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 animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ surreal sci-fi of “Companion” and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to talk about the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man’ and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres and streaming including the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” and the wrestling flick “Dark Match.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about Bill’s story of meeting Liza Minelli, and the new movies coming to theatres including the surreal sci-fi of “Companion,” the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” and the wrestling flick “Dark Match.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the animated adventures of “Dog Man,’ surreal sci-fi of “Companion” and the doc “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I give you the perfect libation to enjoy while watching “Liza: Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,” the terrific story of how Liza with a Z became mononymous. She is a superstar who bacame one of the faces of disco era nightclub Studio 54. I take you behind the scenes of that storied club.
Find out why Adele is making it difficult for the owner of her rental to sell the house in Richard’s entertainment hit HERE!
Find out all about Liza Minelli and Studio 54 on Booze & Reviews HERE!
SYNOPSIS: The documentary “Liza: Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,” now playing in select theatres, is a look at the life of Liza with a Z in and out of the spotlight. From her beginnings as the child of two superstars, to etching out her own iconic career on the world stage, the movie focuses on the “truly terrific absolutely true story” of how it all happened.
CAST: Liza Minnelli, Michael Feinstein, Ben Vereen, Mia Farrow, Jim Caruso, Chita Rivera, George Hamilton, Joel Grey, Kevin Winkler, John Kander, Darren Criss, Ben Rimalower, Lorna Luft, Ann Pellegrini, Allan & Arlene Lazare, Christina Smith, Ralph Rucci, Naeem Khan. Directed by Bruce David Klein.
REVIEW: Rich in archival footage, including many never-before-seen images from Liza Minelli’s private collection, “Liza: Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” is not just a document of one performer’s life, but a look at the era and the people that produced her.
The story of Minelli’s well documented life is engagingly told through archival news and movie footage, home movies, photographs and the firsthand recollections of friends, but it is in the performance footage that a true picture emerges. Early performance clips show a young women bursting with raw talent, but no clear vision. Weighed down by the legacy of her famous family, she had eyes on her before she was fully formed as a chanteuse.
As the film reveals, through the efforts of mentors that she came into her own. Performer, author and godmother Kay Thompson, who along with helping to bring the young woman out of her shell, also gave her this sage advice, “Never go around with people you don’t like.” Next came French superstar Charles Aznavour who taught her to act the lyrics of her songs, Bob Fosse who streamlined her dancing and directed her to an Academy Award in “Cabaret” and lyricist Fred Ebb who became her professional guiding light and personal confidant. “Fred really invented me,” she says.
With their help, along with her superstar designer friend Halston, who created her signature look, we learn how Liza shed the shackles of her past to become mononymous.
Preternaturally talented, director Bruce David Klein paints her as smart, funny and gutsy, but the entertaining and often hilarious “Liza: Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” is at its best when it allows her to express herself in her natural habitat, on stage in front of an adoring audience.
On the Saturday January 25, 2025 we’ll meet Tyrone Savage one of the stars of “Fifteen Dogs,” a play about 15 dogs who are given human intelligence and language by the gods Hermes and Apollo. The play explores the human condition, our relationship with animals, and the complexities of thought and emotion, and you can check it out at the CAA Theatre in Toronto from January 28 – February 16, 2025. Find out more info at mirvish.com.
Then, we get to know writer, producer and director Bruce David Klein. His new film, “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,” about stage and screen legend Liza Minnelli premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews. The Hollywood Reporter called it a “gorgeous portrait”, Deadline called it a “must-see”, and The Wrap said it is “delightful.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!
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!
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He was once the single most successful American fashion designer ever, a man who counted Andy Warhol and Liza Minelli among his best friends. Studio 54 was his playground and he made Pill Box hats a sensation after designing one for Jackie Kennedy. He was Halston, a pioneer, nearly forgotten today.
From his early days as head milliner at Bergdorf Goodman to his stunning late 1960s success to his domination of the 1970s, he defined what was fashionable for the in-crowd. “He took away the cage,” says former “Halstonette” Pat Cleveland. “He made things as though you didn’t really need the structure as much as you needed the woman.” He designed luxurious pieces from single pieces of material, usually silk or chiffon, doing away with the extras like bows and zippers, creating form fitting clothes that, as Minelli says, “danced with you.” His clothes were for a modern time when women’s lives had changed and they were very popular. “You were free inside your clothes,” says model Karen Bjornson.
In 1973 he created a sensation presenting a runway show at the Palace of Versailles, which made him one of the first American designers to rock the world of Parisian couture. Minelli says the staid audience were wowed by the show. “They went bananas. All that energy and that joy and that wonder and that curiosity. That is America.” Years later he made similar inroads in China, breaking through in a way none of his contemporaries were able to emulate.
The ambitious designer’s company was growing as quickly as his acclaim. Money came in the form of business deals with Norton Simon holding company that also owned cosmetics giant Max Factor and a disastrous deal the down market JCPenney. One reporter labels the deal, “from class to mass,” and it marks the decline of Halston’s empire.
French filmmaker Frederic Tcheng is a specialist in the genre of fashion docs. He previously directed “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel” and co-produced and co-edited the feature “Valentino: The Last Emperor.” It’s a world he understands and the kind of story he is expert in telling. For the most part his instincts don’t let him down here. He doles out the details, carefully weaving together the personal and professional story of a man whose career was destroyed by excess—he spent $2000 to $3000 a week on cocaine—and compromise.
Tcheng ‘s choice to use a framing device, an unnamed narrator played by fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson, posing as an employee in the Halston archives feels like an unnecessary addition given the natural, dramatic rise and fall of the story.
“Halston” is part biography of a creative genius, part cautionary tale for artists who throw their hats in the ring with big corporations and lose everything, including the right to use their own name.
