Ken and Robin Consume Media: Taylor Tomlinson, Good Fortune, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond

March 10th, 2026 | 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

Causeway (Film, US, Lila Neugebauer, 2022) Injured soldier intent on a return to duty (Jennifer Lawrence) befriends a garage owner with his own penchant for trauma repression (Brian Tyree Henry.) Character drama with a keen respect for actual behavior and affecting, realistically understated performances.—RDL

Good Fortune (Film, US, Aziz Ansari, 2025) Aching to do more than prevent people who text while driving from causing accidents, a lower-ranked angel (Keanu Reeves) allows a down on his luck film editor (Aziz Ansari) to swap lives with a blithely selfish venture capitalist (Seth Rogen.) Filters the themes of 40s fantasy and 30s screwball comedy through a gentle, generous version of today’s comic sensibility.—RDL

The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Comics, Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh, 2021) In his comic glamourpuss, Sim taught himself photorealistic inking, and in the back pages of glamourpuss, he examined the career (and death in a 1956 car crash) of Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon and paragon of the photorealist comics school. In SDOAR, Sim re-examines his examination in increasing keys of eliptony, eventually indicting Raymond’s writer (on his postwar strip Rip Kirby) Ward Greene for manipulating the occult power of “comic-art metaphysics” to control Raymond and maybe kill Margaret Mitchell and God knows what else. A riveting history of realistic comics art, a thrilling occult-conspiracy narrative, and a magisterial collapsing of the planes of comics experience, it would be a clear Pinnacle if Sim’s wrist injury had allowed him to complete it. Grubaugh essentially performs an exorcism in the last 40 pages or so, which is a great ending, but not a Pinnacle one.—KH

Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter (Stand-up, Taylor Tomlinson, Netflix, 2026) This new Taylor Tomlinson special sees her move away from the joke-a-minute density of her earlier standup sets, toward longer bits with bigger payoffs. The material here draws heavily on Bible stories, church backgrounds, and religion in general; there’s a modicum of preaching, but the punchlines are still king: “You know what I take away from the parable of the Prodigal Son? That Jesus was an only child.”—KH

Good

Harry Price: Ghost Hunter (Television, UK, ITV, Alex Pillai, 2015) Traumatized parapsychologist Harry Price (Rafe Spall) and his loose affiliation of helpers investigates a haunting plaguing a rising politician’s wife (Zoe Boyle.) Pilot for a series that didn’t happen features a team of 30s occult investigators and uses a frequent KARTAS mentionee as its protagonist, so is relevant to our interests despite its ritual invocation of trendy cliches.—RDL

The Wrecking Crew (Film, US, Ángel Manuel Soto, 2026) Badass but estranged brothers James (Dave Bautista) and Jonny (Jason Momoa) investigate the death of their father in an apparent hit-and-run in Hawaii. Soto knew the brief—scenery, manly banter, violence, explosions—and works to it here, landing what could have been streaming slop squarely in “forgettable but enjoyable 90s action movie” territory.—KH

Not Recommended

She Rides Shotgun (Film, US, Nick Rowland, 2025) A tense ex-con (Taron Edgerton) takes his smart preteen (Ana Sophie Heger) on the lam after he is accused of murdering her mom and stepdad. Gradually and then completely abandons its strongest element, the father-daughter relationship, for routine crime drama beats.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Book Thieves, Unreliable Narration, and a Yakuza Father

March 3rd, 2026 | 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

Pan (Fiction, Knut Hamsun, 1894) Retired officer leading a hermit’s existence as a subsistence hunter falls into a love-hate relationship with the mercurial daughter of a well-off merchant. Haunting, enigmatic character study told from the distorted perspective of a protagonist who lacks awareness of himself and others. A generation ahead of his time in the use of modernist literary techniques, including the radical subjectivity seen here, Hamsun would be better remembered today if not for his later endeavors as a fervent Nazi quisling.—RDL

Thieves of Book Row: New York’s Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It (Nonfiction, Travis McDade, 2013) True crime and bibliophilia come together in an absorbing account of three overlapping theft gangs who pillaged the library shelves of the 1930s northeastern US, in an era when most such institutions left increasingly valuable first editions and rarities in the open stacks. A slim volume by Edgar Allan Poe stars as main McGuffin. Add a Necronomicon or two and you’ve got your Big Apple sequel to Bookhounds of London, complete with a police-accredited New York Public Library special investigator as a key player character.—RDL

Good

Highest 2 Lowest (Film, US, Spike Lee, 2025) Wealthy record exec (Denzel Washington) discovers that a kidnapper (A$AP Rocky) who intended to grab his son instead took his pal. Lee and screenwriter Alan Fox are less interested in the suspense beats of Kurosawa’s High and Low than in an expansive meditation on the pressures of black success. Deserves respect despite its bad case of Too Many Endings Syndrome.—RDL

Onimasa (Film, Japan, Hideo Gosha, 1982) A young girl (Nobuko Sendô) given away to serve as adopted daughter to a pigheaded yakuza boss (Tatsuya Nakadai) grows up to become an activist schoolteacher (Masako Natsume.) Memorable for Nakadai’s big yet controlled movement-based performance, although the second half loses emotional punch as it blitzes through the many developments of its decade-spanning source novel.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: An Under-Celebrated Horror Writer and New Films by Yuen Woo-Ping and Zhang Yimou

February 24th, 2026 | 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

Blades of the Guardians (Film, China, Yuen Woo-ping, 2026) Imperial guardsman turned bounty hunter and surrogate dad (Wu Jing) agrees to escort a revolutionary (Sun Yizhou) and a khan’s archer daughter (Liya Tong) on a journey to the capital. The non-combat parts of Yuen’s directorial efforts can be uneven, but that’s not at all the case in this wuxia epic, where story and thrilling fight choreography fully mesh. With Tony Leung Ka Fai and, in what is billed as a final role, Jet Li.—RDL

