On the March 15, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet Atom Egoyan and Amanda Seyfried of the new film “Seven Veils.” In this a new psychological thriller, now playing in theatres, Seyfried is Jeanine, a director dealing with repressed trauma as she mounts a production of her mentor’s most famous work, the opera “Salome.” Rich with metaphor and suspense “Seven Veils” is an intellectual thriller about art imitating life.
We also meet Sonequa Martin-Green. You know her from “Star Trek: Discovery,” “New Girl” and “The Good Wife.” She also played Sasha Williams, a main character and a survivor of the outbreak in “The Walking Dead.”
Today we’ll talk about her new film, the dark comedy “My Dead Friend Zoe,” now playing in theatres. In it she plays an Afghanistan veteran haunted by her late best friend Zoe. Now in civilian life, she searches for a way forward as she suffers from PTSD and tends to her retired Lieutenant-Colonel grandfather played by Ed Harris.
Then we meet Keira Jang, star of Can I Get A Witness?” a new Canadian eco-sci fi/coming-of-age film now playing in theaters. It’s set in a future where climate change and world poverty have been eradicated. To mitigate these modern-day issues, travel and technology are banned and every citizen must end life at 50. Documenting the process are artists as witnesses, like the character Kiera plays, a teenager on her first day on the job.
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.
Here’s my interview with Atom Egoyan and Amanda Seyfried of the new film “Seven Veils.” In this a new psychological thriller, now playing in theatres, Seyfried is Jeanine, a director dealing with repressed trauma as she mounts a production of her mentor’s most famous work, the opera “Salome.” Rich with metaphor and suspense “Seven Veils” is an intellectual thriller about art imitating life.
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Scott Hirsch to talk about the strange sci fi of “Mickey 17,” the kid-friendly “Night of the Zoopocalypse” and the suspense of “Seven Veils.”
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make some toast! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the strange sci fi of “Mickey 17,” the kid-friendly “Night of the Zoopocalypse” and the suspense of “Seven Veils.”
“The Righteous,” a new supernatural thriller written, directed and starring “City on a Hill’s” Mark O’Brien, is an unsettling slow burn on redemption and retribution that asks, “What is the price of sin?”
“Be careful what you wish for. But be certain what you pray for.”
Shot in lush black and white, and set in a remote home far from the closest neighbor, the quiet of the surroundings echoes the somber lives led by Frederic (Henry Czerny) and Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk) Mason, a married couple still stinging from the loss of their daughter.
Frederic is a pious man, a former priest who left the church, in scandal, after falling for Ethel. Their carefully calibrated lives are turned upside down when Aaron Smith (O’Brien), an injured man with good manners and a secret, shows up at their door. Lost, he needs help, aid Frederic is happy to oblige. “Where are you from?” “Everywhere,” he replies.
At first, he’s a welcome guest. Ethel warms to him, finding comfort in the presence of a young person to fill the hole in her heart. But late-night dinner table conversations between Frederic and Aaron change the nature of their relationship, leading to a combustible situation and a horrifying request.
“The Righteous” is a psychological thriller that takes its time, doling out the story’s inherent sense of menace slowly but surely. As the tension mounts, director O’Brien resists the temptation to up the action. Instead, he trusts the script and performances to bring the strange, powerful story of atonement to its conclusion.
The horror of the situation escalates courtesy of the battle of wills between Aaron and Frederic. It’s the struggle between good and evil, of faith and the secular life, propelled by a series of kitchen table conversations between Aaron and Frederic that are the jaundiced soul of this story. Beautifully performed, they are chamber pieces, enhanced by subtle but effective shifts in lighting that telegraph the changing mood, and spiritual angst, of the scenes.
A small film containing big ideas, “The Righteous” succeeds because of a clarity of direction—O’Brien knows what he wants to do in every scene—and the performances, from Czerny’s tortured gravitas and Kuzyk’s warmth to O’Brien’s enigmatic work.
ENTER FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN: PASSES to the ADVANCE SCREENING of THE RIGHTEOUS!
A unique and darkly engaging spiritual thriller, strikingly shot in black and white, The Righteous tells the story of Frederic (Henry Czerny) a grieving man struggling with his faith, who helps an injured young man, Aaron Smith (Mark O’Brien) who stumbles onto his property one night, claiming to be lost in the woods. Frederic and his wife (Mimi Kuzyk) invite the man to stay for the night, but Frederic soon begins to have doubts about this enigmatic stranger’s story – and his motives for being there. When Aaron asks Frederic to commit an unspeakable deed, it becomes clear that the man is not who he seems, and has been sent to test the very limits of Frederic’s existence.
THE RIGHTEOUS had its WORLD PREMIERE at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival, and is in select theatres, June 3! TADFF and Vortex Media want to send some of our fans (and their guests) to the advance screening at 7:00PM, Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at the Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6). The screening will be hosted by Canada’s favourite film critic, Richard Crouse.
FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:
Kindly email, contests@torontoafterdark.com, with THE RIGHTEOUS CONTEST (in the header) along with (in the body):
1) Your full name
That’s it!
P.S. Don’t forget to LIKE, and SHARE this contest.
Contest closes at 11:59PM on Sunday, May 29, 2022 so enter today. This contest is open to residents of Ontario, Canada, eighteen years and older. ONE ENTRY PER EMAIL PLEASE. Winners will be chosen at random and contacted accordingly.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we meet author Eugene Marten. His latest powerful new novel “Pure Life” is the sprawling story of the rise and fall of a former professional American Football player, Nineteen, who claws his way from a working-class background to wealth and fame before losing everything.
