Posts Tagged ‘Ken and Robin Consume Media’
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Alien Invaders, Outback Noir, and a Curse-Breaking Conspiracy
October 17th, 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
Full Circle (Television, US, HBO Max, Ed Solomon & Steven Soderbergh, 2023) To undo a family curse, a Guyanese crime boss (CCH Pounder) orders the kidnapping of a rich couple’s (Claire Danes, Timothy Olyphant) son, enmeshing a rogue postal inspector (Zazie Beetz) and many others in a series of dangerous errors and surprising revelations. Chaos theory ensemble crime drama shot by Soderbergh with a subtly destabilizing immediacy.—RDL
Limbo (Film, Australia, Ivan Sen, 2023) Police investigator Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives at the titular opal-mining outback town to investigate the 20-year-old cold case of an Aboriginal girl’s abduction. Baker’s superb performance and the stark black-and-white cinematography (also by Sen) knit together this elliptical bricolage of noir, Western, policier, and social comment film genres into a powerful whole that does the job of cinema better than virtually anything you will see this year.—KH
No One Will Save You (Film, US, Brian Duffield, 2023) Lonely Etsy seller (Kaitlyn Dever) fights back when sinister gray UFO occupants invade her rural home. Nearly dialogue-free exercise in pure cinema cleverly weaves together disparate alien terror tropes.—RDL
Reptile (Film, US, Grant Singer, 2023) Homicide detective (Benicio del Toro) uncovers a conspiracy while investigating the murder of a callow realtor’s (Justin Timberlake) fiancee. Del Toro steps into a welcome leading role as a pitiless roving camera and ominous soundtrack lend neo-gothic dread to a small town policier.—RDL
Good
Evil Dead Rise (Film, US, Lee Cronin, 2023) In a largely deserted apartment building, a guitar tech (Lily Sullivan) defends her nieces and nephew from their demonically possessed mother (Alyssa Sutherland.) Earns points for moving the franchise to a new urban locale and for exploring deeper characterization, though the horror remits too often in the middle, and the fear of motherhood theme doesn’t really integrate with the gothic teleology of the Evil Dead universe.—RDL
Okay
Foremost by Night (Film, Spain/Portugal/France, Victor Iriarte, 2023) Court reporter Vera (Lola Dueñas) penetrates a baby-snatching conspiracy to find her stolen son Egoz (Manuel Egozkue) and his adoptive mother Cora (Ana Torrent). This film could be Exhibit A in McKee’s “no voiceovers” thesis. Three or four very promising premises founder on the complete absence of conflict, leaving what little drama remains for the actors to emote. That game acting and some intriguingly oblique symbology keep this inert exercise barely at Okay. —KH
Thirteen Women (Film, US, George Archainbaud, 1932) Young widowed socialite (Irene Dunne) and her former finishing school classmates receive messages of doom from an astrologer, which come true thanks to the hypnotic powers of their embittered nemesis (Myrna Loy.) Somewhat perfunctory thriller novel adaptation offers the chance to see Loy in one of her early villain roles. CW: Orientalism.
