Ken and Robin Consume Media: Aquatic Humanoids and the New Tim Powers

August 14th, 2018 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Alternate Routes (Fiction, Tim Powers, 2018) A former Secret Service agent who now works for a ghost-proof courier service in LA collides with an ongoing government program that’s weakening the walls between worlds. This is a very Powers-y novel, albeit one more rooted in the present than his usual. The ghost cosmology bubbles inventively, a blend of Expiration Date and “Down and Out in Purgatory,” with a few new wrinkles. Although the action seldom lets up, it’s not quite the barn-burner that the Powers Pinnacles are, with only one truly vertiginous revelation. –KH

Black is the Color (Graphic Novel, Julia Gfrörer, 2013) Sailor set adrift by his desperate shipmates attracts the attentions of an affectionate but sinister mermaid. Deadpan, haunting weird tale told in spare, almost monoplanar line art.—RDL

Cold Skin (Film, France/Spain, Xavier Jens, 2017) Weather station operator (David Oakes) newly arrived on a remote, barren island joins with its only other human inhabitant, a truculent lighthouse keeper (Ray Stevenson) to fend off nightly attacks from aquatic humanoids. Stark, beautifully shot period horror reminiscent of William Hope Hodgson.—RDL

Good

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (Film, US, Lou Adler, 1982) After minor celebrity makes Corinne “Third Degree” Burns (Diane Lane) unemployable in her small town, she talks her (awful) band The Stains (Lane, Marin Kanter, and Laura Dern) onto the tour of the Metal Corpses (various Tubes) and the Looters (Ray Winstone fronting various Clash and Sex Pistols). What ensues, murkily directed and recorded, is the origin myth of the Riot Grrrl movement via All About Eve. Nancy Dowd took her name off the script, which as shot and cut can’t figure out if it’s indicting the Spectacle or Burns or both. Lane and Winstone are great, though. –KH

Ken Pulls Off His Rubber Mask, Revealing Robin With His Detective Dee Review

July 31st, 2018 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Bombshell: the Hedy Lamarr Story (Film, US, Alexandra Dean, 2017) Documentary recounts the life of the Hollywood star whose beauty eclipsed the quality of her roles, and whose efforts as an inventor led to the frequency-hopping technology underlying wi-fi and GPS. Inspiring and sad in equal measure.—RDL

Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Affair with a Famous Cartoonist (Graphic Novel, Bill Griffith, 2015) The opportunity to look through a trove of family documents sends the author down a research rabbit hole into his deceased mother’s secret romantic life. Autobiography becomes a web of hidden and unknowable adjacent biographies, with the comics medium heightening interior drama as no other form could.—RDL

Mission: Impossible — Fallout (Film, US, Christopher McQuarrie, 2018) Superspy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, effortlessly effortful) must deal with the titular fallout from the previous film while being saddled with a thuggish CIA observer (Henry Cavill). Cavill (perhaps on purpose) plays it as Dark Peter Lupus, as this installment homages the TV show repeatedly and well. Of course it still finds room for three insane chase sequences and the by-now-expected sudden but inevitable betrayal. –KH

Ugly Delicious (Television, Netflix, David Chang and Peter Meehan, 2018) Iconoclastic restaurateur Chang brings in a dream team of food writers and fellow chefs to look at of change and tradition in food culture. Refreshingly takes the piss out of hagiographical food TV cliches while still getting the salivary glands vicariously flowing. If you’re going to watch out of order, start with the episode on the African American food experience and the fraughtness of fried chicken.—RDL

Good

Conflict (Film, US, Curtis Bernhardt, 1945) Engineer with a yen for his sister-in-law (Humphrey Bogart) thinks he’s successfully bumped off his wife, until a trail of strange clues starts to indicate otherwise. Exercise in pseudo-Freudian paranoia delivers the noir mood through the perspective of a then-unusual anti-hero protagonist.—RDL

Deadline at Dawn (Film, US, Harold Clurman, 1946) When a good-hearted but slow-thinking sailor (Bill Williams) gets mixed up with a blackmailer’s murder, a dance-hall girl (an unusually restrained Susan Hayward) and a philosophical cabbie (Paul Lukas) team up to find the real killer. Clifford Odets script, based on a Cornell Woolrich story, elevates an unmemorable storyline with pearls of hardboiled dialogue and a knack for quickly drawn, unexpected characterizations.—RDL

