Archive for the ‘Audio Free’ Category
Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Devil in Folklore and Folklore in Horror
January 16th, 2024 | 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
Cloven Country: the Devil and the English Landscape (Nonfiction, Jeremy Harte, 2022) Starting in the 16th century English folktales explaining unusual landscape features underwent a switch, substituting a comic, thwartable Devil for the giants and fairies that previously starred in them. In a scholarly but wry and accessible voice, Harte comprehensively rounds these up, abjuring the temptation to theorize a grand cause for the shift and then bend the evidence to fit.—RDL
Ladies in Retirement (Film, US, Charles Vidor, 1941) Staid companion/housekeeper (Ida Lupino) to a fussy former actress (Isobel Elsom) resorts to desperate measures to keep her chaotic, mentally ill sisters (Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett) housed with her. Expressionistic Victorian-set gothic based on an English murder play.—RDL
No Hard Feelings (Film, US, Gene Stupnitsky. 2023) In danger of being priced out of her own home town and needing a vehicle to make her summer nut as an Uber driver, a beleaguered townie (Jennifer Lawrence) accepts an offer from worried rich parents (Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti) to relieve their introverted son (Andrew Barth Feldman.) Reaffirms the heartfelt raunchy comedy as the last vestige of realistic characterization in mainstream movies, with a healthy dollop of class awareness and something of a Mike Nichols vibe.—RDL
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (Film, US, Kier-La Janisse, 2021) The resurgent horror sub-genre gets a comprehensive, international and pancultural survey from critics and filmmakers. Long but meant to be consumed in chapter-length chunks, this will have you scrambling to JustWatch to see which obscure 70s British TV dramas are available for streaming in your region.—RDL
Good
The Black Report (Fillm, Japan, Yasuzô Masumura, 1963) Cops and prosecutors confront bribes and perjury in the case of a murdered, philandering CEO. Cynical courtroom drama beats Dick Wolf to the Law & Order structure by 30 years.—RDL
Okay
Sakra (Film, China/HK, Donnie Yen) Stalwart leader of a Song Dynasty bandit gang (Donnie Yen) battles his own allies when he is framed for the murders of his parents and a subordinate. Setup for a franchise fails to untangle a convoluted plot it has presumably inherited from its wuxia source novel.—RDL
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Poor Things, Ferrari, Silent Night
January 9th, 2024 | 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
Poor Things (Film, UK, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023) Over the misgivings of the weird scientist (Willem Dafoe) who reanimated her, a sheltered woman (Emma Stone) whose brain has yet to catch up with her body elects to see the world with a vain cad (Mark Ruffalo) as her guide. Frankenstein motifs come out to play in a satirical art nouveau steampunk fable of innocence and experience wrapped around Stone’s astounding performance.—RDL
Recommended
Blood & Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (Nonfiction, Ronald Hutton, 2009) After demonstrating with his customary gentle, systematic authority that next to nothing can be conclusively proven about druids, Hutton lays out the various British projections, suppositions and outright fabrications about them that started with a revival of interest in the subject that began in the early modern period. An indispensable politico-aesthetic history of Britain as seen through the lens of a constantly reimagined, bloodthirsty and/or benevolent caste of priests and/or magicians and/or scientists.—RDL
Ferrari (Film, US, Michael Mann, 2023) In 1957, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) may lose his company to deeper-pocketed competitors, and wreck his marriage to Laura (Penélope Cruz) over his infidelity with Lina (Shailene Woodley). Mann unreels the story of what happens when two crises collide in one man, in an unusually internal film for him—even the racing scenes deliberately seem stepped down. Driver and Cruz (of course) play metal and fire off each other wonderfully.—KH
