On the Saturday July 12, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. You know the Canadian Screen Award winner as family patriarch Appa on “Kim’s Convenience,” and as Inspector Albert Choi, the new head of Station House No 4, on “Murdoch Mysteries” and as Captain Carson Teva on the Star War series “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka.”
We’ll also meet a guest who began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back tio the Future II” to Internal Affairs opposite Richard Gere. He became an international star after playing Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He’s Elijah Wood, and his extensive filmography now includes “Bookworm,” an intriguing film about a 12-year-old named Mildred whose life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding — a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.
Then, we spend time with Gabrielle Drolet, a journalist, essayist, and cartoonist based in Montreal. She regularly contributes cartoons to The New Yorker and the Globe and Mail and is the first woman to receive a National Newspaper Award nomination for Editorial Cartooning. In 2020, she developed a condition that made her unable to use her hands. It only worsened over time, and as a writer and artist, she had to learn new ways of creating and expressing herself. She placed her first cartoon in The New Yorker—and then was unable to draw for a full year. She has since found ways around this using graphic design software, exercises, and many, many breaks, but the experience has completely changed her life.
She writes about her experiences in her new book, “Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic Pain Memoir,” an often funny but profound book on chronic pain, accessibility, and young adulthood.
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.
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 Monkey’s” damn dirty ape, the family story “The Unbreakable Boy” and the Canadian drama “Morningside.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I go ape for “The Monkey” and suggest some drinks that’ll make you go bananas!
Listen as we monkey around on Booze & Reviews HERE!
Find out why “Spider-Man” star Tom Holland wasn’t able to buy his own brand of non-alcoholic beer HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Monkey,” a new horror comedy based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same name, a vintage toy monkey brings murder and mayhem into the lives of twin brothers Hal and Bill, both played by Theo James.
CAST: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy. Directed by Osgood Perkins.
REVIEW: An inanimate object horror film about the randomness of life and death, “The Monkey” feels like an old-fashioned Stephen King movie. It’s a little rough-and-tumble, meanspirited and it delivers a series of practical splatter gags in great big gory blasts.
There’s even a callback to one of King’s favorite psychopaths.
It’s the story of an organ grinder monkey toy—Wait! Don’t call it a toy! It’s evil incarnate! “It’s basically the devil,” says Hal.—who, with grinning rictus of terror, bangs on a drum like he’s Charlie Watts. As he taps away people die in increasingly terrible ways. From fishhook trauma and aneurisms to immolation and canon fire, the monkey is indiscriminate in choosing his victims or how they will perish. Think “Final Destination,” minus the monkey, and you’ll get the idea.
Try as they might, the twins can’t stop the monkey from dancing to his own drum. “We know it couldn’t be destroyed,” says Hal, “but we hoped it could be controlled.”
As the body count rises, they soon realize that won’t be possible.
Director Osgood Perkins channels his inner Sam “Evil Dead” Raimi, combining old school splatter with very dark humor. It makes for a giddy goodtime, especially as the kills get more and more slapsticky and outlandish.
“The Monkey” does feel stretched from its short story origins to feature film, but Perkins keeps the energy up and the storytelling efficient enough to warrant its 97-minute runtime.
On the Saturday November 30, 2024 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet multi-award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster Carol Off. For almost 16 years, she co-hosted CBC Radio’s flagship current affairs program, As It Happens. As a television journalist, writer and radio host it’s estimated she did 25,000 interviews with newsmakers and noticed that as politics became more polarized than ever before, words that used to define civil society were being put to work for completely different political agendas.
In her new book, “At a Loss for Words: Conversation in the Age of Rage,” she analyzes six terms—freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice and taxes—and how their meanings have been twisted.
Then, we meet a guest who began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back tio the Future II” to Internal Affairs opposite Richard Gere. He became an international star after playing Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He’s Elijah Wood, and his extensive filmography now includes “Bookworm,” an intriguing film about a 12-year-old named Mildred whose life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding — a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.
Finally, we 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.
On the Saturday October 19, 2024 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet director Ali Abbasi. His film “The Apprentice,” which is now playing in theatres, is a controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn. It paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.” Ali Abbasi joined me on the phone to discuss his six year journey to getting this film made and released and much more.
Then, Elijah Wood stops by. He began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back to the Future II” to “Internal Affairs” opposite Richard Gere. He became an international star after playing Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. His extensive filmography now includes “Bookworm,” an intriguing film about a 12-year-old named Mildred whose life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding — a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther. It’s a lovely film and it was lovely to speak with Elijah Wood about it and his secret regarding “Lord of the Rings.”
Finally, we’ll meet Jenny Heijun Wills. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Southern Ontario, and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the author of Older Sister. “Not Necessarily Related.: A Memoir.” As a self-described transnational and transracial adoptee, she has spent her life navigating the space between ethnicity and belonging, a subject she tackles in her new book “Everything and Nothing at All.”
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.
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a handstand! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the drama “We Live in Time,” the satire “Rumours” and the edgy family film “Bookworm.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Bookworm,” a new family adventure film now playing in theatres, 11-year-old Mildred’s (Nell Fisher) world is turned upside down when her estranged father, the washed-up magician Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, agrees to take her camping to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther, claim the $50,000 reward, and pay off her mother’s debts.
CAST: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley, Morgana O’Reilly, Nikki Si’ulepa, Vanessa Stacey, Theo Shakes, Millen Baird. Directed by Ant Timpson.
REVIEW: A quirky and original (if slightly edgy) family film, “Bookworm” is an old-fashioned adventure, one that sets a father and daughter off on a camping trip that turns into a tale of survival and self-discovery.
Elijah Wood is “Bookworm’s” above the title star, and he delivers a memorably odd performance as a showy illusionist, with a big bag of tricks, but little idea of how to be a father. It’s a funny performance, driven by an irrational hate for magician David Blaine, but it is Nell Fisher as Mildred who steals the show.
She is precocious but never precious, smart but not a smart aleck. It’s a natural kid’s performance that helps anchor the film’s quirkier aspects.
Together they’re an engaging odd couple forced to put aside their differences—his reluctance to be a parent and her indifference to his parenting skills (“You’ve failed as a man and crapped the bed as a protector,” she tells him.)—and get to know one another to complete Mildred’s mission.
Set against the backdrop of Canterbury Plains in New Zealand’s southern region, “Bookworm” sees Wood on another adventure in familiar territory, and while this one is not as epic as his N.Z.-shot “Lord of the Rings” films, it satisfies in a less-is-more sense. It’s idiosyncratic and features some language and peril (see Michael Smiley’s excellent villain) that is definitely not the norm for kid’s flicks, but its story of reconciliation is relatable and has a great deal of eccentric charm.
On the Saturday July 12, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. You know the Canadian Screen Award winner as family patriarch Appa on “Kim’s Convenience,” and as Inspector Albert Choi, the new head of Station House No 4, on “Murdoch Mysteries” and as Captain Carson Teva on the Star War series “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka.”
