Ken and Robin Consume Media: Black Adam, African Mercs vs. Monsters, and a Telekinetic Body-Puppeteer on the Lam

November 8th, 2022 | 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

Barbarian (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2022) A double-booking with an unreassuring reassuring arts entrepreneur (Bill Skarsgård) proves the lesser worry for an out-of-town job applicant (Georgina Campbell) when weird stuff starts happening in their Detroit AirBNB rental. A lesser-used horror subgenre derives fresh energy from twisting structural jumps without neglecting classically executed scares.—RDL

California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival (Nonfiction, Keith Corbin with Kevin Alexander, 2022) Autobiography traces Corbin’s trajectory from South Central L.A. kid to gangbanger to prisoner to fine dining chef. A remarkable life story told with a jaundiced awareness of the pat fairy tale others will want to reduce it to.—RDL

Loot Season 1 (Television, US, Apple+, Matt Hubbard & Alan Yang, 2022) After her hugely publicized divorce from an insufferable tech titan (Adam Scott) a pampered woman (Maya Rudolph) decides to start showing up for work at her charitable foundation. Workplace comedy hits the ground running with a top-notch ensemble cast and an understanding that the subgenre lives or dies on affection for the characters.—RDL

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Film, US, Lily Ana Amirpour, 2022) Young asylum escapee with telekinetic body puppeting powers (Jeon Jong-seo) takes shelter with a larcenous stripper (Kate Hudson), forming a bond with her young son (Evan Whitten.) Outlaw couple on the lam movie pairs Amirpour’s style-forward edge with a warm generosity toward its characters.—RDL

Saloum (Film, Senegal, Jean Luc Herbulot, 2021) When an exfiltration goes awry, mercenary trio Bangui’s Hyenas (Yann Gael, Roger Sallah, Mentor Ba) seek refuge in a communal island settlement with secrets of its own. Tight spaghetti-Western war film expands into supernatural horror without ever losing pace or the viewer. At 84 minutes there’s not an ounce of fat in it, although the cinematography, sound design, and score deliver ample flavor.. –KH

Suddenly at His Residence (Fiction, Christianna Brand, 1946) [Published as The Crooked Wreath in the US.] Irascible Sir Richard March’s plan to disinherit his grandchildren goes awry when he’s murdered and the new will disappears: Inspector Cockrill turns up to solve the crime. Two impossible-footprint crimes and a suspect who may or may not suffer from amnesia plays this near-perfect country-house murder very close to John Dickson Carr turf; Brand once more combines sharp character portraits and magnificent misdirection to great effect. Only the thing that happens right at the end keeps me from awarding a second Pinnacle here, as it comes literally out of the blue. –KH

Good

Black Adam (Film, US, Jaume Collet-Serra, 2022) Searching for the ancient Crown of Sabbac, archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) awakens Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) and unleashes his murderous power to liberate her country. The wheels come off the busy script during the interminable (but at least actually visible) battle in the last act, but the ride there is full of political juice and superheroic mayhem set in a Middle Eastern city for once not filmed in War on Terror Goldenrod. Better than most recent MCU outings for sure, but for me Pierce Brosnan’s wonderfully distracted Doctor Fate cements its Good bump. –KH

Heads You Lose (Fiction, Christianna Brand, 1941) At Pigeonsford in Kent, three women turn up beheaded, two of them clearly victims of someone in local squire Stephen Pendock’s house party. In his debut novel, Inspector Cockrill investigates. Brand’s second novel unevenly blends her future signature ingredients, slopping a bit into a romantic comedy of manners and sadly cheating us a bit on the puzzle – by her future standards, at least. –KH

The Vampire Doll (Film, Japan, Michio Yamamoto, 1970) The sister and boyfriend of a missing man travel to the spooky manor home of her fiance, who has joined the ranks of the undead. Transposes the mood of latter-day Hammer to Japan, with an unconventional version of bloodsucker lore.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Every Cabinet of Curiosities Episode, Plus a Pinnacle Mystery and an Unthrilling Thriller

