Ken and Robin Consume Media: Maternal Madness and Puzzle Mysteries

September 19th, 2017 | 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 our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Robin has been off at the Toronto Film Festival. Check out his compendium of capsule reviews. Those capsules will reappear here when films get theatrical or home video releases over the next 18 months or so.

Recommended

Logan Lucky (Film, US, Steven Soderbergh, 2017) In its essentials a country & western Ocean’s 11, like every great cover version this film shows the core strengths of the original while reveling in the joy of a new riff. Channing Tatum and Adam Driver head a low-key superb ensemble cast, outshone only by David Holmes’ incongruous yet satisfying score and Soderbergh’s butter-smooth direction. A less confident director could have turned the comedy into condescension; it’s to Soderbergh’s great credit that instead the West Virginia milieu plays the hero. –KH

Mother! (Film, US, Darren Aronofsky, 2017) A poet (Javier Bardem) seeking a creative spark and his young wife and muse (Jennifer Lawrence) dwell in Edenic isolation until … Beginning as Polanski-esque psychological thriller and veering into full-blown Gnostic Buñuel in the third act, this is an almost paradigmatically Aronofsky film: shot with power and control, about a disintegrating character and the nature of inspiration, and likely to piss off at least half its audience. –KH

Night in Alachua County (Play, Jennifer Rumberger, 2017) Southern Gothic meets necromancy in this tale of three generations of Florida women (there are no male speaking parts) abandoned, abused, and trying to survive on their own terms. The cicada-toned dread builds strong through dark revelations, not all of them magical. — KH (Runs through October 7 in an intimate, eerie production by Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre.)

Good

The Spy and the Thief (Fiction, Edward D. Hoch, 1971) Fourteen Silver-Age mystery stories by the king of the puzzle-story, seven starring British crytpanalyst Jeffery Rand, seven starring smooth “thief of the worthless” Nick Velvet. The Velvet stories are always good, since they usually have a heist to go with the puzzle, and Hoch’s invention gets freer play. The Rand stories remain a mixed bag, although some of them show nice period detail. –KH

Okay

The Spy Who Read Latin (Fiction, Edward D. Hoch, 1990) This collection of seven Hoch puzzle mystery stories about British cryptanalyst Jeffery Rand doesn’t show Hoch at his best. The puzzles, which should be naturals for a cryptographer detective, are by and large too simple, and the spy atmosphere is less than convincing. –KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Damn Fine Cup of [REDACTED]

September 5th, 2017 | 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 our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Twin Peaks: The Return (Television, US, David Lynch, 2018) Grotesque, otherworldly servitors of good engineer earthly events to awaken FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from a false existence his evil doppelganger has spun him into to prevent his full emergence from a generation-long stint in the pocket universe known as the Black Lodge. Gobsmacking phantasmagoria of narrative, genre, dream, nostalgia, aging, America dualism, and the myth of [REDACTED.]—RDL

Recommended

The Brink’s Job (Film, US, William Friedkin, 1978) Played by a posse of magnificent character actors led by Peter Falk, a gang of two-bit lugs stumbles into a perfect crime in 1950 Boston: heisting $2 million from the Brink’s headquarters office. Friedkin manages not just the tightrope of comedy and heist thriller, but also of making working-class dingbats his main characters without condescension. Special mention must be made of Warren Oates’ manic turn as an unstable ordnance expert. –KH

Charlie Varrick (Film, US, Don Siegel, 1973) Small-time bank robber Varrick (Walter Matthau) accidentally steals $750,000 in mob money from a small-time bank in New Mexico, and has to stay two steps ahead of the cops, the Mafia, and his wild-eyed partner (Andy Robinson). A prime example of the surprisingly sparse “actually intelligent protagonist” genre. I’ve already seen this film, which I just watched again on the big screen, but I’m breaking the implied KARCM rules and posting here because it’s one of the best crime films ever made and you, our beloved backers, deserve to know that. –KH