Incredible But True (Film, France, Quentin Dupieux, 2022) Bourgeois couple (Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker) who have a duct in their house that allows one to travel ahead twelve hours in time while also de-ageing by three days are nonplussed to learn that their friend, his boss, has had an electronic penis installed. Droll cautionary tale pays homage to Buñuel.—RDL
Silent Night (Film, US, John Woo, 2023) Rendered mute by the gangsters whose shootout claimed his young son’s life, an ordinary family man transforms himself into a traumatized instrument of vengeance. Contrary to the action romp promised by its marketing, this dialogue-free pure cinema subversion of the Death Wish formula is Woo’s darkest film since Bullet in the Head.—RDL
Trapeze (Film, US, Carol Reed, 1956) Injured trapeze artist (Burt Lancaster) returns to the rigging to train a promising protege (Tony Curtis), but a fame-starved performer (Gina Lollobrigida) comes between them. Briskly staged Technicolor circus melodrama with noirish undertones. DramaSystem players might take note of how economically it resolves its many dramatic petitions, stacking them on top of each other in quick succession.—RDL
The Unknown Man of Shandigor (Film, Switzerland, Jean-Louis Roy, 1967) Teams of spies violently vie for possession of a nuke-neutralizing device designed by a misanthropic scientist (Daniel Emilfork.) Bold compositions resonate with semiotic fatalism in this deconstructed spy spoof. Serge Gainsbourg appears as a chic French spymaster and sings his composition “Bye Bye Mister Spy.”—RDL
Good
Merry Little Batman (Film, US, Mike Roth, 2023) When Bruce Wayne (Luke Wilson) gets called out of Gotham, his son Damian (Yonas Kibreab) is left home alone—and prey to the Joker’s (David Hornsby) plan! What could have been a simple “Home Alone in Wayne Manor” cartoon leaves that setup behind by Act Three for an ambitious if not fully successful “meaning of Christmas” story. Art designer Guillaume Fesquet’s combo of Tim Burton and Ronald Searle works wonders at keeping cliche material fresh.—KH
Okay
Candy Cane Lane (Film, US, Reginald Hudlin, 2023) Noel-loving neighborhood dad Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy) unwisely makes a deal with a rogue elf (Jillian Bell) to win a Christmas-decorating contest, and madcap hijinks ensue. A baseline acceptable, even wacky, “Christmas is family” movie downright angered me when a Murphy ad lib in the end-credits blooper reel was orders of magnitude funnier and more real than anything I had just watched.—KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: 30 Coins, Talk to Me, and Classic Folk Horror and Yokai
December 19th, 2023 | Robin
The Pinnacle
30 Coins Season 2 (Television, Spain, HBO Europe, Álex de la Iglesia, 2023) Scattered, in hiding, on the run, interned—or, in the case of Father Vergara (Eduard Fernández), literally in Hell—the people of Pedraza race to investigate a world-ending conspiracy led by a smug billionaire (Paul Giamatti) with eldritch inclinations. Sly, thrilling, epic in sweep, and unrelentingly paced, this is the biggest and most fully realized tribute to horror roleplaying ever shot. Anybody can throw in the Necronomicon but you have to be one of us to prominently feature the Chaosium elder sign.—RDL
Recommended
The Blood on Satan’s Claw (Film, UK, Piers Haggard, 1971) A plowman accidentally unearths a demon’s corpse, provoking a plague of possession and murder in an 18th century English farm community. Influential folk horror depicts Satanic activity as an eruption of illogic, creating unease by forgoing a clear protagonist and cause-and-effect scene transitions.—RDL