November 1st, 2022 | 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

Tour de Force (Fiction, Christianna Brand, 1955) When a murderer kills a retiring woman on a Mediterranean package tour, fellow tourist Inspector Cockrill must solve the crime before the local authorities railroad someone. All Brand’s strengths – caustic characterization, lapidary scene-setting, fair-play but blindsiding plots, and occasional needle-fine prose – turn diamantine under increasing pressure in this, well, tour de force. –KH

Recommended

“The Autopsy,” Episode 3, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, David Prior, 2022) Terminally ill coroner (F. Murray Abraham) defends humanity against the alien parasite occupying the body of his latest subject. Gripping, revolting adaptation of a Michael Shea story brilliantly finds a visual language for its literally interior action.—RDL

Easily the best of the series, combining a perfectly creepy setup, lowering dark backstory, and a great payoff. That’s all Shea, but Abraham carries the role effortlessly and Prior masters both framing and pacing throughout. –KH

To avoid the standard review of any anthology series, which is “Uneven anthology series in which the highlights are X, Y, and Z,” I am reviewing the episodes of GdT’s CoC separately. Because that’s how much I care about you, the reader. By the way did anyone else notice how much the logo recalls the Call of Cthulhu logo when shrunk down to thumbnail size?—RDL

To avoid choking this Consume Media with a double helping of grue, I’m piggy-backing on Robin’s reviews. Where my ratings differ I mention them in my comments.—KH

“Graveyard Rats,” Episode 2, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Vincenzo Natali, 2022) Weaselly, graverobbing cemetery custodian (David Hewlett) battles prodigious rodents for the treasure buried with a prestigious new arrival. My favorite of the season shows off Natali’s mastery of the plastic elements of action horror and a deliciously big performance from Hewlett, who makes us both laugh and feel for his outwardly loathsome character.—RDL

A mediocre but effective Henry Kuttner story given real brio here, supercharging its EC Comics plot with excellent action beats interspersed with genuine panic and squick. –KH

“The Murmuring”, Episode 8, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Jennifer Kent, 2022) Grief-stricken ornithologist (Essie Davis) on a research trip with her scholarly partner and neglected husband (Andrew Lincoln) encounters the ghosts of another family in the old Cape Breton house they’re staying in. Dramatic conflict between nuanced characters lends depth to a haunted house tale, based on a story by del Toro.—RDL

Unappealing, emotionally stunted protagonist does little to awaken this potentially very creepy setup, and the birds felt both over- and under-utilized. The tired Ghost Whisperer payoff dropped it to Okay for me. –KH

“The Outside,” Episode 4, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Ana Lily Amirpour, 2022) Yearning for the acceptance of her status-conscious fellow bank clerks, a shy taxidermy enthusiast (Kate Micucci) ignores the pleas of her sensible cop husband (Martin Starr) for the supernatural allure of an infomercial skin lotion. Satirical horror with a great final scene from Micucci offers a needed tonal contrast to the rest of the series, and a refreshing woman’s vantage on social terror. Original story by Emily Carroll.—RDL

Another EC Comics style story, the joke too drawn out to retain its effectiveness despite a game try by Micucci. At a tight half hour it would have been better than Good. –KH

Good

“Pickman’s Model” Episode 5, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Keith Thomas, 2022) Horrific visions plague a patrician art student (Ben Barnes) when he is exposed to the lifelike nightmarish paintings of colleague Richard Pickman (Crispin Glover.) Expands the setup-punchline structure of the HPL story to focus on the narrator’s descent into reality horror.—RDL

If you’re going to pad out Lovecraft’s snappiest, punchiest tale, try not to erase the story by so doing. Thurber and Pickman’s relationship makes far less sense in this version, and we lose the ghouls to boot. Barely Okay. –KH