Lord Peter Wimsey (all 5 series) (TV, BBC, Richard Beynon and Bill Sellars, 1972-1975) Ian Carmichael’s sprightly but layered performance as Wimsey keeps all five of these series more than watchable despite their visible budgetary (and videotape) limitations; the scripts uniformly respect both Sayers’ originals and the audience’s intelligence. Murder Must Advertise is the best of the five, tight plot surrounded by wonderful character work, Five Red Herrings the weakest, but still very respectable (and mostly shot on film) despite a bit of a fall-off and a parade of comic Scots suspects.—KH

Randalls Round (Fiction, Eleanor Scott, 1929) The only horror collection published by Scott comprises nine stories of generally Jamesian intent and good-to-superb execution. “Randalls Round” and “The Cure” both strongly prefigure folk horror, and “Celui-Là” echoes Lovecraft into the bargain. The linked edition includes two other pseudonymous tales by “N. Dennett” that editor Aaron Worth believes may also be by Scott, of which “The Old Woman” is another minor masterpiece.—KH

Scare Out (Film, China, Zhang Yimou, 2026) Counterintelligence squad leader (Yilong Zhu) and his loyal second in command (Jackson Yee) become the prime suspects in a mole hunt. It goes without saying to any serious student of the spy genre that a technothriller melodrama with American adversaries from the grandmaster of mainland Chinese film is required viewing.—RDL

The Secret Agent (Film, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) A scientific researcher (Walter Moura) goes underground in authoritarian 1970s Brazil to escape the wrath of a regime-connected industrialist. Confident, multi-layered political thriller in which withheld information is both subject matter and narrative strategy.—RDL

Such a Pretty Little Beach (Film, France, Yves Allégret, 1949) A melancholy young man (Gérard Philipe) arrives in a rain-drenched off-season resort town with a need for rest, a fishy story, and an equally enigmatic pursuer (Jean Servais.) Regret-soaked existential noir centered around a small ensemble and constrained set of locations.—RDL

Good

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (Film, Italy/France, Dario Argento, 1971) Prog-rock drummer Roberto (Michael Brandon) accidentally stabs the man he catches following him, an act photographed by a masked tormentor who tightens the noose around our frankly unappealing hero. Argento cares only for the wonderful camera stunts, set-piece stalks, and kills here, filling the rest of the script with comic hobos, a camp gay P.I., and a bit of nudity to pass the time. Morricone’s score seems like an afterthought, and as a giallo this is perhaps best viewed through Argento’s frustration with the straight crime thriller.—KH

Marty Supreme (Film, US, Josh Safdie, 2025) Narcissistic hustler (Timothée Chalamet) sucks both of the married women he’s sleeping with, childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) and faded movie star Kay (Gwyneth Paltrow) into his vortex of chaos as he tries to raise the scratch for a trip to a Tokyo ping pong championship. Antidote to the inspirational sports biopic makes big, wild swings without unifying its stew pot of elements—particularly the choice to score, edit and shoot it as if Alan Parker made this in 1983. Release the vampire cut you cowards!—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Pluribus, It Was Just an Accident, and Nature vs Our Rules

February 17th, 2026 | 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

Blood and Sand (Film, US, Rouben Mamoulian, 1941) The force of will that propels a poor young boy to acclaim as a superstar matador (Tyrone Power) pulls him from his worshipful wife (Linda Darnell) into the arms of a fickle aristocrat (Rita Hayworth.) Cast and director commit unironically to the sort of theatrical Technicolor melodrama they literally don’t make anymore.—RDL

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (Nonfiction, Mary Roach, 2021) From apex predators who occasionally attack us to the various species who eat our crops, with a brief digression to exploding trees and toxic beans, Roach surveys the ways in which we attempt to manage conflicts between people and wildlife. Written in the casual, you-are-there style that grinds my gears whenever anyone else does it, because her imitators lack her discernment and wit.—RDL

It Was Just an Accident (Film, Iran, Jafar Panahi, 2025) A random run-in leads an impulsive former political prisoner (Vahid Mobasseri) to kidnap the man (Ebrahim Azizi) whose squeaking prosthetic leg sure sounds like that of his torturer. Naturalistic thriller jabs at the traumatized moral conundrum left by generations of oppression.—RDL

Mr. Scorsese (Television, US, Apple, Rebecca Miller, 2025) I thought I knew all the Martin Scorsese lore but by bringing in additional informants to her celebratory biodocuseries Miller finds fresh angles on its subject’s journey from seething Hollywood outsider to avuncular patron saint of auteurism.—RDL

Pluribus Season 1 (Television, US, Apple, Vince Gilligan, 2025) When a virus coded from space turns the world’s population into a blissed-out hivemind, a dyspeptic romantasy author (Rhea Seehorn) realizes she’s one of a handful of surviving individuals. Seehorn’s ability to hold the screen centers an atmospheric Twilight Zone-ish SF serial whose extended pure cinema sequences defy the current assumption that the audience isn’t really paying attention.—RDL

Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost (Film, US, Ben Stiller  2025) Prompted by the need to empty their longtime NYC apartment, Ben Stiller profiles his parents, actors and comedy team members Jerry Stiller and Anne. The mystery of parents when seen from an adult child’s perspective, coupled with the director’s uncomfortable realizations about himself, surpass the limitations of the family album documentary.—RDL

Ken is on the road.