The Donut King (Film, US, Alice Gu, 2020) Documentary profiles Ted Ngoy, the refugee who built an L..A. area donut store chain and brokered the dominance of the Cambodian community over the city’s glazed treat market. Riveting as cultural, food, and business history, but most of all as a gobsmacking rags to riches to rags story.—RDL
Spooky Warfare (Film, Japan, Yoshiyuki Kuroda, 1968) When a blood-drinking Babylonian demon kills and impersonates a virtuous samurai magistrate, offended local spirits, including a kappa, a rokurokubi, and a Kasa-obake, team up to stop him. For a goofy tokusatsu flick, this goes surprisingly hard, with gore, murders, and a pretty scary enemy monster. Also known as Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare and The Great Yokai War.—RDL
Talk to Me (Film, Australia, Danny and Michael Philippou, 2023) Grieving teen Mia (Sophie Wilde) attends a house party where the kids use a severed embalmed hand to conjure spirits into themselves. What could have been a rote “stay off drugs kids” story instead shows a convincingly callous teen subculture and always chooses the worse (and hence scarier and better) path, to terrific effect. But seriously, kids, stay off the severed embalmed hand conjuring. —KH
Violent Night (Film, US, Tommy Wirkola, 2022) Drunk, disillusioned Santa Claus (David Harbour) reconnects with his warrior past, and the spirit of the season, when mercenaries invade a house he’s visiting. Hard to think who other than Wirkola could do a slapstick gore fest that also hits all the beats of a heartwarming Santa movie.—RDL
Good
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Film, US; James Mangold, 2023) A larcenous god-daughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) drags a retirement-age Indy (Harrison Ford) on the hunt for a relic of Archimedes, with a Nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) in murderous pursuit. The script cleverly assembles the elements of the franchise, but the execution of the action sequences shows just how heavily it relied on Spielberg’s unparalleled flair for staging, composition and timing.—RDL
She Will (Film, UK, Charlotte Colbert, 2022) Ferociously guarded actress (Alice Krige) recuperates from cancer surgery at a New Agey retreat in the Scottish woods, developing a connection with the ashes of the witch trial victims who were burned there. Feminist weird tale maintains an intellectual distance from its protagonist and her dilemma, if she can be said to have one.—RDL
Okay
The Witch Part 2: The Other One (Film, South Korea, Park Hoon-Jung, 2022) Another experimental subject of the Witch supersoldier program (Cynthia) escapes an attack on her facility and takes refuge with siblings resisting gangland pressure to sell their childhood home. Lazily written sequel introduces a new, dull, passive protagonist but maintains the standard for fun, gory superfights.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Elizabeth Hand’s Hell House Sequel, Please Don’t Destroy, Quiz Lady
November 28th, 2023 | 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
Black Sheep (Film, US, Allan Dwan, 1935) Suave gambler (Edmund Lowe) and kicky actress (Claire Trevor) team up to rescue a swell young fellow from the clutches of a predatory jewel thief. Effervescent shipboard con artist comedy.—RDL
Christine (Film, US, Antonio Campos, 2016) Troubled local TV news reporter (Rebecca Hall) spirals as her drive to succeed collides with her inability to read and interact successfully with her colleagues. Hall gives a precise and heartbreaking performance in this evocative character portrait docudrama.—RDL
A Haunting on the Hill (Fiction, Elizabeth Hand, 2023) Playwright Holly Sherwin rents the empty Hill House with her cast and tech designer to workshop her new witch-trial play, adapted from a Jacobean original, in this (estate-approved) sequel to Shirley Jackson’s Pinnacle novel. Hand was never going to equal the greatest horror novel of all time, so she writes a different story about human frailty colliding with the unnatural, rich in metafiction, drama, and “I just can’t read this next part” dread. It’s not a remake or even a cover version, and it’s barely even a sequel, but it’s another deeply satisfying (and horripilating) Elizabeth Hand novel. —KH
