Richard joins CP24 anchor Nathan Downer to have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the speculative “Clara,” the dark comedy “Dead in a Week” and the delightful “Nothing Like Dame” starring Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joan Plowright and Dame Maggie Smith.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
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 the metaphysical drama “Clara,” the dark comedy “Dead in a Week” and the delightful “Nothing like a Dame” featuring Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joan Plowright and Dame Maggie Smith.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
No one will accuse “Clara” director/co-writer Akash Sherman of playing it safe. For his debut feature the twenty-something filmmaker essays no less a topic than the existence of life in outer space.
Suits star Patrick J. Adams is Dr. Isaac Bruno, a university professor placed on sabbatical when his obsession to find life on other planets gets in the way of him doing his job. Time off is no remedy for his fixation and he continues his search with the help of a co-worker Dr. Charlie Durant (Ennis Esmer ) and a research assistant named Clara (Troian Bellisario).
Bruno is a facts and figures guy, a pragmatist who studies the data looking for connections, desperate to fill the hole left in his heart by the death of his child by finding new life in the universe.
Clara is more abstract, a believer in the randomness of the universe beyond the numbers and maps. The push and pull between their approaches makes for a rocky relationship but her spiritualism may hold the roadmap for Isaac’s quest.
Austere, low-key and yet ambitious, “Clara” is about the power of loss and discovery. Add in a big dollop of spirituality and you have a movie that isn’t quite sci fi even though it spends much of its time ruminating on speculative themes. It’s solemn and often feels overwrought, asking question after question without offering much in the way of insight or true emotion.
Director Sherman shows an undeniable eye for composition and atmosphere. It’s in the storytelling that “Clara” wobbles. The push-and-pull between objectivity and intuition is interesting but overplayed to the point of exhaustion. The climax reaches for the stars, offering a hopeful note, that will strike some as poetic, others as the very definition of schmaltz.
Welcome to the House of Crouse. We go to extremes today. You’ll learn how and why to plan an orgy in a small town with the stars of the film with the most provocative name of the year, Ennis Esmer and Kristian Bruun and then, in an interview from the vault Mia Wasikowska talks about playing Alice Kingsley. The movies How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town and Alice Through the Looking Glass are in theatres now but the conversations about them are right here! C’mon in and sit a spell.
One night, two events. Richard hosted two events on Thursday April 9: the POV 3rd Street Gala and “King John” Q&A.
ABOUT POV 3rd STREET: Established in 2007 by members of the film, TV, and commercial production industries who were interested in increasing access to employment in their community and broadening its diversity. We are dedicated to assisting at risk young adults (18-25) gain the skills and experience needed to secure jobs and have long-term careers in the media industry. We run four programs: The Media Training Program, The 3rd Street (Critical Thinking) Program), The Job Placement Program, and the Alumni Support Program. Learn more HERE! Telling their stories at the POV 3Rd Street Gala were directors Sudz Sutherland, Jennifer Holness, Warren P. Sonoda and actors Zoie Palmer, Ennis Esmer, Tara Spencer Nairn, Katie Boland and Natalie Brown.
ABOUT KING JOHN: When the rule of a hedonistic and mercurial king is questioned, rebellion, assassination and excommunication ensue, culminating in a chilling attempt to commit an atrocity against a child, whose mother’s anguished grief cannot atone for her blinkered ambitions for her son.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Shakespeare’s King John, in a magnificent production by the renowned Stratford Festival, North America’s leading classical theatre company, whose HD production of King Lear, directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and starring Colm Feore, opened to rave reviews last month.
With commanding performances by Tom McCamus, Seana McKenna, Graham Abbey and Patricia Collins, King John was directed by Tim Carroll, whose recent Shakespeare productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night were the toast of Broadway.
Filmed in spectacular HD under the direction of Barry Avrich, King John will be in cinemas across Canada on Thursday, April 9, and throughout the U.S.on Wednesday, April 8. The Canadian encore screening is on April 12. U.S. encore dates vary. For more information click HERE! Richard hosted a Q&A with director and Tony nominee Tim Carroll, Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino, actor Tom McCamus and film director Barry Avrich.
Richard’s “Canada AM” reviews for “Focus,” “The Lazarus Effect,” “Elephant Song” and “Big News from Grand Rock” with host Beverly Thomson.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
By Richard Crouse – Metro – Canada
For several of the stars of Big News from Grand Rock, making the film was a family affair.
