Here’s a list of Canadian dramas more flavourful than a bag of ketchup chips. Coming up I have the story of a mystical child on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, a journey to justice for Christopher Plummer, the tale of a young women who went from wilderness of Alberta to the wild runways of the fashion world and a young Indigenous woman guided by spirits to exact revenge against a vicious Government Agent. First stop on our dramatic journey, Nova Scotia.
As you may or may not know, when I’m not here talking to you on my show, I can be seen on the CTVNewsChannel and loads of other places talking about movies. I saw almost three hundred movies this year, wrote reviews for two hundred of those and there were high highs and the very lowest of lows.
I rate my movies on a scale of 10 to 5 stars. I never a full 5 stars because nothing is perfect, but this year there were several 4 ½ star movies. The lowest rating I have ever given was “Minus Infinity x 10” for a movie whose name I will never mention again.
Most movies fall into the 3 to 3 ½ star category, but there is a fairly wide range. Ten percent of the movies I see every year are terrible, ten percent are great but 80 percent fall into that mushy middle. Good to almost great.
I don’t care about the box office. I love it when a movie makes a lot of money because it means the industry is healthy and people are supporting theatres, and that’s a good thing, but just because a movie makes bank doesn’t mean it is a good movie.
Every now and again, though, there are movies that, for whatever reason, are great, but don’t connect with audiences. There have been a few of those this year, and for every movie that took a well-deserved dive, like “Joker: Folie a Deux” or “Borderlands” there were others that should have found an audience. On this show I’ll tell you about those movies!
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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On the Saturday April 27 edition of the Richard Crouse Show we meet Ruth Reichl, the New York Times bestselling author of five memoirs, the novel “Delicious!,” and the cookbook “My Kitchen Year.” She was editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, and previously served as restaurant critic for The New York Times, as well as food editor and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. She has been honored with six James Beard Awards.
Today we’ll talk about her new book “The Paris Novel,” which follows Stella St. Vincent, an introverted thirtysomething, who finds purpose in a search for art, fashion and food on a 1983 Paris trip.
We’ll also meet award-winning, former Toronto Star journalist Morgan Campbell. His new memoir “My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us,” offers a history of his family’s multigenerational battles, a coming-of-age story, and a powerful reckoning with what it means to be Black in Canada when you have strong American roots.
Then, we’ll meet Christian Sparkes, a film director and screenwriter from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. I really like his revenge thriller “Hammer,” the story of a father who faces a personal crisis when he discovers his estranged son fleeing a botched drug deal. It’s good stuff, and likely available on a streamer near you. Today, we’ll talk about his new movie “The King Tide.”
Set in Newfoundland and Labrador, it tells the story of an isolated, struggling community, ten years after a child with miraculous gifts washed up on the beach. She is able to heal people, but after a decade of prosperity, her adoptive parents are forced to decide whether her safety is more important than their community’s prosperity.
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.
An atmospheric parable of dependence and desperation, “The King Tide,” a new Newfoundland and Labrador thriller now playing on theatres, uses an extraordinarily gifted character to reveal basic human nature.
Set on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, the story begins as an infant washes up on shore after a ship wreck. Rescued by the town’s mayor Bobby Bentham (Clayne Crawford), the child is named Isla (Alix West Lefler) and adopted by the mayor and his wife Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki).
That Isla survived is miraculous, but even more astonishing are the powers of healing and prosperity she brings to the town. In her first ten years on the island, people are healed of everything from hangovers to serious injuries and illnesses. Crops thrive and when she dips her hand in the water, fish are drawn to her, making for easy catching. Her influence profoundly changes the community, allowing them freedom from the constraints that come from being part of the mainland.
But things change when she is unable to save a local girl. Traumatized, Isla’s powers disappear, leaving the community divided as to how to move forward. Is Isla the responsibility of Bobby and Grace, or is she responsible for the betterment of the community?
A slow burn, “The King Tide” uses Isla’s magical gifts as a catalyst for a larger story. Director Christian Sparkes knows “The King Tide” isn’t about Isla per se, but about the community’s reaction to her and how fragile some belief systems are in the face of upheaval. As such, he carefully builds a very specific world in which this isolated microcosm of society exists. But in its specificity, it becomes a universal story about the lengths people will go to preserve their way of life.
Insightful and unsettling, it brings with it a sense of foreboding that covers the movie like a shroud as it works its way to a rushed, but compelling climax.
“The King Tide” features fine performances and has atmosphere to burn, but it is in its examination of the dangers of protectionism and self-interest that it is most effective.
