Richard’s latest column for the Edmonton Prime Times on what to see and what NOT to see in March.
“Remember those wild Monster Trucks ads, “You Pay for the Whole Seat but You’ll Only Need the Edge!”? They were selling you on the excitement of watching giant trucks careening around an arena, but the sales pitch could just as easily be used for the new thrillers coming to theatres this month…” Read the whole thing HERE!
“Black Panther” actress Danai Gurira explains how she tied her cultural experiences into the narrative.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard on the cultural impact of “Black Panther.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins CTV News at Six for a look at the impact of “Black Panther” in theatres this weekend.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 35:38)
A weekly feature from from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest movies! This week Richard looks at “Black Panther,” “Early Man” and the new documentary “Poop Talk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard and CP24 anchor Nathan Downer have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the latest from Marvel, “Black Panther,” the stop-motion kid’s flick “Early Man” and the number 2 movie of the week, “Poop Talk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in with CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the weekend’s big releases, the most anticipated superhero movie of the Year, “Black Panther,” the latest from AArdman Animation, “Early Man” and the “crappy” new documentary, “Poop Talk.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Black Panther is on track to make $165 million this weekend, so we will be seeing more of that character, we’ll be seeing more of films that stretch the dimensions of what a big superhero movie can be,” said film critic Richard Crouse… Read the whole thing HERE!
By Richard Crouse – Metro In Focus
For those who complain that the recent spate of superhero movies aren’t about anything other than bombast and reaching into your wallet, I give you Black Panther. Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman in the title role, it’s a movie that delivers wham-bam action but serves it up with compelling sides of mythology and social awareness.
“Part of my frustration that led me to write,” says playwright of the Tony Award-winning play Eclipsed and Black Panther star Danai Gurira, “was that I didn’t see stories that allowed truths to be told about the continent and about our potential and our power and our dimensionality and our perspective and our personality and our languages. What was really exciting to me was to see all of that embodied in what Wakanda and the Black Panther narrative bring with the African perspective. It is completely unprecedented.”
The film starts with a quick origin story, detailing the introduction of vibranium to the small (fictional) African nation of Wakanda. This mysterious metal is a wonder. Near indestructible, it can absorb kinetic energy and has imbued a Wakandan flower called the Heart-Shaped Herb with a supercharge that gives superpowers when ingested.
Cut to modern day. After his father’s death T’Challa (Boseman) is crowned king but just as he is ordained a rare Wakandan artifact made of vibranium is lifted from a London museum by two very bad men, Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) and Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan).
To retrieve the precious metal, T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, along with spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and warrior Okoye (Gurira), travel to Korea where the artefact is about to be sold to CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman).
A wild battle leads to a power struggle that may not only compromise the throne of Wakanda but also threaten the safety of the world.
“I loved the idea of being able to enact a nation that was never colonized,” says Gurira, who also plays the katana-wielding Michonne on The Walking Dead. “I grew up in post-colonial Africa. There is a lot of work that goes into reclaiming who you are, how you define your place in the world and what your power potential truly is when you have been colonized.
“One thing that colonized people don’t have is that part of their history that tells them who they would have been had they never been colonized. The beauty of Wakanda is that is shows us something. It’s a celebration. So many things are pulled from actual stories and narratives. The costumes, the language are actually African. It is a celebration of a place that often gets distorted or misrepresented or presented as something deficient, which we all know, Africa is so not.”
Black Panther takes place in a couple of time frames (NO SPOILERS HERE!) but at its heart it is a timely story about social responsibility — a wealthy nation state must confront its role in the world — that pulsates with smart commentary about race and revolution. It takes a well-known comic book character, the first Black standalone superhero in the Marvel Universe, and delivers a movie ripe with subtext. Black Panther is not only capable of fighting the bad guys but is also a vessel for the film’s study of legacy and identity.