Madame Freedom (Film, South Korea, Hyeong-mo Han, 1956) Reserved woman (Jeong-rim Kim) stifled by her self-centered wet blanket husband (Am Park) falls into the arms of a young jazz fan neighbor and a wealthy politician. Subtly drawn domestic drama of yearning for more in an age of modernization.—RDL
Please Don’t Destroy: the Treasure of Foggy Mountain (Film, US, Paul Briganti, 2023) Underachieving sporting goods retailers (Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, Ben Marshall) test their childhood friendship when they discover a legendary artifact and must defend it from disaffected park rangers (Megan Stalter, X Mayo) and a purple-clad cult leader (Bowen Yang.) Joke-packed, loopy comedy updates the SNL movie to the kindly mores of the cozy generation.—RDL
Quiz Lady (Film, US, Jessica Yu, 2023) When loan sharks kidnap her dog, a repressed accountant (Awkwafina) gives in to the urgings of her voluble train wreck older sister (Sandra Oh) and auditions to become a contestant on the quiz show that has obsessed her since childhood. Smart, affectionate buddy comedy flips expectations on who will play which side of the mythic Felix/Oscar opposition.—RDL
Okay
The Devil is a Sissy (Film, W.S. Van Dyke & Rowland Brown, 1936) English boy (Freddie Bartholomew) enrolls in a tough NYC school and falls in with budding delinquents (Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper.) Strongly characterized comedy-drama seeks social responsibility but winds up showing that we prefer our onscreen rogues unreformed.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Killer, An Antimemetic World-Slayer, and Belle Epoque Investigations
November 21st, 2023 | 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
In Which We Serve (Film, UK, Noel Coward & David Lean, 1942) Clinging to a life raft and periodically strafed by German planes, the captain (Noel Coward) and other crew members of the sinking destroyer Torrin recall the role it played in their lives since the beginning of the war. Coward plays against his bon vivant persona as a wholly admirable naval officer in this stirring achievement in British wartime propaganda.—RDL
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (Film, Italy, Luciano Ercoli, 1970) A chilling encounter with a spear-cane wielding blackmailer (Simón Andreu) leaves an ennui-ridden woman (Dagmar Lassander) thinking that her driven businessman husband (Pier Paolo Capponi) is a murderer. Giallo without gore killings exerts a strange hold despite its plot absurdities, in part via the stylish unease of its Ennio Morricone score.—RDL
The Killer (Film, US, David Fincher, 2023) Hit man (Michael Fassbender) who obsesses about process repeatedly finds himself improvising as his process hits the skids of unpredictable humanity. On one level a (perfectionist) film about a professional, on another a wry self-examination by a process-obsessed director. Its leitmotif of the killer concealed within (or emergent from) a commercial monoculture of sitcoms, gig work, and global branding seems almost beside the point. —KH
The Law According to Lidia Poët Season 1 (Television, Italy, Netflix, Guido Iuculano & Davide Orsini, 2023) In 1883 Turin, a law school grad who is forbidden to enter the courtroom (Matilda De Angelis) solves murders, aided by her stuffy attorney brother (Pier Luigi Pasino) and a handsome journalist (Eduardo Scarpetta.) De Angelis smolders with smarts, glamor and barely contained rage in a lavishly mounted historical case-of-the-week mystery show. YKRPG fans will appreciate its Belle Époque (or stile floreale if you insist) decor and costumes, particularly in the episode featuring spiritualism and a sinister masked ball.—RDL
Skinamarink (Film, Canada, Kyle Edward Ball, 2023) Preschool siblings wake up in the middle of the night to find their home transformed by an otherworldly incursion. Trance-inducing experimental horror, where figures appear dimly or obliquely when they occupy the screen at all, owes more to Stan Brakhage than it does to Tod Browning or John Carpenter. If you’re not on its wavelength after 15-20 minutes, know that it is going to stick with its aesthetic all the way through.—RDL
