I sit with Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to go over some of the week’s biggest entertainment stories and movies playing in theatres. We talk about the new U2 EP, William Shatner going to where he has never gone before, whether The Beatles may have reunited before John Lennon’s death and I review “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
This week on Entertainment Is Broken, Richard Crouse and Sarah Hanlon hold up the “art is a mirror” cliché…then immediately use it to start a small, tasteful blaze. We’re talking art as resistance…from Picasso’s Guernica energy to pop culture moments that make the internet reveal its whole personality in public.
We also take a beat to acknowledge the death of Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek at 48, and why his openness about colorectal cancer matters…plus Richard’s blunt reminder that early screening can save your life (yes, even if you have “literally anything else” you’d rather do).
Then it’s into the beautiful chaos: Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as storytelling, culture, and a giant empathy machine…complete with NYC water data that proves half of New York held it together out of respect for the performance (and then absolutely did not). From there, we connect dots between protest music and icon moments…Sinead O’Connor, Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” Public Enemy, punk rock, Spike Lee, and what happens when resistance goes mainstream without getting sanded down into “brand-safe inspiration.”
We also detour through Toronto’s disappearing music landmarks, including the news that Steve’s Music on Queen West is closing…and what that says about culture, community, and the slow gentrified vanishing of the places where scenes are born.
Watch on YouTube, listen wherever you get podcasts…and yes, subscribe (thank you…thank you very much).
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@EntertainmentIsBroken
Listen: https://pod.link/1855097197
I join CP24 to talk about the life and legacy of the late Robert Duvall, and recall becoming starstruck while interviewing him.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy lovers! Watch as I review three Valentine’s Day movies in less time than it takes to kiss your partner! Have a look as I race against Cupid to tell you about the obsessive “Wuthering Heights,” the supernatural love story “Eternity” and the scary romance of “Together.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about the “Melania” documentary, the Kennedy Center revamp and I review Charli XCX’s mockumentary “The Moment” and tell you about some cocktails top help bring out your inner brat.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “The Moment,” a musical mockumentary about pop star Charli XCX sees her grapple with fame and her first arena tour. “I just want this moment to last forever,” she says.
CAST: Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, Alexander Skarsgård. Directed by Aidan Zamiri.
REVIEW: Fans of Charli XCX should know that “The Moment” isn’t a concert film. The satirical mockumentary could best be described as a film about a concert.
Set on the eve of the stressed-out singer’s first headlining arena tour, it’s meant to be a poke in the side to a music business who take innovative artists and suck them dry of authenticity.
Folks unfamiliar with Charli XCX may want to check out her songs, like “Von Dutch’s” brash electronic pop, and her Wikipedia page or otherwise be baffled by references to Brat Summer and the color lime green.
In short, the movie takes place in the aftermath of Charli XCX’s sixth studio album “Brat.” Not just a title, it was a state of mind that celebrated a messy, unapologetic, hedonistic, party-girl lifestyle through bangers like “Girl, so confusing” (featuring Lorde).
“The Moment” begins as Charli XCX is having her moment. As she prepares for her biggest tour ever, the singer grapples with her record company’s expectations, exhaustion and loss of creative control. She feels the authentic cultural impact of Brat Summer is being commodified, or worse, might be slipping away. “Everybody’s waiting on the moment I fail,” she says.
The movie captures the Brat vibe. It’s messy, audacious, unapologetic and flawed.
Playing a heightened version of herself, Charli XCX finds some humor, humanity and a healthy dose of vulnerability in the tortured artist syndrome. She hands in a credible lead performance as a woman at a career crossroad, balancing the demands of her record label, a pushy film director (Alexander Skarsgård) and her management. She effectively portrays the fraying effect of fame as her creativity is commercialized and she is increasingly treated like a product rather than artist.
Her performance is aided by director Aidan Zamiri’s extreme up-close-and-personal photography. Her expressive face reveals much in these close-ups, particularly the pressure she feels to be effortlessly cool. The framing provides an interesting look at the woman behind the image and the work that goes into propagating the “Brat” image and allows the singer to let down her guard and reveal the often-insecure person behind the party image.
Skarsgård’s obsequious take on the director of the film-within-the-film provides several memorable, funny moments and raises obnoxiousness to stratospheric heights. His role of manipulative foil to Charli’s creative authenticity pushes the movie’s themes of artistic compromise to the fore.
Unfortunately, that is about as deep as “The Moment” gets.
Director Aidan Zamiri’s fondness for cinéma vérité style jiggly camera requires a dose of Dramamine as the story meanders repeatedly through the same plot points of artist manipulation and the stresses of leveling up.
“The Moment” is a movie with lots of extreme style desperate to say something about what happens when pop culture turns its eye on an artist, but the message gets bogged down by its own Brat style.
On the Saturday February 7, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll spend some time with Laila Biali, JUNO-winning Canadian jazz vocalist, pianist, singer-songwriter, and CBC Music host (Saturday Night Jazz). She is Grammy nominated in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her holiday album “Wintersongs” and joins me today top talk about the album and how the nomination changed her life.
Then we’ll meet critically acclaimed Canadian author Lindsay Wong. Her bestselling, award-winning memoir “The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family,” a Canada Reads finalist and Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize winner, established her literary reputation for sharp wit, dark humor, and unflinching exploration of Chinese Canadian identity.
Today we’ll talk about her highly anticipated debut adult novel, “Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies,” a wickedly funny, genre-bending blend of horror, dark comedy, and folk magic. Drawing on ancient Chinese traditions like corpse marriage and villain hitting, we’ll explain both of those in the interview, it follows a broke, ambitious young woman haunted by her powerful witch grandmother and an undead sister, delivering a subversive takedown of class struggle, the model minority myth, patriarchy, and the murderous cost of simply trying to survive. Praised as “extraordinarily imaginative and darkly hilarious” and a “chilling masterclass in fiction,” this book cements Lindsay as one of the most provocative voices in contemporary literary horror.
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!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
I join CJAD afternoon host Aaron Rand to talk about the life and legacy of the great Catherine O”Hara.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
On the Saturday January 17, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse we’ll meet author Joe Hill. His bestselling novels & short stories have inspired hit adaptations like “Locke & Key,” “Horns,” and “The Black Phone,” as well as “In the Tall Grass” (which he adapted for film and co-wrote the novella of with his father Stephen King.) Today we’ll talk about “King Sorrow,” a genre-bending horror epic that spans 25 years. It follows six college friends who summon a dragon using a book bound in human skin. Each year, they must choose a sacrifice—or become one.
Then we spend time with Louise Pitre. Often hailed as Canada’s first lady of musical theatre, she is a Tony-nominated actress renowned for her powerful performances on Broadway and across North America and Europe. Best known for originating the role of Donna Sheridan in “Mamma Mia!,” she has also played Fantine in “Les Misérables” and Edith Piaf in “The Angel & the Sparrow” among many others. Today we talk about herb latest work, “Kimberly Akimbo,” the Tony Award-winning musical about a bright but physically aging teenage girl with a rare genetic condition, similar to progeria, who navigates a dysfunctional family, first love, and the challenges of finding happiness and connection despite her unique circumstances and limited time.
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!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