Detective Dee: the Four Heavenly Kings (Film, China, Tsui Hark, 2018) When the nation’s chief investigator (Mark Chao) is entrusted with the all-powerful Dragon Taming Mace, the ambitious Empress Wu (Carina Lau) schemes with sorcerers of the martial arts world to reclaim it from him. The plotting that connects the delirious action set pieces is on the labored side this time out, making this the slightest of the series. But, hey, we’re not here for the plot, and this does offer up the best, nuttiest “and now the CGI characters fight” sequence ever.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Pandemic Panic and a Regenerating Ronin

July 24th, 2018 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

The Bar (Film, Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2017) Fear reveals who people really are when the government’s lethal suppression of a potential pandemic traps patrons and staff in a downtown cafe. De la Iglesia attacks the confined space thriller with his hallmark black humor and mastery of escalation.—RDL

Blade of the Immortal (Film, Japan, Takashi Miike, 2017) Weary ronin (Takuya Kimura), rendered unkillable by magic bloodworms that grant him regeneration powers, reluctantly agrees to assist a girl (Hana Sugisaki) in her quest for vengeance against the murderous dojo responsible for the deaths of her parents. Miike treats the original manga’s string of martial arts duels as a formal exercise in varying each fight and investing it with its own distinct emotional hook. Which is to say, many people in this movie need killing and and/or do not know who they are fucking with.—RDL

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict (Film, US, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, 2015) Newly rediscovered interview audio tapes form the nucleus of this bio-documentary of the legendary art collector and patron pivotal to the reception of both the surrealists and the American abstract expressionists. Having researched the indomitable, canny Guggenheim of the 30s and 40s, I found the portrait of her reserved, melancholy later self particularly moving.—RDL

Resurrection Science: : Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things (Nonfiction, M. R. O’Connor, 2015) Examines the ever-expanding technical, economic and philosophical obstacles arising from efforts to preserve, protect and perhaps revive extinct and dwindling species, from fast-evolving pupfish to war-depleted rhinos to the passenger pigeon.—RDL

Sorry to Bother You (Film, US, Boots Riley, 2018) Broke and searching for meaning, Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) hits the fast track to capitalist telemarketing success when he unleashes his “white voice” (David Cross), but discovers a conspiracy. Funny and unsettling in equal measure, this surrealist (or perhaps magic-realist) comedy holds its own with John Dies at the End or even Gremlins 2, combining the former’s studied weirdness with the latter’s political bite. –KH

Talking from 9 to 5: Men and Women at Work (Nonfiction, Deborah Tannen, 1994) Linguist examines the contrasting conversational styles of men and women and the pitfalls they introduce in the workplace, from who gets credit for ideas to participation in meetings. Way better written than most business/pop science books, providing insights usable by anyone employed at any occupation more social than woodland hermit.—RDL

Good

Neal Brennan 3 MICS (Stand-up, Netflix, 2017) Most famous for being Dave Chappelle’s writing partner (“like being on a basketball team with Michael Jordan. You just win more.”), Brennan tries out stand-up, or rather a combination of stand-up, one-liners, and deeper “emotional stuff,” each delivered at one of the titular three mics. Brennan’s attempted deconstruction of comedy succeeds on its merits (although only the stand-up bit about testosterone being like having a prison inmate in your head really killed for me) but doesn’t get inventive or playful enough to break out of what’s essentially three one-third-length comedy shows. –KH

Okay

War Plan Red (Non-fiction, Kevin Lippert, 2015) The subtitle says it all: “The United States’ Secret Plan to Invade Canada and Canada’s Secret Plan to Invade the United States.” Unfortunately, a slapdash treatment of the War of 1812 and various cross-border ructions since in the first two chapters only highlights the superficiality of Lippert’s research when he gets to his main topic. Both the initial brief for U.S. “War Plan RED” and Canada’s “Defence Scheme No. 1” (what’s left of it after the Canadian General Staff ordered it destroyed) appear in an Appendix in the back, at least. –KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Vietnamese Mole and the Dread Secrets of Telemarketing

July 17th, 2018 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

The Sympathizer (Fiction, Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2015) An erudite revolutionary mole inside the South Vietnamese secret police flees the fall of Saigon with his boss/target, adding American to his list of confusing opposed identities. A big, ambitious, funny and horrifying wallop of a novel, haunted by ghosts and vodka.—RDL