“Peter and I were asked to do it first,” says Leah Pinsent of her husband and co-star Peter Keleghan, “and didn’t even know Dad was going to be part of it.”
Dad, of course, is acting icon Gordon Pinsent.
“Because it is a small independent movie we were all put up at the Super 8 Motel,” says Leah. “I said, ‘You have an opportunity where the three of us are family and we’re right next to Georgian Bay so why don’t you give us the cash for the Super 8 and we’ll rent a cottage. So we actually made it into quite a nice summer affair. Brought the dog and walked along the beach. It was pretty cool.”
In the movie Ennis Esmer stars as Leonard Crane, the editor of the Grand Rock Weekly Ledger, a small town newspaper on the verge of bankruptcy. With no real local news to draw from Leonard turns to the town’s video store for inspiration. In the hope of pumping up circulation and advertising revenues, he fabricates a series of wild “news” stories based on the plots of old movies.
Leah co-stars as the town’s mayor, a part she says she based on Pamela Wallin and Rob Ford, while Keleghan is a dimwitted reporter employed by the paper’s embattled publisher played by Gordon.
We flipped the movie’s premise on Leah and Peter, asking them to take a recent headline and turn it into a movie pitch, complete with casting.
Keleghan suggested, “Harper shuts down transparency… Kills Sun TV by mistake but CBC thrives!” As for casting he says, “John Baird is looking for a job so he would play Ezra Levant. Tom Green would be Pierre-Karl Péladeau and Raymond Burr, as he is today, would co-star as Steven Harper.”
Leah chose, “Woman gives birth in first class airport lounge while waiting for flight” as her headline. “In this particular version she doesn’t have a business class ticket so they make her pay the entrance fee as her water bursts,” she says. “The person behind the desk would be me and the woman having the baby would be me. The woman with the cart, serving food who helps birth the baby would also be me. And the baby, of course, would be me.”
“Big News from Grand Rock” is a comedy about a very serious and timely subject.
In the movie Ennis Esmer stars as Leonard Crane, the editor of the Grand Rock Weekly Ledger, a small town newspaper on the verge of bankruptcy. With no real local news to draw from Leonard turns to the town’s video store for inspiration. In the hope of pumping up circulation and advertising revenues, he fabricates a series of wild “news” stories based on the plots of old movies.
His desperate measure almost works as readers return to the paper, but, as Brian Williams recently found out, when you make stuff up eventually you’re going to get busted. Before you can yell, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” his comeuppance comes in the form of Lucy (Meredith MacNeill), a reporter from the city who threatens to expose Leonard’s duplicity… until she discovers that one of the ridiculous stories just might be true.
“Big News at Grand Rock” generates laughs—Esmer earns his pays with an easy charm and Shawn Ashmore is laugh out loud funny as the video store clerk—but tackles a very important topic, the slow dismantling of local newspapers. With small papers biting the dust everyday—the movie was shot in Midland, Ontario, whose newspaper shuttered just weeks before the shoot—access to local news drying up or changing in such a way that you’re not going to be able to recognize it in a few years. “Big News” wants you to think about your local voice disappearing but doesn’t beat you over the head with its message.
Keeping things light are Leah Pinsent as the Grand Rock’s mayor, Peter Keleghan as a dimwitted reporter employed by the paper’s embattled publisher played by Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent.
Story wise “Big News at Grand Rock” errs on the side of predictability but a winning cast and a timely message make it headline worthy.
Tune into Richard’s “Extra Entertainment Extra” interview with “Sex After Kids” star Ennis Esmer and director / writer Jeremy LaLonde on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 4:30 pm on NewsTalk 1010 in Toronto! (Check local listings for replays in your area.)
About Sex After Kids:
Sex After Kids is an edgy ensemble comedy that follows several couples in their post-child-coitus troubles. The newlyweds (Beckner, Ennis Esmer) with a newborn that can’t align their schedule and libidos. The aloof single mom (Zoie Palmer) whose deviant brother insists that she get back out into the world and satisfy herself sexually by any means necessary. The lesbians (Kate Hewlett, Mary Krohnert) who realize that they don’t share the same principles when it comes to child-rearing. A single dad (Kris Holden-Ried) tired of one-night stands and looking for something with substance. The empty nesters (Jay Brazeau, Mimi Kuzyk) who watch their last child leave home only to wonder if they can find that spark that brought them together all those decades ago. Their relationships and ideals will be put to the test as the question is asked: is it possible to have children and a sex life, and… is it worth it?
