I like Richard Crouse.
Who doesn't? 
He's smart, incredibly approachable, easy to spot, and has as much passion as any of us who love film and have a job where we get to share that passion. Case in point: A few years back, Richard joined me to take part in the Parry Sound Student film festival. To say it was a modest event with modest attendance is being anything but modest. Still, Richard gave everything in a wonderfully light and impromptu Q&A and later in an awards ceremony.
Richard has penned several books including, The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen and Son of The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen. He has a great web site, a page on Wikipedia and IMDB. He is a regular contributor on The Morton Report, Canada AM, Metro, which he shares with Yuk Yuks founder, Mark Breslin, and a twitter account that boasts of over 2,400 followers (which will probably be higher by the time this is posted).
He's the kind of critic that even if you don't agree with his assessment of a film, you can almost always get where he's coming from. Example, he sold me completely on The Hangover, announcing it as one of the top ten films of 2009. 3/4's of the world agreed with him but The Hangover ultimately left me longing for an ice-pack and an emergency bed-side bucket. Still, I knew what he was speaking of when he called the movie "... hilariously wild brain-dead movie about men behaving badly that breaks so many taboos it makes raunchy comedies like Knocked Up seem tame".
Crouse has been a guest on Saturday Night at the Movies a few times and each time we were guaranteed his trademark insight and humour. We are never disappointed by his contribution.
This Saturday, (4:30 p.m., Saturday November 26th, 2011) I get a chance to give back to Richard some of what he's given to us. Richard has invited me to join him on his panel discussion show on NewsTalk 1010. I yet to know what the discussion will be, but once I find out, I will be sure to hone up on my trivia (Richard is a phenomenal trivia artist) and my pop culture. I'm trusting Richard to keep the discussion to film, but if not...I'll be prepared.
Photo credits goes to James Heaslip courtesy of Mr. Crouse.