There Is No Antimemetics Division (Fiction, qntm, 2021) Marion Wheeler, the head of the SCP Foundation’s Antimemetics Division, battles an antimemetic world-killer in a series of layered, interrelated short narratives. Qntm takes a great spec-fic high concept and rings plenty of clever changes on it, while continuously raising the stakes from Clancyesque competence porn to Lovecraftian apocalypse. Mandatory reading for Madness Dossier GMs. —KH
Good
Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains (Nonfiction, Helen Thomson, 2018) Journalist visits people who live with such rare neurological conditions as mirror neuron synesthesia, clinical lycanthropy, and Cotard’s syndrome, whose sufferers believe that they have died. An eye-opening look at anomalies of the brain, padded with the anodyne anecdotes pop science editors insist on.—RDL
Satan’s Slaves: Communion (Film, Indonesia, Joko Anwar, 2022) Four years after their first brush with demons summoned by an infernal pact, a family faces a new incursion from beyond—this time, in a flood-threatened Jakarta housing project. The creepy slow burn plays more strongly than the conclusion in a second installment that establishes the series’ core evil as emanating from the sins of the Suharto regime .—RDL
Okay
The Medium (Film, Thailand, Banjong Pisanthanakun, 2021) Shaman discovers that her niece has been possessed by a malign entity. Pseudodocumentary is at its most interesting early on, transposing the tropes of the exorcism subgenre to the animist Isan culture, before it revs up into standard scare stuff.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Loki, The Killer, and Telephonic Time Travel
November 14th, 2023 | 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
Gaslit (Television, US, Robbie Pickering, 2022) Backwash from the Watergate break-in engulfs the lives of pill-popping grande dame Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), her attorney general husband John Mitchell (Sean Penn), aspiring flunky John Dean (Dan Stevens), and extremist nutball black bagger G. Gordon Liddy (Shea Whigham.) Wry retelling of America’s most entertaining mega-scandal captures its mix of absurdity and danger.—RDL
The Killer (Film. US, David Fincher, 2023) Nondescript assassin (Michael Fassbender) reminds himself of his dedication to icy indifference as he pursues his pursuers after a hit gone wrong. Beige, ultra-controlled fable of perfectionism under threat is Fincher’s most personal film to date.—RDL
Loki Season 2 (Television, US, Disney+, Eric Martin, 2023) Loki and his TVA pals struggle to prevent a time explosion that threatens to destroy the multiverse. Although the characters spend the season tackling a single obstacle, in a budget-conscious season mostly occurring on existing sets, the excitingly executed and genuinely conclusive ending justifies much.—RDL
Mad God (Film, US, Phil Tippett, 2021) A soldier undertakes a mission in a post-industrial hell of production, consumption, and destruction. Stop motion predominates in a mixed media animated journey through a goopy, repellent landscape invoking Giger and Bosch. —RDL
Mark Antony (Film, India, Adhik Ravichandran, 2023) Honest mechanic (Vishal) uses a phone that can make calls to the past to discover the truth about his hated gangster father and his ex-partner (S. J. Suryah), now our hero’s surrogate dad. Energetic action comedy science fiction musical features both leads in dual roles, and also a snake howitzer.—RDL
Okay
Secrets in the Hot Spring (Film, Taiwan, Kuan-Hui Lin, 2018) With a pair of unwelcome classmates in tow, a punch-happy high schooler visits his grandparents at their tourist hotel, finding it not only run down but also haunted. If you want to see what a Chinese ghost comedy looks like these days, here you go.—RDL
Ken was on the road this week.
