I sit in on the CKTB Niagara in the Morning morning show with host Tim Denis to talk the new movies coming to theatres. This week we look at Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway” and the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway, the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile,” the coming of age story “Armageddon Time” and the drama “The Swearing Jar.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a jumping jack! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway” and the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile” is not a regular musical bio-doc. We get bits and pieces from Tucker’s legendary career, how she had her first hit with “Delta Dawn” when she was just thirteen-years-old, and her cocaine fueled relationship with country superstar Glen Campbell, but the focus here is the making of the 2019 album “While I’m Livin’.”
Produced by Shooter Jennings and country singer Brandi Carlile, it was Tucker’s first album in seventeen years, and earned a Grammy, her first ever.
Director Kathlyn Horan takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, a style that lends itself to revealing many organic and intimate moments of Tucker and her producers capturing the magic that is Tucker in full flight.
It also captures Carlile’s esteem for her elder. There’s palpable sense of second chances hanging over the proceedings as Carlile carefully and respectfully guides Tucker through the paces. The creative process reveals a deft and deep musical knowledge, and the importance of finding joy in the making of the art. Tucker’s career was marred by sexism and abuse, so this feels like a new beginning, a return to center stage, guided by Carlile’s steady hand.
It is a portrait of a legend who calls herself “just a country singer,” but with a voice that is imbued with the texture of a woman who has lived a life, and brings that experience to her art. At the heart, this is a love letter to Tucker, whose career has had as many ups as it has downs.
Come for the story, stay for the incredible music.
Richard appears on “CTV News at 6” to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week he has a look at the violent and visceral Viking drama “The Northman,” “The Bad Guys,” a heist flick for kids, the documentary “The Automat” and season two of “The Flight Attendant” on HBO.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Graham Richardson to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the Viking drama “The Northman,” the surreal Nic Cage homage “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” the animated heist flick “The Bad Guys” and the nostalgic documentary “The Automat.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins NewsTalk 1010 host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the Viking drama “The Northman,” the surreal Nic Cage homage “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and the nostalgic documentary “The Automat.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch Richard review three movies in less time than it takes to sign your name! Have a look as he races against the clock to tell you about the violent and visceral Viking drama “The Northman,” the surreal Nic Cage movie “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and the nostalgic documentary “The Automat.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
A new documentary, “The Automat,” directed by Lisa Hurwitz and now playing in theatres, is a evocative look back when you could get a square meal for a round quarter.
For more than fifty years Horn & Hardart automats fed more Americans than any other restaurant chain. For the price of a nickel you could get a cup of strong coffee, poured from a spout shaped like a dolphin. The rest of the menu was housed behind small doors with windows that displayed the wares, like baked beans, chicken pot pies, creamed spinach or Secretary of State Colin Powell’s favorite, the macaroni and cheese. Pop a coin in the slot, open the door and lunch or dinner is served.
“The Automat” uses talking heads, like Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elliott Gould, and archival footage to create a nostalgic look at a by-gone institution but to also contextualize the contributions the quirky restaurants made to American society.
A precursor to fast food chains like Burger King or Arby’s, both of whom would later fall under the Horn & Hardart umbrella, the automats were a sensation. The first Horn & Hardart automat opened in 1902 in Philadelphia with a strict adherence to quality and egalitarianism. For the next 89 years—the last New York Horn & Hardart Automat closed in April 1991—everyone was welcome with no racial barrier, tables were shared by strangers and, at their heyday in the 1940s and 50s, they served upwards of 350,000 customers a day in New York alone.
Everyone interviewed raves about the food and the restaurants. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz talks about how a visit to Horn & Hardart sparked his love of the hospitality business, and how it influences him today. Powell remembers family outings and the delicious pies that were a once-a-week treat.
As glowing as the interviews are, there is often a sense of nostalgic melancholy about the demise the automat—a victim of changing times—as an example of how the good ol’ days, represented by the elegant and welcoming restaurants, are truly behind us.
“It had some style and it was different,” says self-serve automat superfan Mel Brooks. “The marble, the brass, the polished floors, the chatter, the coffee. That was the Automat. It can’t work again because the logistics and economics of today won’t allow anything that simple, naive, elegant and beautiful to flourish again.”
“The Automat” is a quickly paced, interesting and affectionate populist documentary that brings to life how, for a time, happiness could be bought for the price of a cheap cup o’ joe.
