Posts Tagged ‘Paul Giamatti’

YOU TUBE: THREE MOVIES/THIRTY SECONDS! FAST REVIEWS FOR BUSY PEOPLE!

Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind a clock! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” the biopic “Priscilla” and the documentary “Sly.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

NEWSTALK TONIGHT WITH JIM RICHARDS: DOES RICHARD CROUSE LIKE THESE MOVIES?

I sit in with NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” the biopic “Priscilla,” and the documentary “Sly.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2023.

I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres.  Today we talk about Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” the biopic “Priscilla,” the sports drama “NYAD” and the documentary “Sly.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

 

RICHARD’S CTV NEWSCHANNEL WEEKEND REVIEWS FOR FRIDAY NOVEMBER 03, 2023!

I  join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers” and the biopic “Priscilla.”

Watch the wholew thing HERE!

CKTB NIAGARA REGION: THE TIM DENIS SHOW WITH RICHARD CROUSE ON MOVIES!

I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to have a look at Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” the biopic “Priscilla” and the sports drama “NYAD.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

CFRA IN OTTAWA: THE BILL CARROLL MORNING SHOW MOVIE REVIEWS!

I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” the biopic “Priscilla,” the sports drama “NYAD” and the documentary “Sly.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

THE HOLDOVERS: 4 STARS. “a warmhearted coming-of-all-ages movie.”

“The Holdovers,” a new drama starring Paul Giamatti and now playing in theatres, does such a good job of transporting the audience back to when a pint of Jim Bean only set you back $2 and it was still OK to smoke a pipe at a movie theatre, you’ll swear it’s a long-lost artefact from the Nixon era.

The setting is Barton Academy, a New England old-money stop over for wealthy boys on their way to the Ivy League school of their choice. They are the future, or, as Ancient Civilizations professor Paul Hunham (Giamatti) calls them, “entitled little degenerates.”

Universally disliked by staff and students alike, Hunham is by-the-book, the kind of teacher who assigns heavy reading over the Christmas break, with the promise of an exam on the first day back. “Our one purpose,” he says, “is to produce young men of character.”

Every year there are a handful of students who stay on campus over the two-week Christmas holiday, which means a teacher has to stay behind as chaperone. This year the duty falls to Hunham, who plans an intensive fortnight of studying, physical fitness and discipline for five boys abandoned by their parents.

“You should go easy on them,” says the school’s cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

“Oh please,” Hunham snorts. “They’ve had it easy their whole lives.”

When four of the five get a last-minute invite courtesy of a rich dad with a helicopter, the impromptu Breakfast Club is narrowed down to one, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a smart but troubled young man whose mom chose Christmas break to run off on a honeymoon with her new husband.

As the days pass, and Christmas approaches, the odd couple find common ground, and discover they aren’t as different as they thought.

“The Holdovers” has a fairly simple set-up—a Scroogey character discovers his humanity by making a connection with a younger person, just in time for Christmas—but it’s the film’s warmth, once you scratch through its icy facade, that’ll win you over.

When he is referring to his students as “hormonal vulgarians,” Giamatti is at his curmudgeonly best but there is more to him than fancy insults (although his put-down, “you are penis cancer in human form” is rather memorable) and walleyed glare. He’s a man deeply damaged by life, who now finds himself waging class warfare on the privileged kids he teaches at what is, essentially, a depository for rich boys.

A man out of time—“The world doesn’t make sense anymore,” he says.—he’s quick to anger, with a bubbling rage roiling just under the surface at all times, and even when he tries to be charming, he comes off as awkward at best. His idea of light, Christmas party conversation? “Aeneas carried mistletoe when he went into Hades,” he says to blank stares.

Giamatti keeps him watchable by making sure to access the character’s brokenness. His bluster is a mask for his heartache, and as he gradually makes connections with Angus and Mary, his defenses lower, revealing his true self. It’s a touching and warm, and Oscar worthy, performance hidden beneath an inch or two of insolence.

He is ably supported by newcomer Sessa, whose character’s actions lead to emotional growth as he forms an unlikely family as one third of a trio of misfits. It’s a touching performance, part swagger, part shattered, that hints at more great thing to come from the young actor.

As Mary, a woman traumatized by the death of her only son in Vietnam, Randolph, who displays her comedic chops on “Only Murders in the Building,” brings a poignant edge to the story as the glue that binds this impromptu family together.

“The Holdovers” is a warmhearted coming-of-all-ages movie, but never succumbs to cheap melodrama or saccharine sentimentality. It’s an uplifting tale of, as Armistead Maupin put it, embracing your logical family instead of your biological one, that avoids the pitfalls of so many other movies about broken people.

CTV NEWS AT SIX: NEW MOVIES AND TV SHOWS TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEKEND!

Richard speaks to “CTV News at Six” anchor Andria Case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend including the action adventure of “Jungle Cruise” (theatres and Disney+ with premium access), “The Green Knight’s” (in theatres) journey of self discovery and the documentary “For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close” (VOD) about the most famous funny person you’ve never heard of.

Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:41)

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY JULY 30, 2021.

Richard joins CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including the family friendly “Jungle Cruise,” the surreal journey of self discovery “The Green Knight,” the heartwarming comedy of “The Exchange” and the comedy documentary “For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!