On the Saturday September 26, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse we meet Alex Spring, a bold new voice in crime fiction whose debut novel, Lower City, is in fine bookstores everywhere.
Set in Hamilton, Ontario, during a tense October 2025 marked by job insecurity, rising rents, and social polarization, the novel follows 26-year-old steelworker Danny Clarke as a series of abductions plunges the city into chaos. Blending the gritty realism of S.A. Cosby with the page-turning pulse of Louise Penny, Lower City is a riveting yet warmhearted story about community, connection, and what it means to grow up and do the right thing.
Then, Anna Lambe, Canada’s newest breakout star from the Arctic and lead of North of North, the hit Arctic-set comedy TV series from APTN, CBC and Netflix, now in Season 2 joins the show.
Rising to prominence with her breakout role in the film The Grizzlies—which earned her a Canadian Screen Award nomination—she has gone on to deliver standout performances in series such as Trickster, Three Pines, and HBO’s True Detective: Night Country alongside Jodie Foster. In 2025 she took the lead in the critically acclaimed comedy North of North, a groundbreaking series set in the Arctic that has captivated audiences worldwide.
Season two builds on Season 1’s mix of heartfelt comedy, family dynamics, small-town gossip, cultural authenticity, and personal growth.
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.
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”
I sit with NewsTalk 1010 host Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about the biggest Billboard hit of 2026, the “Sound of Music” museum, an AI host, Brigette Bardot’s copy of the Kama Sutra and I review Brad PItt and his canine co-star in “Heart of the Beast.”
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about “American Idol” leaving Los Angeles, what prompted a roomful of critics to burst into applause, and I review Brad Pitt’s latest movie “Heart of the Beast and tell you who the real star of the movie is. On Booze & Reviews I’ll suggest some doggie style cocktails to drink whiule watching the movie!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind your watch. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the captivating canine action of “Heart of the Beast,” the provocative “Primetime” and the sports biopic “The Stunt Driver.”
SYNOPSIS: The story of a man and his dog, “Heart of the Beast” sees Special Forces officer James Belmont and his loyal combat dog Odin fight for survival in the Alaskan wilderness. “It’s not who you live for… It’s who you’d die for.”
CAST: Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe, Uber. Directed by David Ayer.
REVIEW: Brad Pitt stars as Special Forces officer James Belmont, a thirty-year combat veteran haunted by decades of battlefield action. To quiet his troubled mind Belmont and Odin, a three-legged German Shepard combat scouting dog who suffers from PTSD, who is also Belmont’s “greatest love and friend left on this earth,” take a trip to the Alaskan wilderness to experience the healing power of nature.
When their plane crash lands in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to rely on their combat skills to survive in the face of vicious cold, the unforgiving landscape, injury and threats from a variety of predators. The hurdles are huge, but, as Belmont says, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters,” says Belmont. “It’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Like “The Littlest Hobo” with a taste of “The Revenant’ thrown in for seasoning, “Heart of the Beast” is a simple survival story anchored by a great performance.
But I’m not talking about Brad Pitt. He’s fine, doing a good job with a thinly written character, a resourceful soldier haunted by his past. His work is understated, far more subtle than you might expect from a movie like this.
No, the star here is Uber, the canine actor who plays Odin. He manages to do something George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon have not been able to do, and that’s steal every scene they perform together.
Their relationship—they’re alone on screen for 90% of the movie—is the film’s emotional core. Belmont treats the dog as an equal, a fellow soldier who, like him, has been to hell and back. They have a bond, and that unbreakable connection is the film’s main draw.
Perhaps that’s why a number of flashbacks to their early military service left me with the feeling that director David Ayer, working from a script by Cameron Alexander, missed the chance to tell the more interesting story of the beginning of Belmont and Odin’s bond and battlefield experiences.
Set against the rugged beauty of New Zealand (standing in for Alaska), “Heart of the Beast’s” action is episodic, predictable and only occasionally pulse-racing. It’s a raw portrait of endurance, with a few grim moments and nice cameos from J.K. Simmons as a fellow traveler and “North of North’s” Anna Lambe, but it is the connection between man and dog that carries the movie and may have you reach for a Kleenex in its final twenty minutes.
On the Saturday January 4, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Anna Lambe, an actress and television host from Nunavut. You’ve seen her in the feature film “The Grizzlies,” which earned her a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Most recently she appeared in HBO’s highly anticipated fourth season of “True Detective,” starring opposite Jodie Foster.
Today we talk about her new project, “North of North.” In the CBC, Netflix and APTN series she plays a young woman who wants to build a new future for herself after a spontaneous — and extremely public — exit from her marriage. But it won’t be easy in her small Arctic town where everybody knows everyone’s business.
Then we’ll meet RaMell Ross, artist, writer, documentarian and director of “Nickle Boys,” an intriguing movie that was named one of the top 10 films of 2024 by the American Film Institute. It has also received several accolades, including a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, and five nominations at the 30th Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Picture.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida and it opens in theatres in Canada on January 10.
Finally, we’ll meet director Tim Fehlbaum. He’s an award-winning Swiss filmmaker whose previous films, like “Tides” and “Hell,” focused on post-apocalyptic and science fiction stories. He returns to the real world with “September 5,” a new thriller starring Peter Sarsgaard and Ben Chaplin, and now playing in select theatres, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
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.