Then, we get to know Mark O’Brien. As an actor, Mark is one of the stars of Showtime’s “City on a Hill,” starring opposite Kevin Bacon and produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. You’ve seen him on the Amazon series “The Last Tycoon” opposite Kelsey Grammar, and will soon see him in the recurring guest star role of ambitious Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Thomas Milligan in the second season of HBOs popular “Perry Mason” reboot. Today we’ll talk about “The Righteous,” his debut as a feature film director… oh, and he also wrote it and stars as well as Aaron, a mysterious young man who turns the life of a former priest upside down.
Finally, director Sunnie McFadden-Curtis stops by to talk about “Broken Vows: Stories Of Separation,” a new documentary that takes you into the lives of women experiencing separation.
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 Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.
Listen to the show live here:
C-FAX 1070 in Victoria
SAT 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
SUN 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
CJAD in Montreal
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
CFRA in Ottawa
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 610 CKTB in St. Catharines
Sat 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1010 in Toronto
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
NEWSTALK 1290 CJBK
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
AM 1150 in Kelowna
SAT 11 PM to Midnight
BNN BLOOMBERG RADIO 1410
SAT 8 PM to 9:00 PM
Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!
“Blue Bayou,” a new immigration drama starring Justin Chon and Alicia Vikander, tells a fictional, but all-too-true, story that is sincere but heavy-handed.
Written, directed and starring Chon, the story takes place in the Louisiana bayou. Chon plays the Korean-born Antonio LeBlanc, adopted by an American family when he was three. Now married to Kathy (Vikander) he’s raising step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske) with another child on the way.
A loping Cajun twang disguises the anxiety he feels with a new baby coming but not enough money coming in. His two felonies make it tough to find extra work, and his job as a tattoo artist does not cover the bills. Still, the family is happy, even if Jessie is concerned Antonio, the self-proclaimed “fun” parent, won’t spend time with her when the new baby arrives.
A little spat between Kathy and Antonio in a grocery escalates when Ace, a cop and her ex-husband, and his violent partner (Emory Cohen) get involved. Antonio is arrested. When Kathy attempts to pay his bail, she’s told, matter-of-factly, “He’s not here anymore. ICE took him.”
Seems his adoptive parents didn’t follow the proper procedures to make him a citizen, and now, after thirty years in America he may have to return to a country he doesn’t remember.
“I understand your frustration,” says the lawyer (Vondie Curtis-Hall) the couple hire but can’t afford. “Depart voluntarily,” he continues, “and have a chance to get back in. You can fight, but if you lose, you can never come back.”
“I’m not leaving my family,” Antonio replies.
“Blue Bayou” has much going for it. Chon has a poetic eye for visuals and frames the hot button story nicely. There are enough details about the family to make us care about them and Antonio’s backstory adds some mystery to the proceedings. The chemistry between the core group—Antonio, Kathy and Jessie—feels genuine—Kowalske is a real find—and, as the immigration situation spins out of control, we’re along for the ride. But as the story gets heavier, so does the story-telling. Like leaden.
Chon’s characters are so compelling and much of the tale so heartfelt, that it’s a disappointment when the movie turns to melodrama in its final third. Nuance goes out the window and the quiet naturalism of the first half disappears. Add to that a villain in the form of Cohen’s bad cop character who seems to have wandered in from a British pantomime and you’re left with a case of the let-downs.
“Blue Bayou” details a very important, and for many people, very personal story, but falls victim to ham-fisted storytelling.
Check out episode thirty of Richard’s web series, “In Isolation With…” It’s the talk show where we make a connection without actually making contact! Today, broadcasting directly from Isolation Studios (a.k.a. my home office), we meet an actor who is having an incredible couple of years. With starring roles in “Ready or Not,” “The Frontrunner,” “Goalie,” “Marriage Story,” “Bad Times at the El Royale,” “City on a Hill” and a new indie called “Hammer,” now on VOD, Mark O’Brien is a very busy actor… and if that wasn’t enough, he also became a dad and wrote and directed his own movie The Righteous.
On a Zoom call from his home in Los Angeles we caught up… talking about working on post production for his film “The Righteous” while in isolation, the short films he made with his friends growing up in Newfoundland, doing the Happy Gilmour dance on a film set, auditioning for Al Pacino and, of course, his most recent film, “Hammer.”
It’s the story of O’Brien’s character Chris, who is having a very bad day. Estranged from his parents and deep in debt to some very bad people, he arranges a deal with an old associate. They arrange to meet on a rural road to exchange $200,000 in cash in return for drugs. The deal goes wrong, bullets are fired and Chris, covered in blood splatter, makes a getaway on a motorcycle with the drugs and money. As he speeds through town on his getaway, his father Stephen, played by Will Patton spots him and immediately knows something is wrong. Over the course of one day the situation escalates…
“Hammer” is an engaging and offbeat thriller that makes the most of its lead performances. O’Brien manages to make Chris almost likeable despite his constant foul-ups and Patton, as a father caught up in a breathless situation, is all strength and goodwill, even when he’s doing terrible things. Why this wasn’t released on Father’s Day I’ll never know. As it is, you can find it on VOD, right now.
Let’s get to know Mark O’Brien.
Watch the whole thing HERE on YouTube or HERE on ctvnews.ca!
On the March 15, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet Atom Egoyan and Amanda Seyfried of the new film “Seven Veils.” In this a new psychological thriller, now playing in theatres, Seyfried is Jeanine, a director dealing with repressed trauma as she mounts a production of her mentor’s most famous work, the opera “Salome.” Rich with metaphor and suspense “Seven Veils” is an intellectual thriller about art imitating life.