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Only Murders in the Building, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Every Miss Marple Novel
November 7th, 2023 | Robin
Recommended
Common Wealth (Film, Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2000) Stifled realtor (Carmen Maura) tries to get a hoard of cash found in the apartment of a dead shut-in past the rapacious neighbors who have been waiting for years to steal it. Suspenseful black comedy takes a more gradual trip to chaos town than your typical Iglesia outing.—RDL
Every Miss Marple Novel (Fiction, Agatha Christie, 1930-1976) Busybody spinster Jane Marple combines thorough (and pessimistic) knowledge of human nature with a fine logical mind to solve a dozen murders in Christie’s best series by far. Although a few of the early novels suffer from Christie’s fondness for misdirection and minutiae, her decision to hinge Marple’s successes on human nature meant that Dame Agatha had to actually depict human characters in these. The later Marples (especially A Caribbean Mystery and its sequel Nemesis) show real ingenuity in approach, as well. —KH
Hidden Blade (Film, China, Er Cheng, 2023) Enigmatic Secret Service head for the wartime Chinese puppet government under Japanese occupation (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) plays a double game. Fragmented, recursive historical spy drama staged with tripwire stillness..—RDL
Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe (Film, Canada, Robert McCallum, 2023) Retrospective arts documentary celebrates the legacy of childrens’ TV host Ernie Coombs, aka the tirelessly affirming and gentle master of crafts and costumes, Mr. Dressup. Probably means nothing to you if you aren’t of the several generations of Canadians who grew up on his show, but if you did, get ready for crashing waves of deep nostalgia. And of course some absolutely devastating emotional material at the end.—RDL
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 (Television, US, Hulu/Disney+, Steve Martin & John Hoffman, 2023) When the star (Paul Rudd) of Oliver’s (Martin Short) shot at Broadway redemption is murdered, Mabel (Selena Gomez) starts an investigation, leaving Charles (Steve Martin) to choose between his role in the play and his duties as true crime podcaster. A shift to backstage mystery not only affords the opportunity to bring Meryl Streep in for an extended guest role, but also provides a fresh setting for the show’s exploration of loneliness and comradeship.—RDL
Not Recommended
The Fall of the House of Usher (Television, US, Netflix, Mike Flanagan, 2023) Opioid magnate Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) confesses at length to the strange series of labyrinthine events that led to the deaths of his entire family. The heavily telegraphed wedging together of Poe’s most famous stories might work in a campy tongue-in-cheek way, but Flanagan is deadly serious and utterly loathes his ensemble of protagonists.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Killers of the Flower Moon, Chicago Film Fest, and Horror Picks for Halloween
October 24th, 2023 | Robin
The Pinnacle
Killers of the Flower Moon (Film, US, Martin Scorsese, 2023) Ambitious but dim WWI vet (Leonardo di Caprio) marries a self-possessed Osage woman (Lily Gladstone) and conspires with his wealthy, respected uncle (Robert De Niro) to murder her family for their oil money. Scorsese favors the restrained side of his style in the latest, epic entry in his sprawling saga of American crime. As historical figure Ernest Burkhart, di Caprio plays a type of person often seen in real life but typically written out of fictional portrayals, one of impossibly muddled, contradictory intentions. —RDL
Killers of the Flower Moon (Film, US, Martin Scorsese, 2023) Malleable nephew Ernest (Leonardo di Caprio) of Osage County rancher Bill “King” Hale (Robert De Niro) marries an Osage woman (and potential oil rights heiress) Molly (Lily Gladstone) to further his uncle’s murderous conspiracy. Ernest and Molly’s unequal (and uneven) love story provides the emotional throughline of a film that begins as a gangster Western and ends (literally) as a law-and-order tale. Gladstone also, simultaneously, plays the “woman in a serial killer movie who cannot reveal herself” part in a terrifyingly realistic key. —KH
Recommended
Alien Island (Film, Chile/Italy, Cristóbal Valenzuela, 2023) Documentary begins with Chilean shortwave operators’ contacts with UFO witnesses in 1984, which led to lengthy radio discussions with “Ariel,” the representative of an unspecified island in southern Chile called “Friendship.” Without giving away the left turns the story takes, I can say the film makers probably found the hoaxer behind Ariel, and have a good reason for the seemingly irrelevant footage of Pinochet at the beginning. If there’s such a thing as a noir UFO documentary, this is kind of that. —KH