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
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Indian Ultra-Action, Korean Supersoldier Teens, and JFK Redux
September 26th, 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
Charles, Dead or Alive (Film, Switzerland, Alain Tanner, 1969) After decades of suppressed discontent, the aging head of a family watchmaking firm drops out to live with a bearish sign painter and his girlfriend. Politics and philosophy hang out and smoke together in the kitchen in a personal-scaled observational drama that presages Jarmusch and the 80s American indie movement.—RDL
JFK: Director’s Cut (Film, US, Oliver Stone, 1991) New Orleans DA Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) obsessively investigates JFK’s assassination, culminating in the conspiracy trial of Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones). An absolute masterpiece of editing and a stacked cast of greats propels Stone’s best film to dizzying heights of manic sham history (shamanic history?). The director’s cut adds 17 minutes of typical Stone over-egging and one terrific set piece in an airport that perfectly, alchemically combines the paranoia and homophobia driving the film. –KH
Thunivu (Film, India, H. Vinoth, 2023) Badass outlaw Dark Devil (Ajith Kumar) hijacks a bank heist in progress, but discovers a deeper chicanery. Impossibly high-octane action shifts to economic message pic (with some high-octane action) in the third act, but it’s a sign of how much fun I was having that I still wanted a longer final payoff after two and a half hours. Without the Tamil film lover’s investment in Ajith Kumar’s stardom, one could also pick nits about the relentless focus on Dark Devil leaving his foils, foes, and allies a little one-dimensional. –KH
The Witch Part 1: The Subversion (Film, South Korea, Park Hoon-jung, 2018) Unassuming rural teen (Kim Da-Mi) overcomes her shyness to enter a competitive pop star reality TV show, attracting the attention of the sinister conspiracy that raised her as a psychokinetic supersoldier. Effective SF/horror pursuit thriller with hard-hitting, gory super fights.—RDL
Good
Hallowe’en Party (Fiction, Agatha Christie, 1969) When an odious young girl is drowned in the apple-bobbing bucket at a tween Hallowe’en party, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver brings in her friend Hercule Poirot to investigate. A fairly sharp mystery lurks beneath a constant croaking refrain on the topic of “sex-crazed mental patients wandering the streets these days” (in fairness, Dame Agatha was 79 when she wrote it) but once more Christie’s disinterest in human behavior tells against the novel. [The extremely loose basis for the new Branagh Poirot film.] –KH
Safe In Hell (Film, US, William A. Wellman, 1931) A fallen woman (Dorothy Mackaill) vows to be true to her sailor fiancee after fleeing a manslaughter charge to a Caribbean island favored by unsavory fugitives. Scabrous Pre-Code melodrama hews to a twisted morality while reveling in the lurid.—RDL
Okay
Fierce Cop (Film, Hong Kong, Tai-Lee Chan, 2020) In an unnamed, not-Chinese country, a hard-charging cop (Richie Jen) searches for the retaliating gangsters who have kidnapped his young son. Routine police thriller features brutal, energetic fights staged by action director Kenji Tanigaki.—RDL
Not Recommended
Batwoman (Film, Mexico, René Cardona, 1968) Wealthy philanthropist slash masked vigilante slash wrestler (Maura Monti) investigates an evil scientist who has been killing athletes for the pineal glands he needs to repopulate the world with marauding fish-men. Our heroine wrestles in a very familiar gray costume and bat mask, but when crime-fighting opts for cape, cowl, and bikini. To live up to the synopsis this kitsch thriller would have to be a little bit better made and several notches less sexist.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: New Tim Powers, Justified: City Primeval, and Narnia
September 19th, 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
City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (Fiction, Elmore Leonard, 1980) Detroit homicide cop Raymond Cruz finds his cool detachment tested by the Oklahoma Wildman, Clement Mansell, in Detroit for a more dangerous version of the normal Elmore Leonard “idiot criminal over his head” spree. Leonard tries writing an Elmore Leonard Western set in an Elmore Leonard crime novel while deconstructing them both, which gets him points for ambition. —KH
Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition (Nonfiction, Paul F. Ford, 2005) Celebratory yet incisive essays surround an A-to-Z of every entity, location, and concept in C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s series, with handy Biblical parallels in an appendix. Over and above its Narnian usefulness, this is what a reference book should look like in the age of Wikipedia: analytical and complete entries, informative essays, and launching pads for further research. Bump it up to the Pinnacle if you’re still a big old Aslanist. –KH
