SYNOPSIS: There’s togetherness, the feeling that couples get when they reach a certain comfort level, and then there’s “Together,” the darkly funny story of a couple whose attachment issues are solved by a situation beyond their control.
CAST: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey. Directed by Michael Shanks.
REVIEW: The story of lovebirds Tom and Millie (real life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie), “Togetherness” uses icky body horror to investigate themes of love, codependency, attachment and commitment.
When we first meet them, they’re packing up their city life to move to the country. Millie has taken a job to teach at a smaller school where she feels she can really make a difference to her students. Tom, a mostly unemployed musician, whose recently lost his record deal, is reluctant, but goes in support of his girlfriend.
On a hike near their new house, they have an experience that transforms their relationship in unimaginable ways.
“Togetherness” is an unholy mix of rom com and body horror flick; a movie that imagines what could happen when you completely surrender to your other half. There’s co-dependency and then there’s (NO SPOILERS HERE) what happens to Tim and Millie, emotionally and physically.
Much of the success of “Together” comes from its leads. Franco and Brie not only have chemistry, but they find the balance between the humour and the horror. Oddly, given the film’s tone, there’s a sweetness to them, even when the going gets weird and gooey.
Speaking of gooey, the body horror delivers in a way that is disturbing but also acts as an effective, if literal, metaphor for co-dependency. Even as they try and assert their independence, there is a magnetism between them, and later, an actual bond, that spiritually and physically binds them.
Is it extreme? Yup, but it’s also poignant, and a darkly humorous ode to the all-consuming nature of love. If David Cronenberg was to make a love story, it might look something like this.
“Together” navigates a blend of genres—and one very appropriate Spice Girl needle drop—to deliver a movie that is contemplative on the subject of what it means to be a couple but is also as horrific as it is hilarious.
I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres including the friends and family of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the dark rom com “Oh, Hi!” and the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.”
On the Saturday July 26, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet award-winning comedian, bestselling novelist and actor Brent Butt. He’s been voted Best Male Stand-Up in Canada by his peers. He also created and starred in two successful sitcoms – “Corner Gas,” which was seen in 60 countries) and “Hiccups.” Add to that, two theatrical comedy films (“No Clue,” “Corner Gas: The Movie”) and four seasons of “Corner Gas Animated,” and you have one of the most successful comedians that Canada has ever produced.
Today we’ll be talking about a career first for Brent, the release of a full-length comedy album. Called “easily Distracted,” it features his signature blend of wry observations and effortless storytelling and, of course, lots of laughs.
Then we’ll meet Aurora Stewart De Peña. In her new book she satirizes the creative industry she’s spent years working in. The book, “Julius Julius” is a satirical novel set in the world’s oldest advertising agency, a surreal, labyrinthine building with a 2,000-year history tracing back to an ad man in ancient Pompeii. Through three voices from different eras, the story explores the absurdities and moral dilemmas of the creative industry.
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 joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres including the friends and family of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the grip it and rip it sequel “Happy Gilmore 2” and the dark rom com “Oh, Hi!”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the friends and family of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the dark rom com “Oh, Hi!” and the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review “The Fantaastic Four: First Steps” and tell you about some fantastic drinks to enjoy while watching the movie.
Click HERE to listen to Shane and me talk about the “anti-woke” “Basic Instinct” remake, some everything-old-is-new-again music from Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and why rock music os cool again.
For the Booze & Reviews look at “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and some fantastic cocktails to pair with it, click HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the friends and family of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the dark rom com “Oh, Hi!” and the documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.”
SYNOPSIS: “Happy Gilmore 2,” the Netflix sequel to Adam Sandler’s much loved 1996 golf comedy, begins with the sports legend in a bad way. “Remember Happy Gilmore?” asks newscaster Pat Daniels. “He’s making news on the golf course again, but not the good kind.”
Broke and unwilling to play golf after a tragedy during a tournament that plunged him into alcoholism, he’s a t rock bottom. When his daughter Vienna (Sunny Sandler) needs tuition for a prestigious dance school in Paris, he must pull his life together and pick up his old golf clubs. “There’s only one way to make that money fast,” says Happy’s brother Johnny (real life golfer John Daly). “Grip it and rip it.”
CAST: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Bad Bunny, Ben Stiller, Dennis Dugan, Kevin Nealon, Sunny Sandler, Eric André, Jim Downey, John Farley, Marcello Hernandez, Oliver Hudson, Scott Mescudi, Haley Joel Osment, Kelsey Plum, Margaret Qualley, and Nick Swardson. Directed by Kyle Newacheck.
