, Sarah Li Wen Du, Anita Yung, Peter Millard, Danté Prince, Scott Ryan Yamamura, Jamaal Grant, Aviva Armour-Ostroff, and Laura Afelskie. Directed by Naomi Jaye.
REVIEW: Set in downtown Toronto, “Darkest Miriam” sees “Severance” star Britt Lower play the title character, a librarian left grief stricken after the passing of her father. Her work life, involving a rogue’s gallery of characters who leave their dentures on library tables and masturbate in the stacks, is as chaotic as her private life is orderly and closed down.
Her life shifts gears when she meets Janko (Tom Mercier), a Slovenian artist and cab driver. Their immediate connection, coupled with odd, enigmatic letters addressed to her that she finds in the books at work—“I am Rigoletto, and I will not be doing any more suffering,” reads one of them—snap her out of the emotional funk that has enveloped her.
Based on a 2009 novel by Martha Baillie called “The Incident Report,” “Darkest Miriam” is a subtle film, one that values introspection and absurdist humour over walking an obvious path. Director Naomi Jaye takes her time unveiling the minutiae of Miriam’s life and the secret of the letters, but this isn’t a mystery that needs to be solved. It’s a slice-of-life that is comfortable in its vague nature.
Keeping it compelling is Britt Lower, who hands in a deadpan performance that, while understated, brings a wry charm to the film’s off-kilter humor and remains fully grounded amid the outlandish characters at the library and the mystery of the letters. The soft-spoken Miriam has been through a lot, and it shows in her haunted state, but Lower never lets us forget there is a real person aching to throw off the shackles of her emotional turmoil.
“Darkest Miriam” is a touching film that replaces sentimentality with a quirky sensibility, but, while unconventional, never forgets to be tenderhearted.
On the Saturday March 29, 2025 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll spend some time with Rik Emmett.
He is a solo artist, a guitarist, a poet, a song writer, a teacher, a Canadian Music Industry Hall of Famer who is probably best known as the co-singer and guitar player of Triumph, the gold and nine platinum selling rock trio who lit up radios in the 70s and 80s.
Rik left Triumph in 1988 to pursue a solo career, and released records in a variety of styles, including rock, blues, jazz, classical, bluegrass, and flamenco. He’s he won the Canadian Smooth Jazz Award for Guitarist of the Year and now has written a new book called “Ten Telecaster Tales: Liner Notes for a Guitar and Its Music,” available now wherever you buy fine books.
In the book Rik delves into the creative process — the roots, influences, philosophy, and spirituality involved in writing and recording.
Then we’ll meet Hill Kourkoutis, a multi-hyphenate, award-winning songwriter and producer, who recently earned a well-deserved JUNO Award nomination for the Recording Engineer of the Year Award. This recognition comes for her work on “Ghost” by Sebastian Gaskin and “Should We” by Emi Jeen.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon!)
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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I present a list of Canadian sci fi and fantasy films that will wrap their robotic arms around you in a warm Canadarm hug. I’ll tell you about a government manhunt to eliminate the rise of the machine consciousness, a war-ravaged totalitarian future, marginalized superheroes, a slimy bipedal creature and an animated, malevolent rock star.
I present a list of Canadian documentaries that are more fun than a bucket of Beavertails. I’ll tell you about a major art forgery, the beginnings of a beloved band, a five-year-old orphan on the streets of Chennai, India, who went on to become one of Toronto’s most celebrated chefs and a journey across the 24,000 kilometers of our big, beautiful country. First up, a documentary about a family secret.
Two film critics, three movies, thirty seconds! Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as me and myself review three movies in less time than it takes to chew a stick of Doublemint gum! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about twofold De Niros in “The Alto Knights,” the return of “Snow White” and the dramedy “Bob Trevino Likes It.”
SYNOPSIS: In the new thriller “A Working Man” action hero Jason Statham, and his perfect stubble, return to the big screen as Statham Character #2. That’s the “loner with a past who must protect a youthful innocent.” (As opposed to Statham Character #1 in which he plays “a loner with a past who must protect a loved one.”) This time around he’s a former Royal Marines commando who currently works as a construction worker in Chicago. When his boss’s daughter is forced into human trafficking, he uses his special set of skills to rescue her.