My Brother’s Keeper (Fiction, Tim Powers, 2023) When Emily Brontë meets a dark, wounded stranger on the moors, she discovers the secret history of lycanthropy that haunts her family. Powers returns to his classic form in this fantasy of secret history that delivers solidly on its promise. The only thing missing is the usual Afterword in which Powers tells you which bits are historical fact (hint: almost all of them) but a little research never hurt anyone, I guess. —KH
Good
Batman: Last Knight on Earth (Comics, DC, Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo, 2019) Bruce Wayne wakes up in Arkham Asylum to discover he’s never been Batman, and also the world is ending in a super-apocalypse. With only the head of the Joker in a jar for company, he sets out on a pilgrimage to save the world. Superb art holds the book together through some wild swings and misses that becomes its own sort of magnificent ruin among the towers of some unforgettably cool ideas. –KH
Okay
Justified: City Primeval Season 1 (Television, US, FX, Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, 2023) After a chance contretemps lands him in Detroit, Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) gets drafted into the pursuit of the Oklahoma Wildman, Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook). A few promising ideas about Raylan in a city full of Raylans go nowhere, dragged down by a visibly padded script. Olyphant tries gamely, but lacks chemistry with almost everyone except Holbrook – sadly including his own daughter, playing Raylan’s daughter in a tacked-on storyline. Oh well, this isn’t the first disappointing sequel to a best series on TV. –KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Barbie, Renfield, and More Noir City
September 5th, 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
Barbie (Film, US, Greta Gerwig, 2023) Weird feelings prompt Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) to journey to the troubling real world, where tagalong Ken (Ryan Gosling) learns about the patriarchy and resolves to bring it back to the innocent Eden that is Barbie Land. Surreal essay film with jokes and musical numbers uses women’s ambivalence toward the iconic doll as a synecdoche for their ambivalence toward gender expectations. Ironically given the theme, the juiciest, most layered part goes to Gosling, who makes a full feast out of it—RDL
Blood on the Moon (Film, US, Robert Wise, 1948) Drifter Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) rides into a conflict between rancher John Lufton (Tom Tully) and homesteaders backed by his friend Tate (Robert Preston) but uncovers chicanery, while finding love in Lufton’s daughter Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes). Wise keeps an atmosphere of uncertainty and menace brewing throughout the film, even as the plot takes its own sweet time getting to the final gunfight. Mitchum is, of course, magnificent, as is homesteader Walter Brennan. –KH
Chicago Deadline (Film, US, Lewis Allen, 1949) Reporter Ed Adams (Alan Ladd) discovers a dead beauty (Donna Reed) and becomes obsessed with tracking her history, uncovering unsavory secrets along the way. Crackling dialogue, ample Chicago shooting locations, and another strong weasel turn from Berry Kroeger as a gangster make this film a delight, though never a Laura. —KH
Dark Archives: a Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin (Nonfiction, Megan Rosenbloom, 2020) In her role as a member of the Anthropodermic Book Project, the author visits special collections throughout the US and Europe gathering samples for the DNA test that separates authenticity from legend for books reputed to be bound in tanned human remains. Contrary to horror tropes, the most prolific makers of these troubling artifacts turn out not to be blasphemous occultists, but 19th century men of science, And obviously a fictionalized ABP is your next group of player characters.—RDL
Fanny: The Right to Rock (Film, Canada, Bobbi Jo Hart, 2021) Now in their sixties, the core members of Fanny, a hard-rocking early 70s band with an all-woman, Filipina, queer roster that broke barriers without ever quite breaking through, reunite to record a new album. Arts profile documentary loves and celebrates its subjects as they look ruefully at the past and hopefully to the future.—RDL
Larceny (Film, US, George Sherman, 1948) Con men Rick (John Payne) and Silky (Dan Duryea) plan to grift a war widow (Joan Caulfield) out of the money for a no-fooling teen center and war memorial but Silky’s girl (Shelley Winters) has her own angle. A beautiful con and two beautiful dames plus Dan Duryea at his oiliest and most menacing keep John Payne hopping on the edge of disaster throughout, propelling the film zippily through a smorgasbord of wonderful character moments. –KH
Young and Innocent (Film, US, Alfred Hitchcock, 1937) Straight-laced police inspector’s daughter (Nova Pilbeam) breaks all the rules to help a handsome young man (Derrick de Marney) prove it wasn’t him who murdered an older actress. This early example of Hitchock’s favorite innocent fugitive formula features such quintessentially English obstacles as people posing as members of other social classes and the need to extricate oneself from an awkward social obligation.—RDL
Good
