I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including the live action déjà vu of “How to Train Your Dragon,” the non rom com “Materialists” and the life-affirming “The Life of Chuck.”
On the Saturday June 14, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet meet JUNO Award-winning Indigenous artist Crystal Shawanda. Born and raised on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario, Crystal began her career in country music, signing with RCA Nashville. After parting ways with the label, she launched New Sun Records and shifted her focus to the blues. Her highly anticipated new album “Sing Pretty Blues,” blends blues and Southern country soul with Stax, Chess and Motown influences, is available now via her very own label, New Sun Records on all streaming platforms.
Then, Canadian director, playwright, and screenwriter, Celine Song stops by. In 2023 she became a Hollywood darling with her Oscar nominated feature film debut, “Past Lives.” The film, nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, follows two childhood best friends who reunite in adulthood years after one emigrates from South Korea to the United States.
She returns to theatres with a new film staring Dakota Johnson. Set against the backdrop of New York City, the Rom Com Capitol of the World®, “Materialists” sees Johnson play Lucy, a matchmaker for the rich and famous. She has arranged nine marriages but personally keeps romance at arm’s length after a messy break-up. Things change for the “eternal bachelorette” when she meets wealthy charm-bomb Harry Castillo, played by Pedro Pascal. As romance blossoms, Lucy’s life is upended by the return of her broke ex-boyfriend, John, played by Chris Evans, forcing her to choose between a perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Then, Eric McCormack, you know him as as Will Truman of the TV series Will & Grace, a role that won him won a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy Award stops by to talk about his new Hollywood Suite show “Hell Motel.” On the creep new show, 10 true crime obsessives are invited to the opening weekend of the newly renovated Cold River Motel, the site of a 30-year-old unsolved Satanic Mass Murder. History repeats itself when the guests get start getting knocked off one by one.
Eric plays Hemmingway, a chef with a wickedly sinister flair. In this interview we talk about Hell Motel, and how to play dead on camera.
I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres this week including the live action déjà vu of “How to Train Your Dragon,” the non rom com “Materialists” and the life-affirming “The Life of Chuck.”
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 live action déjà vu of “How to Train Your Dragon,” the non rom com “Materialists” and the life-affirming “The Life of Chuck.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the live action déjà vu of “How to Train Your Dragon,” the non rom com “Materialists” and the life-affirming “The Life of Chuck.”
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 matchmaker rom com “Materialists,” and give you a history of the pick-up bar!
Click HERE to hear Shane and I talking about the new “Smartless” mobile phone venture, a Manny the Mayo style wedding and the upcoming Snoop Dogg biography.
Click HERE to hear my Booze & Reviews take on “Materialists” and the history of New York City pick-up bars.
SYNOPSIS: Set against the backdrop of New York City, the Rom Com Capitol of the World®, “Materialists” sees Dakota Johnson play Lucy, a matchmaker for the rich and famous. “I promise you’re going to marry the love of your life,” she says to her clients. She has arranged nine marriages but personally, keeps romance at arm’s length after a messy break-up. Things change for the “eternal bachelorette” when she meets wealthy charm-bomb Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal). “You are what we call a unicorn,” she tells him, “an impossible fantasy.” As romance blossoms, Lucy’s life is upended by the return of her broke ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), forcing her to choose between a perfect match and her imperfect ex.
CAST: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. Written and directed by Celine Song.
REVIEW: A rom com that emphasizes the rom over the com, “Materialists” takes several big leaps, story wise, to arrive at the fairly simple idea that the heart wants with the heart wants. There’s no fifty-shades of nuance here.
As a matchmaker, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) treats her clients like commodities, not humans. She talks about the “math” of relationships, the calculation of compatibility plus physical appearance plus bank account, but admits, “We promise them love, but the math doesn’t add up.”
In other words, sometimes perfect on paper, isn’t perfect.
With “Materialists” writer-director Celine Song takes a deep dive into the need for real human connection, the kind of bond that is messy, unpredictable, sometimes illogical and can’t be summed up by a simple equation.
It’s the stuff of rom coms, boiled down to its essence.
There are a handful of mild laughs, but don’t come to “Materialists” looking for slapstick. Song subverts the genre, poking fun at the often unreasonable demands prospective daters want regarding class and age. “39 isn’t in the 30s,” says an older guy who wants to date thirty-year-olds, by which he means a woman in her mid-to-late twenties.
The “interview” segments between Lucy and her clients are often funny and more often ridiculous but they don’t set the tone for the entire film. Song isn’t as interested in the ins-and-outs of modern dating as she is in the bond people form when the math is taken out of the equation. It aims to be a realistic rom com of a sort—although you could argue that Lucy’s $80,000 salary is an unrealistic figure given her high end wardrobe and NYC apartment—about how there is no formula for love that avoids most of the formulas of the genre.
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for Booze & Reviews! This week we have a look at the Yuletide action flick “Red One” and I’ll tell about a drink that’ll get you in the sspirit of the season!
Listen to “Booze & Reviews” HERE! (Starts at 10:44)
Could there be a Simon & Garfunkle reunion happening? Find out HERE! (Starts at 20:47)
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the Christmas actioner “Red One,” the drama “Magpie” and the stop motion animated “Memoirs of a Snail.”