Lovecraft: A Study in the Fantastic (Nonfiction, Maurice Lévy, 1972 (trans. 1988)) In this short work, Lévy prefigures almost every major critical view of Lovecraft that would follow, from the psychoanalytic to the mythopoetic to the antimodernist. Lévy is especially good on the symbol-concept of the Lovecraftian abyss, which encompasses both the underground and outer space. –KH

Personal Shopper (Film, France, Olivier Assayas, 2017) Young woman with mediumistic powers (Kristen Stewart) works as stylist to a temperamental celebrity while waiting for her dead twin brother to send her a message from beyond. Stewart pushes her mannerisms to the limit in this enigmatic supernatural drama about temptation and loss.—RDL

Six Bridges to Cross (Film, US, Joseph Pevney, 1955) When thief and racketeer Jerry Florea (Tony Curtis) uses Boston cop Ed Gallagher (George Nader) as his alibi for an armored car company robbery, their lifelong friendship gets put to the test. Based on the 1950 Brink’s job but more concerned with emotion than criminology, Pevney’s film wins with Curtis’ strong, many-hued performance. –KH

Good

The Steel Trap (Film, US, Andrew L. Stone, 1952) Devoted family man (Joseph Cotten) decides to rob the bank where he works and escape to extradition-free Brazil with his unknowing wife (Teresa Wright) before his employers discover the theft. Part of a cycle of 50s noirs about squarejohn citizens spiraling into criminality, this is at its best when cranking suspense from a succession of tiny logistical hang-ups.—RDL

Okay

A Royal Affair (Film, Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2012) English princess (Alicia Vikander) marries the Danish king Christian VII, an unstable twit whose charms dim compared to to their intense, Voltaire-loving court physician (Mads Mikkelsen.) Lushly appointed, often obvious historical drama kept alive by Mikkelsen’s star charisma.—RDL

Not Recommended

The Defenders (Television, Netflix, Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez, 2017) Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage team up to keep Iron Fist out of the clutches of an ancient international conspiracy. Coasts for a while on the winning characterizations and performances established in Netflix’s first three Marvel shows before it becomes evident that the script needs every writing crutch in the book to fit two hours of story into an eight hour bag.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Heists New and Noir

August 29th, 2017 | 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 our occasional podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Recommended

Drive a Crooked Road (Film, US, Richard Quine, 1954) A femme fatale (Barbara Matthews) lures a lonely race car driver (Mickey Rooney) into being the wheelman for a robbery. Although the tension remains more theoretical than actual, Rooney’s wounded, stoic performance (and a strong villain turn by Kevin McCarthy) carries the film around the corners and down the stretch. –KH

Dunkirk (Film, UK, Christopher Nolan, 2017) Trapped British soldiers evacuate the beach at Mole as civilian boaters cross the Channel in an improvised rescue attempt. Experiential war epic composed almost entirely of suspense beats.–RDL

Kansas City Confidential (Film, US, Phil Karlson, 1952) A perfect crime goes awry when the designated patsy (John Payne) begins to track down the four masked perpetrators. Taut script ratchets the tension steadily demonstrating the power of a strong story and supporting cast (Lee Van Cleef and Preston Foster especially)  even with workmanlike direction on a shoestring budget. –KH

Logan Lucky (Film, US, Steven Soderbergh, 2017) Working class West Virginian brothers (Channing Tatum, Adam Driver) stage an ingenious, low-tech race track heist. Soderbergh ends filmdom’s least plausible retirement with this cheerfully loose, country ham variant on the Ocean’s series. I won’t spoil the comic riff aimed straight at the geek funnybone.–RDL

Plunder Road (Film, US, Hubert Cornfield, 1957) Five men rob a gold shipment from a government train in a pouring rainstorm and 13 taut, dialogue-free minutes of film. As in many great noirs, the camera lovingly fixates on the mechanism of the crime, in this case on the trucks used to heist the bullion and to try and run it from Utah to California. A veteran cast including Gene Raymond and Elisha Cook, Jr. drives the heist-realité scenario to a strong finish. –KH