Recommended

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Film, US, Peyton Reed, 2018) Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) risks another prison sentence to help Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) rescue her mother from the quantum zone. It’s not Reed’s fault that the trailers gave away most of the fun, creative impact that shrinking has on chase and fight scenes, but it’s a good thing he has believable, strong villains in illicit supertech dealer Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) and desperate quantum victim Ghost (Hannah-John Kamen). Charming actors playing good dialogue well in between original, interesting super-fights: what’s not to love? –KH

Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook (Nonfiction, Alice Waters with Christina Mueller & Bob Carras, 2017) Autobiography follows the future epigone of the local ingredients movement from a buttoned-down 50s upbringing, to Berkeley during the Free Speech movement and the opening of her famous restaurant, Chez Panisse. Unusually readable for a book assembled in the  “as told to” format uses plentiful flash-forwards to show us our hero after she becomes the person we’re interested in. Most startling takeaway: Waters’s approach to food happens after she opens Chez Panisse!—RDL

The Good Place Season 2 (Television, US, NBC, Michael Schur, 2018) Not-Good Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) and her confused sort-of-torturer Michael (Ted Danson) zip through afterlife whack-a-mole in a giddy comedy that makes premise threat its premise. If every episode were as glorious as “The Trolley Problem” this would be a solid Pinnacle, but like Eleanor, we must accept its merely being much better than it should be. –KH

The Hardliners (Fiction, William Haggard, 1970) Now retired from the Security Executive, Colonel Russell gets involved when a friend’s father threatens to publish memoirs that could turn Czechoslovakia (never named as such) into a gulag. Personalities, pacing, and a lot of detail about shoes — this is a quintessential Haggard novel complete with ever-tautening plot. Except there is, in fact, some (tsk!) physical action. –KH

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Film, US, Noah Baumbach, 2017) A lifetime’s tsuris dealing with their oblivious, narcissist artist father (Dustin Hoffman) comes to a head for half-brothers Danny (Adam Sandler) and Matt (Ben Stiller) when they, along with quietly desperate sister Jean try to care for him after a mishap. Funny, unsparing character piece recognizes the fundamental unresolvability of most family conflict.—RDL

Sorry To Bother You (Film, US, Boots Riley, 2018) Skint Oaklander (Lakeith Stanfield) prospers at his new telemarketing job by affecting a white voice, leading him to a bizarre conspiracy. Hilariously biting satire with an initially stoned and dreamy vibe is relevant to KARTAS listener interests in a way the publicity campaign takes care not to spoil.—RDL

Good

The Bad Batch (Film, US, Ana Lily Amanpour, 2017) Exiled into a Mad Max LARP for no discernible reason, Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) loses an arm and a leg to cannibals led by the Miami Man (Jason Momoa) and embarks on a journey to … something? Beautiful and dreamlike (Lyle Vincent’s cinematography kills throughout), but sadly aimless (just like its protagonist) this film succeeds more as an inchoate succession of vivid images, soundscapes, and emotional moments than as, say, a story. –KH

The Revenant (Film, US, Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015) Frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) survives a bear mauling to pursue the truculent expedition member (Tom Hardy) who murdered his son. Visually and aurally awe-inspiring, unnecessarily long parable of religious redemption through mortification of the flesh.—RDL

Okay

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (Film, Japan, Toshiya Fujita, 1974) Weary assassin (Meiko Kaji) is saved from the gallows by the secret police and sent to spy on a handsy anarchist (Juzo Itami), but the spirit of righteous vengeance needs only a fresh whiff of gore to reawaken. In lieu of plot obstacles, sidelines its iconic heroine for a very long and unnecessary torture-filled second act.—RDL

The Saint (Film, US, Ernie Barbarash, 2017) Partners in crime Simon Templar (Adam Rayner) and Patricia Holm (Eliza Dushku) chase down a kidnapper (Ian Ogilvy) and $2.5 billion in stolen charity money. Man, did I want to like this, not least for rescuing Patricia Holm from the forgotten pages of Leslie Charteris’ early novels. And man, was this a TV pilot shot in 2013 and not picked up, so nope. Some nice fight choreography and a good heist density can’t rescue clunky delivery, cheap production, and the overstuffed, underwritten cast. –KH

Spielberg (Film, US, Susan Lacy, 2017) Interviews new and archival, plus the requisite beautifully presented film clips, trace the life and filmography of director Steven Spielberg. A film made with the full cooperation of its subject can gesture toward, but not really grapple with, the central question of his wildly inconsistent output.—RDL