Moonrise (Film, US, Frank Borzage, 1948) Tormented by his father’s hanging for murder, borderline Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) both lashes out and flees within himself in a performance that tries to entirely internalize the noir transgression-and-pursuit (and doesn’t entirely land). Gail Russell is luminous as the girl who almost involuntarily sees the wounded boy inside, but Borzage indulges his silent-film instincts for big drama at the final expense of tension and tone. –KH
Renfield (Film, US, Chris McKay, 2023) Seeking to break his codependent relationship with his master (Nicolas Cage) Dracula’s longtime familiar (Nicholas Hoult) teams up with an incorruptible New Orleans cop (Awkwafina) bent on taking down the crime family that killed her dad. Juicy performances and a gleefully over-the-top vibe almost rescue a script that fails to find its footing after rushing the setup and generally appears to have come out the worse for wear from the development process.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Noir City 2023 and an Aubrey Plaza Double Bill
August 29th, 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
Call Northside 777 (Film, US, Henry Hathaway, 1948) Crusading reporter P.J. McNeal (Jimmy Stewart) re-investigates the case of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte), convicted cop killer. Propulsive true-crime thriller full of real-life Chicago locations ignites thanks to Stewart’s patented slow-burning outrage. Not actually noir, but shot like one by Joseph MacDonald. –KH
Emily the Criminal (Film, US, John Patton Ford, 2022) Beleaguered food service worker (Aubrey Plaza) accesses her repressed dark side after she becomes a runner for a credit fraud gang. Socially aware, character-driven crime drama with Plaza’s intense, layered performance as its centerpiece.—RDL
Force of Evil (Film, US, Abraham Polonsky, 1948) Numbers-racket lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) sticks his neck out for his small-time brother Leo (Thomas Gomez) as the mob and big business forcibly consolidate the numbers rackets in New York City. A superb noir in which the transgression is (selfish) brotherly love against a soulless capitalist system, it manages both a crime-insider and romantic tone without breaking stride. –KH
He Walked By Night (Film, US, Alfred L. Werker, 1948) Electronics nut Roy Morgan (Richard Basehart) graduates from burglary to murder and armed robbery in L.A. while staying one step ahead of the cops (Roy Roberts and Scott Brady). Basehart’s feral charm and John Alton’s noir lensing keeps you watching this (actual) proto-Dragnet as the twists and turns of the case accelerate. When an uncredited Anthony Mann shot the climactic storm-sewer chase, I bet he thought “This is going to be the best noir sewer chase filmed in 1948.” Based on the real-life case of Erwin “Death Ray” Walker and featuring the dawn of the Identikit. –KH
The Last Duel (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 2021) The events surrounding a rape accusation resolved through trial by combat in late 14th century France are retold from the varying perspectives of the impetuous, self-concerned husband (Matt Damon), the sleazy, well-connected perpetrator (Adam Driver) and the outraged, determined victim (Jodie Comer.) Historical drama varies the Rashomon structure by depicting revealing but relatively subtle differences in understanding between the focus characters.—RDL
Unfaithfully Yours (Film, US, Preston Sturges, 1948) Convinced of his wife’s (Linda Darnell) adultery, conductor Sir Alfred de Carter (Rex Harrison) plans her murder. A weird but very funny slapstick domestic comedy perhaps best understood as a parody of noir, its high point is musical director Alfred Newman’s synchronization of the diegetic classical score (both thematically and rhythmically) with de Carter’s fantastic thoughts of revenge, and the return of those scores as farce in the final act. –KH
The Velvet Touch (Film, US, John Gage, 1948) Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) murders her grasping producer Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) and watches her unhappy rival Marian (Claire Trevor) take the fall. As great as the murder triangle is, the real highlight of this Broadway noir is Sydney Greenstreet as a proto-Columbo (and the least New York NYPD cop in history). Leo Rosten’s script often achieves proper wit and bite, disguising a fairly straightforward story. –KH
Good
Burst City (Film, Japan, Gakuryū Ishii, 1982) In the proto-apocalyptic outer slums of Tokyo, rival punk bands do battle as yakuza press quasi-mutants into forced labor on a construction project. Frenetic, assaultive extreme cinema piece documents the vibe of the original Japanese punk scene.—RDL
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Film, Guy Ritchie, 2023) Ultra-competent operative (Jason Statham) trades barbs with his luxury-loving handler (Cary Elwes) and glamorous techie (Aubrey Plaza) as they pursue a high-tech macguffin about to be sold off by a roguish arms dealer (Hugh Grant.) Sleek, breezy celebration of its performers’ charisma.—RDL