Good

Classe Tous Risques (Film, France/Italy, Claude Sautet, 1960) After his escape from a robbery goes wrong, gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) turns to his former Vichyite partners for assistance, triggering the slow-motion destruction of their comfortable postwar lives. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a young driver and hood who for reasons that remain opaque becomes Davos’ friend. After a high-test first act, the rest of the film settles into a more contemplative slow burn. –KH

Game of Thrones Season 7 (Television, US, HBO, David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, 2017) With the board swept of minor players, factions vying for control of Westeros prepare to square off—but the White Walkers have other ideas. An admirable shift to brisker pacing, plus the show’s most thrilling set piece sequence, give way to a final two episodes that will stand forever in the annals of idiot plotting.—RDL

Okay

Dragnet (Film, US, Jack Webb, 1954) Full-color spinoff of the long-running police procedural TV show, playing like a somewhat more violent two-hour episode. Most interesting as camp fodder or as a look into Webb’s idea of what a cop movie should be, with a few wild swerves but (aside from an affecting but incongruous scene with Virginia Gregg as the victim’s widow) not much meat. –KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Zombies, Mutants and a Post-Con Nap

August 22nd, 2017 | 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 our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

GenCon (Convention, US, Peter Adkison, Adrian Swartout, et al., 2017) shhh … don’t wake the podcasters … they’re very very tired … shhh –KH & RDL

The Girl With All the Gifts (Film, UK, Colm McCarthy, 2016) The titular girl is Melanie (Sennia Nanua) and among her gifts are politeness, eidetic memory, and symbiosis with the zombie plague. What could have gone wrong or remained routine with a lazier treatment becomes a mythic journey worthy of Matheson and Romero. Gorgeously lensed by Simon Dennis, and surgically scripted by M.R. Carey, this is easily the best zombie film since 28 Days Later. –KH

Recommended

Logan (Film, US, James Mangold, 2017) An aging Wolverine intent on protecting an ailing Professor X becomes grudging protector to a young girl whose healing powers, and claws, echo his own. To make an elegiac super-hero movie, Mangold looks to the elegiac western for a story dense with parental bonds, few of them literal.—RDL

Orphan Black Season 5 (Television, Canada, Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, BBC America) As the supposedly immortal founder of Neolution (Stephen McHattie) steps from the shadows, the clones (Tatiana Maslany) make a final bid for freedom. In a great example of a concluding season done right, the show narrows the focus of its conspiracy plotline and saves plenty of room for character beats.–RDL

Good

By the Gun (Fiction, Richard Matheson, 1993) Reprinting four of Matheson’s Western tales from the 1950s magazines with two more recent stories, this collection shows off a sure hand with plot and character, but without the startling originality of Matheson’s horror and SF. Even in the 1950s, the prose Western was descending into kabuki, though, and these still perform well. –KH

Folktales of Brittany (Nonfiction, Elsie Masson, 1929) Quest and faerie motifs predominate in this selection of folk stories from France’s most distinctively haunted region. Packed with bizarre imagery, told in an accessible if sometimes twee fairy tale voice. If Gary had read this in 1977 we’d all own miniatures of snake-maned lions.—RDL

The Republic of Cthulhu (Nonfiction, Eric Wilson, 2016) Wilson applies somewhat jargon-y theory to Lovecraft, seeing in HPL’s anti-Kantian marriage of the sublime and the grotesque a model or precursor poetics of parapolitics; the recognition that humanism is as dead in political theory as it is in science and art. One doesn’t have to follow Wilson all the way to any of his conclusions (and his gibbering about 9/11 is particularly unproductive) to find valuable insights into Lovecraft’s aesthetics and its commonalities with both clandestine politics and conspiracist poetics. –KH

Engagingly Terrible

The Return of Dr. X (Film, US, Vincent Sherman, 1939) Maverick reporter stumbles onto the trail of a death-reversing doctor and his monstrous first subject (Humphrey Bogart), who happens to be the madder of the two scientists. Wisecracking journalist mystery that takes a swerve into sci-horror is infamous for the worst miscasting in cinema history, saddling Bogey with a role that should have gone to Lorre or Lugosi. It also shows how much assured direction, here from undersung stylist Sherman, can do to turn a nonsense pile of script pages into something watchable.—RDL