El Conde (FIlm, Chile, Pablo Larraín, 2023) When a fresh wave of blood-draining murders rocks modern day Santiago, the corrupt children of the vampire known as Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) travel to his island redoubt hoping to secure their share of his hidden wealth. Political satire borrows the pacing and black and white look of Browning’s 1931 Dracula for a sometimes poetic examination of our world’s truly immortal evil.—RDL
The Crime is Mine (Film, France, François Ozon, 2023) Young, impoverished, and semi-talented roommates, actress Madeline (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) and lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder) take credit for the murder of an odious producer and set 1935 Paris law and society on its ear. Isabelle Huppert as a fading silent star who refuses to fade adds a larger-than-life splash to this amiable neo-screwball exercise, which could be more frenetic but could hardly be more delightful. —KH
Late Night With the Devil (Film, Australia/UAE, Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes, 2023) Also-ran talk-show host Jack Delroy (David Dostmalchian) books a victim of demonic possession (Ingrid Torelli) on his show on Halloween night 1977 in a make-or-break ploy for ratings. Beginning with a mockumentary exposition dump, the movie takes off with the “lost master tape” of that suppressed episode and never looks back. Dostmalchian hits the perfect mix of narcissism and flop sweat, and the Cairneses rival Ti West in their 1970s recall. —KH
Men (Film, UK, Alex Garland, 2022) Seeking calm after the shocking death of her abusive husband, a woman (Jessie Buckley) books a stay at a gorgeous country house, only to realize that something is very wrong with the local men (all played by Rory Kinnear.) Folk horror of aggressive male insecurity elegantly calibrates its descent from the subtly off-putting to hallucinatory body terror.—RDL
The Universal Theory (Film, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, Timm Kröger, 2023) At a physics conference in the Austrian Alps in 1962, grad student Johannes (Jan Bülow) meets pianist Karin (Olivia Ross) amid increasingly surreal (and murderous) machinations. If you can imagine a beautifully-shot paranoid SF thriller about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (which in our timeline was proposed in 1957), this is one possible outcome of that imagination. —KH
The Witch’s Mirror (Film, Mexico, Chano Urueta, 1962) When a plastic surgeon murders his wife, their housekeeper draws on her infernal powers to exact grim vengeance. Surreal contribution to the 60s gothic revival stitches together disparate horror motifs like the product of a sinister, owl-haunted laboratory.—RDL
Good
Hello Ghost (Film, Indonesia, Indra Gunawan, 2023) Lonely young man’s suicide attempt allows him to see a quartet of ghosts, who demand that he perform tasks to complete their unfinished business. Innocuous supernatural comedy winds up to an unexpected tearjerker hammerblow. Remake of a 2010 Korean film.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ahsoka, Cryptids, R’lyeh, and a Lovecraftian Heather Graham
October 10th, 2023 | 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
Frogman (Film, US, Anthony Cousins, 2023) After seeing the Loveland, Ohio Frogman as a boy, failed filmmaker Dallas Kyle (Nathan Tymoshuk) returns to the scene to find the cryptid and prove he wasn’t hoaxing. Interesting characters, a great hokey milieu, and a masterful succession of scary reveals combine the chocolate of cryptid movies with the peanut butter of found footage to delicious effect. —KH
Putting the Rabbit in the Hat (Nonfiction, Brian Cox, 2021) The star of Succession and countless film and stage roles looks back with an impolitic eye on his acclaimed acting career and formerly messy personal life. Balances often barbed anecdotes with a fiercely text-based analysis of the acting craft.—RDL
Sojourn (Fiction, Amit Chaudhuri, 2022) Scholar visiting Berlin for a residency experiences dislocation. Short literary novel replicates the feeling of alienated possibility that comes when you step out of your usual context.—RDL
Suitable Flesh (Film, US, Joe Lynch, 2023) A strange obsession with her patient Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) opens psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham) up to horrific body-switching magic. Fast-moving, lurid Stuart Gordon-style adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” continues scripter Dennis Paoli’s (Re-Animator, From Beyond) string of improving (and sexing up) second-tier HPL stories. —KH