Road House (Film, US, Jean Negulesco, 1948) Spoiled sociopath Jefty (Richard Widmark at his Widmarkiest) hires new flame Lily (Ida Lupino) to sing at his nightclub/bowling alley, to the consternation of his friend and enabler Pete (Cornel Wilde). The architecturally insane road house set is a visual gift that keeps on giving, Celeste Holm is charmingly snappish as good girl Susie, and Ida Lupino lovers should definitely bounce this up to Recommended. –KH
Incomplete
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Film, US, Joaquim Dos Santos & Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) reunites with Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and discovers that he’s been left out of the interdimensional spider-hero league as a dread mythic development barrels his way. On one hand, features many engagingly animated spider persons; on the other, is 15% longer than Citizen Kane and consists entirely of set-up for another movie, without even the courtesy of a decent cliffhanger.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Star Trek, Yellowjackets, and Ma Dong Seok Slapping Yet More Dudes
August 22nd, 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
Accident Man (Film, UK, Jesse V. Johnson, 2018) Cold-hearted hitman (Scott Adkins) traces the death of his pregnant ex to his own colorful assassination gang. Skillfully choreographed and staged martial arts flick takes its time to establish its characters and their relationships.—RDL
The Round Up (South Korea, Sang-yong Lee, 2022) Burly police lieutenant Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong Seok aka Don Lee) is back, this time on the trail of an expat kidnapper who has been killing his fellow Korean nationals in Vietnam. Like many sequels, this leans into self-aware comedy, but does so without sacrificing smart police procedural plotting and the crunching ass-beatings we’ve signed on for.—RDL
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 (Television, US, Paramount+, Akiva Goldsman & Henry Alonso Myers, 2023) The shadows of wars past and future hang over Pike and the Enterprise crew as they continue their interstellar exploration mission. Though thrown off-balance by three comic change-of-pace episodes in a ten episode season, the show keeps its focus on procedural problem-solving and navigates clear of a sophomore slump.—RDL
Yellowjackets Season 1 (Television, US, Showtime, Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson & Jonathan Lisco, 2021-2022) A blackmail scheme and a likely murder provoke unwanted recollections for a group of women (Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress) who as members of a high school soccer team were stranded after a plane crash and did some terrible things. It’s a testament to our era of siloed culture that this tense, funny double ensemble piece, which is popular and much-talked about, could so clearly establish itself as folk horror from episode one yet gain comparatively little mindshare among genre nerds.—RDL
Good
Anonymous Club (Film, Australia, Danny Cohen, 2019) Impressionistic documentary depicts singer songwriter Courtney Barnett as she struggles with self-doubt and depression on the road and at home. You’ll learn more about the subject from her songs than in this diffuse portrayal, but it does portray the outwardly uninteresting life of a prolific artist and closes on a profound bit at the end.—RDL
Okay
Extraction 2 (Film, US, Sam Hargrave, 2023) Not actually dead after the first film, self-loathing commando Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) returns to bust his sister-in-law (Tinatin Dalikashvili) out of a Georgian prison. Golshifteh Farahani has a little bit more to do this time out as Rake’s handler, and the pseudo-single-take prison break is almost too lavishly violent, but the rest of the film grinds into messy predictability, losing the tension and tang that made the first one mostly kind of work. –KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Burt Lancaster on the Lam, A Vampire Invite, and Ma Dong-Seok Slapping Down Punks
August 15th, 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
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (Film, US, Norman Foster, 1948) Merchant marine deserter on the lam for a bar fight killing (Burt Lancaster) strikes up an unlikely connection with straight-laced nursing assistant (Joan Fontaine.) Lean film noir of rage and its price evokes its London setting with elaborate, expressionistic sets built on a Hollywood backlot.—RDL
The Outlaws (Film, South Korea, Yunsung Kang, 2017) Rule-smudging but dedicated big bruiser cop (Ma Dong Seok aka Don Lee) marshals his bulk and brains to take down a destabilizing gang of ax-happy Chinese Korean gangsters intent on muscling out established rivals. The ideal Ma Dong Seok vehicle builds the audience toward a situation where they can revel in seeing him thoroughly demolish a smaller but oh so deserving opponent, and this, the beginning of a series, does that and wraps it in a gripping police pursuit thriller.—RDL
Good