REVIEW: There are probably more celebrity cameos in “Happy Gilmore 2” than actual belly laughs, but I doubt Sandler’s fans will care. A mix of heart, rage and silliness, it’s a familiar underdog story that captures the spirit but not the magic of the original.
Fan service is the name of the game.
A tsunami of flashbacks, callbacks and refurbished jokes from the original, it’s like a cover version of “Happy Gilmore” or an echo from 1996 emanating from the screen. The more familiar you are with the original, the more enjoyment you’ll wring out of the sequel. Casual viewers may be left in the dark, even though director (and professional pickleball player) Kyle Newacheck does everything possible to remind you of Happy’s former glories.
Still, at the heart of it all is Sandler. Almost thirty years later he’s still able to play the rageaholic Gilmore as a tightly wound col ready to spring at any time. “I always power my drives the old-fashioned way,” he says of his unique golf swing, “with rage.”
The intensity is good for a laugh, and he still has a way of stringing words together in the most insulting way ever, but there’s more to Happy than the temper that so often gets him in trouble. Sandler’s natural likability doesn’t actually smooth down any of the ironically named Happy’s rough edges, they are still there, but because of his sincerity he’s an easy underdog to root for. It doesn’t feel new, but it does have a certain amount of charm.
With its surfeit of cameos, returning characters and Sandler movie regulars, “Happy Gilmore 2” seems like the kind of movie that was more fun to make than it is to watch. Some will find it lazy, pandering to Sandler’s fans without offering anything new, but for hard core aficionados of Sandler’s 90s comedies, it’s a blast from the past.
SYNOPSIS: Set on the 1960s-inspired parallel Earth-828, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the new Marvel movie now playing in theatres, sees Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) defend Earth from the gargantuan planet-devouring villain Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his emissary, the cosmic surfboard riding Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).
CAST: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson. Directed by Matt Shakman.
REVIEW: Like a lot of great speculative fiction, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” isn’t really about the spectacle or the saving the world. Sure, there’s a humungous villain who makes the Statue of Liberty look like a Lego Minifig and the fate of mankind hangs is in the hands of the Four, but that stuff is there simply to act as a delivery system for a story about community, hope and family.
A standalone film—you won’t need to read the MCU wiki page to get up to speed—it dispenses with the origin story in a zippy newsreel that explains how scientists Reed Richards and Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and test pilot and astronaut Ben Grimm gained superpowers after exposure to radiation cosmically altered their DNA during a space mission, transforming them into Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing.
With that out of the way, director Matt Shankman gets to the world building.
Set in a retro-chic 1960s-inspired New York City, the film’s look is part “Mad Men,” part “Jetsons,” and reflects the Camelot style optimism of the era.
That it’s a tip of the hat to 1961, the year “The Fantastic Four” debuted, and visually sets the film apart from all other MCU movies, are nice thematic and visual bonuses.
More importantly, director Shakman and screenwriters Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer blend the existential threat of the end of the world (What’s a superhero movie without the threat of the end-of-the-world?) with a surprisingly intimate portrait of The Fantastic Four as a close-knit family.
Sue and Reed are expectant parents, managing the anxiety of having their first child who may, or may not, inherit their altered DNA. Sue’s brother, the hot-headed Johnny, who can burst into flame at will, and family friend Ben, who has permanently morphed into the gentle giant The Thing, are set up to be doting uncles when they aren’t goofing around or saving the world.
None of it would work if the cast didn’t click.
Pascal brings intelligence and emotional depth to Reed while Quinn plays Human Torch as an impulsive but warm-hearted character. The movie’s heart and soul, however, comes from Moss-Bachrach’s motion-capture performance and Kirby’s portrayal of a mother who will sacrifice everything to protect her child.
Even under a digital mountain of CGI, Moss-Bachrach finds pathos in Ben/The Thing’s situation. He’s a genial presence in the family unit, bringing warmth and humour, but it’s the truncated scenes with love interest Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne) that humanizes the craggy, 500-pound character. They’re brief and under-written, but Moss-Bachrach makes the most of them.
Fierce yet vulnerable, compassionate yet steely, Kirby delivers a version of Sue Storm that has depth, as a maternal character and a superhero.
The emphasis on family, community and character are at the very heart of the film. There is spectacle, and the movie ultimately submits to a busy climax, but it’s not an all-out Action-A-Rama. The fireworks come from the characters, not the battle scenes, and while it may be a tad earnest and a bit straightforward for fans looking for loud ‘n proud battle scenes, it succeeds because it takes interesting, thoughtful first steps into a new superhero franchise.
SYNOPSIS: There’s togetherness, the feeling that couples get when they reach a certain comfort level, and then there’s “Together,” the darkly funny story of a couple whose attachment issues are solved by a situation beyond their control.