This Transient Life (Film, Japan, Akio Jissoji, 1970) Young self-actualized nihilist pursues an affair with his sister, and another with his master’s wife, as he learns to carve Buddhist statuary. Stark, jarring drama pits unbridled carnality against religious discipline.—RDL
Underwater (Film, US, William Eubank, 2020) Capable engineer (Kristen Stewart) pushes through her terror to aid her reassuring captain (Vincent Cassel) in evacuating a drilling installation in the Marianas Trench under assault from unknown creatures. Lean, mean survival horror skips the preliminaries to get right to its Poseidon Adventure meets R’lyeh premise.—RDL
Okay
Ahsoka Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Dave Filoni, 2023) Serenely confident Jedi (Rosario Dawson) reunites with her erstwhile apprentice (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to rescue an old comrade and prevent the return of an ultra-competent foe (Lars Mikkelsen.) Listless, conflict-free dialogue scenes kill any momentum achieved by its action set-pieces as the franchise once again proves that full-on Jedi make lousy protagonists.—RDL
Gods of the Deep (Film, UK, Charlie Steeds, 2023) Miskatonic U. astrobotanist Jim Peters (Derek Nelson) joins a Pickman Corporation-funded submersible expedition to a newly discovered gateway in the Antarctic Ocean floor. Clunky, lazy script, super-cheap production design, and slack direction and editing undercut even the pleasure of puppet Cthulhu vs. Gerry Anderson-style submarine. The actors never give up, though. —KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Oppenheimer, Marple, and the Editing of Star Wars
October 3rd, 2023 | 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
Oppenheimer (Film, US, Christopher Nolan, 2023) Chosen despite his left-wing associations as unlikely head of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), races to build an atom bomb, and later confronts an effort to use those associations against him. Nolan breaks and reassembles the biopic into a series of propulsive, interlocking puzzles, with mesmerizing, all-cylinders results that can only be described as Nolanesque.—RDL
Recommended
The Classified File (Film, South Korea, Kyung-taek Kwak, 2015) Frozen out by both the local and national halves of a task force assigned to a child kidnapping, an impolitic cop (Kim Yoon-seok) forms an uneasy alliance with a Taoist fortune teller (Yoo Hae-jin) who makes eerily accurate predictions about the case. Tense true crime police procedural reprises the common South Korean theme of official malpractice.—RDL
A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away: My Fifty Years Editing Hollywood Hits—Star Wars, Carrie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Mission: Impossible, and More (Nonfiction, Paul Hirsch, 2020) Career retrospective autobiography follows the author’s career from cutting early de Palma titles on film to acting as seasoned hand to young directors in the digital era. Highly readable insider account examines the diplomatic challenges of creative collaboration, and also reminds us that the credit we often give to tight, unconventionally structured screenplays ought to go to a desperate editor making a radical fix.—RDL
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (Fiction, Agatha Christie, 1985) In 20 short stories (13 published in 1932, the others doled out between 1939 and 1957) Miss Marple listens to (or very occasionally notices) a mystery and solves it with her vast knowledge of human nature. Christie’s combination of Dupin and Father Brown doesn’t quite reach the heights of either but reliably presents solid puzzles well played, which is nothing to sneeze at. Christie also limns character more carefully in these than in much of her other work. —KH
A Shaman’s Story (Film, South Korea, Ha Won Choi, 1972) Fading village shaman’s joy at the return of her son turns to crisis when he falls in love with her successor, and worse, reveals his conversion to Christianity. Rampant sexuality bubbles through this character study of changing spiritual mores.—RDL
Good
Smile (Film, US, Parker Finn, 2022) Therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) witnesses a smiling suicide, transferring a demonic entity’s attention to her, attention that manifests in unnatural smiles. This movie suffered from having one of the all-time great trailers, and doesn’t live up to that. Occasional eerie menace, a great high concept, and generally good performances likewise can’t fix a predictable script or really stick the landing. —KH
Okay
Polite Society (Film, UK, Nida Mansoor, 2023) Aspiring teen stunt person (Priya Kansara) decides to halt the rushed marriage of her beloved sister (Rita Aryu) to a biotech entrepreneur with a controlling mother. Blend of teen comedy and martial arts with an Anglo-Pakistani cast of characters substitutes exaggeration for jokes and funny situations.—RDL