The Invitation (Film, US, Jessica M. Thompson, 2022) Revealed by a chance DNA test to be the scion of the wealthy Alexander family, Evie Jackson (Nathalie Emmanuel) accepts an invitation to a wedding at the mansion of the Alexanders’ patron, Walter DeVille (Thomas Doherty). Pleasant key change from fairy tale to gothic horror never terrifies, but Emmanuel remains engaging throughout. –KH
Mad Fate (Film, HK, Soi Cheang, 2023) After a brush with a serial killer brings them together, an unstable fortune teller (Ka-Tung Lam) attempts to divert a young man with homicidal ideation (Lok Man Yeung) from his destiny as a murderer. Unsettling juxtaposition of giallo-tinged psychological horror and underdog buddy drama establishes an eccentric orbit around its philosophical ideas.—RDL
Okay
Third Finger, Left Hand (Film, US, Robert Z. Leonard, 1940) Smalltown painter (Melvyn Douglas) struck by vexing love for a self-sufficient magazine editor (Myrna Loy) gets back at her by introducing himself to her family as the husband she invented to protect her career. Light on actual jokes, this screwball comedy coasts on the charm of its stars.—RDL
Viking Wolf (Film, Norway, Stig Svendsen, 2022) Transplanted cop Liv (Liv Mjönes) and her sullen teen daughter Thale (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne) get tangled in a werewolf murder case. Nothing in this draggy, slack film brings anything much to the werewolf film mythos or canon despite a vague nod to the devil and also DNA or something. Norway is pretty, though. –KH
Not Recommended
Heart of Stone (Film, US, Tom Harper, 2023) Embedded within MI6 as a mild-mannered hacker, superspy Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) finds black hat hacker Keya (Alia Bhatt) plotting to bring down Stone’s true patrons, the goo-goo multinational Charter. When I cannot in good conscience recommend a Greg Rucka-written spy flick pitting Gal Gadot against Alia Bhatt, you know it must be derivative, talky, over-CGI’d mush indeed. It even squanders a dirigible! –KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Secret Invasion
August 8th, 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) Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) runs the atomic bomb program and makes enemies, including rising politico Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.). A double murderers’ row of actors superbly convey Nolan’s theme that human beings are their own chain reaction, as we follow two storylines focused on Oppenheimer and Strauss, intercut like a cooled-down version of JFK. Jennifer Lame’s precision edits and Ludwig Göransson’s modernist score are the absolute standouts in a nearly flawless film. —KH
Recommended
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (Nonfiction, Ben McKenzie with Jacob Silverman, 2023) His acting career sidelined by the pandemic, TV’s Lt. Jim Gordon teams up with a seasoned journalist to investigate their strong hunch that something that walks like a Ponzi and quacks like a Ponzi is in fact history’s biggest Ponzi. McKenzie deploys his storytelling chops to wrap deliberately opaque financial details in a procedural investigation structure. For the first time I understand blockchain, up until the point where it’s not supposed to make sense.—RDL
Mixed by Erry (Film, Italy, Sydney Sibilia, 2023) Aided by his business-minded brother and his violence-ready brother, a meek would-be DJ builds his mixtape fandom into a music piracy empire that eclipses Italy’s legit record business. Layers sprightly light observational comedy onto the Scorsesean rise-and-fall crime docudrama structure.—RDL
Good
Barbie (Film, US, Greta Gerwig, 2023) Mysterious angst grips Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), sending her out of Barbieland and into the real world. Alternately didactic and too on-the-nose, the dialogue kneecaps this ostensible comedy, stopping it dead more than once. Madly brilliant design, generally excellent cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto, and flashes of serene absurdism show what could have gone right, and Ryan Gosling once again shows his great comedic strengths, making more than the best of his role as Beach Ken. —KH
The Black Phone (Film, US, Scott Derrickson, 2022) Kidnapped middle schooler (Mason Thames) receives aid from his psychic sister and the ghosts of previous victims in his attempt to escape the basement of a masked serial killer (Ethan Hawke.) Muted 70s colors, creepy mask design and Hawke’s layered freak characterization stand out in a piece pitched to a scare level your non-horror fan friends and family can withstand.—RDL
Not Recommended
Flaxy Martin (Film, US, Richard L. Bare, 1949) When his double-crossing singer girlfriend (Virginia Mayo) is suspected of murder, a self-righteous mob attorney (Zachary Scott) confesses, thinking he can beat the rap. Great noir cast brings intensity to a thoroughly ridiculous script.—RDL
Secret Invasion (Television, US, Disney+, Ali Selim, 2023) Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to Earth to battle a terrorist insurrection led by a skrull ex-protege (Kingsley Ben-Adir.) Dour, dispiriting slog through a long-foreshadowed plotline devalues our sympathy for Fury and emphasizes the jarring disjunctions that spring from attempts to overlay MCU continuity onto real world geopolitics.—RDL
