SYNOPSIS: The story of a young woman looking to make a break from family traditions, “The Bearded Girl” is a coming-of-age tale about rejecting conformity while finding a place in the world.
REVIEW: Charmingly off kilter, “The Bearded Girl” sees Anwen O’Driscoll as 88th-generation bearded woman Cleo Nightingale. Like her mother, the strong-willed Lady Andre (Jessica Paré), and all the women in her family, she’s destined to become a sword-swallowing circus performer and take over the reins of the family carnival.
“People need leaders,” Lady Andre tells her. “And like it or not, you’re the next one in line.”
Trouble is, Cleo feels lost. “I don’t feel right,” she says. Her mother isn’t interested in her ideas to modernize their show, and she’s tired of feeling like a “freak.” Rebelling against her family’s traditions, she shaves her beard, leaves the circus and her mother behind in search of a “normal” life.
“Do you think it’s going to be easier out there,” Lady Andre asks. “That you’ll be able to find yourself a new life?”
As Cleo navigates life outside the family and her first romance with a young guy named Blaze (Keenan Tracey), her absence puts the circus and everything her mother has worked for in jeopardy.
Set in a heightened world that feels separated from real life by 180 degrees, “The Bearded Girl” is a fairy tale that deals with real life issues of self-acceptance, legacy and rebellion in delightful, heartfelt ways. But, despite the unusual backdrop, it feels grounded because instead of playing up the absurdity of a community of bearded women living and working in their own carnival compound, it digs into relatable issues.
As Cleo attempts to make her mark in the world, she comes to realize that embracing who she really is will be the ticket to happiness. It’s a lovely message in a movie that accentuates living life on your own terms.
“The Bearded Girl” isn’t a movie for the whole family, there’s some language and Lady Andre smokes up a storm, but as young-adult-and-up entertainment, it has its own unique voice and low-key appeal.
I join CTV NewsChannel’s Scott Hirsch to talk about the road trip flick “Holy Days,” the time travel crime drama “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” the epidemic drama “Alpha” and the animated biopic “A Magnificent Life.”
SYNOPSIS: Oscar winner Cillian Murphy returns to theatres in “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” a feature-length, direct sequel to the original TV series that answers the question posed in the film’s trailer, “Whatever happened to Tommy Shelby, the famous Gypsy gangster?”
CAST: Cillian Murphy, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, Stephen Graham, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo, Barry Keoghan. Directed by Tom Harper.
REVIEW: Set in 1940, six years after the end of the television series, the story begins with former Peaky Blinders crime boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) living in self-exile. Trauma, PTSD from World War I, and betrayal led him to a monastic life, writing a memoir, far from the violence that infected most of his life. When asked why he’s sitting out WWII he says, “I have a war of my own. Inside my head.”
In Birmingham, as World War II rages, Tommy’s son ‘Duke’ Shelby (Barry Keoghan) has assumed control of Peaky Blinders. “Peaky Blinders are going to do,” says one onlooker to the gang’s violence, “whatever the Peaky Blinders want to do.”
Doing whatever they want includes stealing weapons meant for British soldiers fighting the Nazis. Concerned for her family and country, Tommy’s sister Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) visits her brother, urging him to “talk to your son before he gets hung by the law or lynched by the people.”
“If it’s trouble he’s in,” Tommy says, “I’ve got enough of my own.” But when Duke becomes involved with Nazis in a money counterfeit scheme to flood the British economy with £70 million worth of fake pound notes—”We’ll end the war with banknotes instead of bombs,” says British fascist Beckett (Tim Roth)—Tommy puts on his trademarked peaked cap and returns to Birmingham to confront Duke. “My son,” he says, “my dark reflection.”
Like the last chapter of a thick novel, “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” serves as a climax to the long-running series. It’s not exactly a stand-alone story, so, for the complete effect, you might want to watch the show—available for streaming on Netflix—or, at the very least glance at the show’s Wikipedia page before buying a ticket.
No time? That’s OK. Screenwriter Steven Knight, who also created the original television series, doles out background information by weaving it into conversations, and through excerpts from Tommy’s memoir. There’s no “Previously on Beaky Blinders” recap as such, but you get enough info to keep up, but perhaps not get the richness of Murphy’s take on Shelby, a man trying to battle against his worst nature.
It’s a slow burn, a story of family, fathers, sons and legacy with elements of magic realism, courtesy of Rebecca Ferguson’s enigmatic character Kaulo, a psychic figure with Romani heritage.
Style wise, tribute is paid to the streaming show.
Murphy moves through the film’s brimstone smoke and low-level, atmospheric lighting with Shelby’s signature style—sharp suits, dangling cigarette and confident walk—bringing with him a moral complexity as he works to discover if “from this bad some good will come.”
Murphy’s mastery of Tommy’s dangerous stoicism is entertaining, but it is the character’s battle between the good and evil that exist within that makes him fascinating.
In this big screen adaptation, screenwriter Knight and director Tom Harper clearly believe that bigger is better, but in the staging of the large scale, climatic “Mission Impossible” style sequence, the movie loses the intimate, inner world that mark its best moments.
Canadians are proudly buying local, waving the maple leaf, and rallying behind homegrown culture — so why are Canadian movie theaters suddenly empty?
This week on Entertainment Is Broken, Sarah and I unpack the surprising 40% drop in Canadian film attendance and ask a big question: if we love Canadian creators, why aren’t we showing up for Canadian movies?
From Mike Myers’ cultural rallying cry to the legacy of comedy icons like John Candy, plus a heartfelt tribute to the late Robert Duvall, the conversation dives into movie-going habits, streaming culture, national identity, and whether Canadian storytelling needs a reinvention… or just a bigger audience.
Are Canadian films overlooked, misunderstood, or simply waiting for their moment? Grab your popcorn — this one gets personal.
On the Saturday February 21, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet artist Michael Townsend.
Have you heard about the Netflix movie “Secret Mall Apartment”? It’s the wildly popular story, set in the early two thousands, about a group of eight young artists and friends from Rhode Island who secretly built and lived in a hidden 750-square-foot apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island.
They discovered an unused “nowhere space” in the mall’s structure, snuck in furniture, tapped into electricity, constructed walls (including smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock to build a fortified, lockable entrance), and even furnished it with everyday items like a TV, gaming system, books, and couches—all while filming much of the process themselves.
They lived there undetected for four years (until 2007), when they were eventually caught and charged with trespassing.
Then, Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol of “Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie.”
The movie, which blends footage from the 2007–2009 web series of the same name, begins with unemployed musicians Matt and Jay (Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol) hatching a plan to land a gig at the legendary Rivoli on Queen Street West in Toronto. Without contacting the club, writing any songs or practising, they decide to parachute off the CN Tower into the Skydome during a baseball game to announce the show in front of a stunned crowd.
What could go wrong? Well, lots.
No spoilers here, but when their skydiving stunt doesn’t get them the Rivoli gig, they (along with their camera guy Jared Raab) find themselves accidentally traveling back to the year 2008, and struggling to find a way back to the future.
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.
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.
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