Okay

Fulci For Fake (Film, Italy, Simone Scafidi, 2019) Documentary profile of director Lucio Fulci connects the tough blows of his private life to the reality-defying horrors of his key works. Instead of clearing the rights to excerpts from the films, this uses a labored framing device in which an actor prepares to play Fulci by conducting the talking heads interviews.—RDL

“The Viewing”, Episode 7, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Panos Cosmatos, 2022) Wealthy weirdo (Peter Weller) invites an unlikely cast of supposedly kindred spirits to his brutalist chic manor to see a strange artifact. Cosmatos dips back into his 70s revivalist vibe for a weird tale in which the horror plays as perfunctory afterthought to banter between its eccentric characters.—RDL

Robin nails it here. I’ll add that a lot of the details seemed weirdly like adolescent tryhard fixations, not 70s billionaire weirdness. Loved the Hunger-style lighting, though. –KH

Not Recommended

“Dreams in the Witch House”, Episode 6, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Catherine Hardwicke, 2022) Hoping to contact the twin sister who died as a child, an obsessed parapsychologist (Rupert Grint) moves into a house haunted by a the spirit of an evil witch. The script tackles the known problems of Lovecraft adaptation by throwing in a fistful of new elements, none of which particularly agree with one another, much less the original story.—RDL

I have a lot of respect for Hardwicke, and she put a surprisingly vibrant paint job on this lemon of a script. By the end, I almost enjoyed the incoherence and almost overlooked the Mixmaster treatment of HPL. Okay, as in “better than Curse of the Crimson Altar.” –KH

“Lot 36”, Episode 1, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Television, US, Netflix, Guillermo Navarro, 2022) Surly racist antiques wholesaler (Tim Blake Nelson) gets more than he bargained for when he purchases the contents of a storage unit belonging to a rich creep. Rote tale of supernatural punishment based on a del Toro story that centers his obvious moralism.—RDL

Super promising premise becomes yet another adequate EC Comics story. If the demon had been a skoosh better or creepier or anything, my rating might be higher than Okay. –KH

Ire-Inspiring

Pacifiction (Film, France/Spain/Germany/Portugal, Albert Serra, 2022) De Roller (Benoît Magimel), the High Commissioner of French Polynesia, slouches and bleats through a few days in which the French government might be resuming nuclear testing. Serra doesn’t so much deconstruct the political thriller here as dump all the parts out on the beach and ignore them while somehow making a film shot in Tahiti look ugly and boring. Nearly three hours later, it turns out that De Roller was useless and nothing we saw mattered; Serra manages to be both facile and lugubrious. –KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Werewolf By Night, She-Hulk, and Paris Hangouts

October 25th, 2022 | Robin

Recommended

Irma Vep (Television, France, HBO Max, Olivier Assayas, 2022) Hollywood star (Alicia Vikander) enters an unfamiliar world when she takes the lead role in a French miniseries by a neurotic auteur (Vincent Macaigne) based on his past experimental adaptation of Feuillade’s classic serial Les Vampires. Beguiling, funny hangout television about the movies, in dialogue with Feuillade, Assayas’ life and work, and less overtly but most especially, Truffaut’s Day for Night.—RDL

The Passengers of the Night (Film, France, Mikhaël Hers, 2022) Newly single mom Elisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) gets a job at a late-night call-in radio show and navigates the 80s in Paris. Lives and moments expand and touch in this warm hangout film anchored by Gainsbourg’s open performance. Incidents that could have been mawkish or forced instead reinforce the felt humanity of her family, while wonderfully intercut archival footage illustrates that the 80s were the best decade in Paris, too. –KH

Ultimates and Ultimates 2 (Comics, Marvel, Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch, 2010) Nick Fury assembles a team of superheroes to protect America in this grittier retelling of the Avengers origin. In its original run (2002-2007), Millar wrote the heroes as reflections of American imperialism and embedded the story in War-on-Terror geopolitics, which has aged more unevenly than Hitch’s lovingly detailed ultra-cinematic spreads. Occasional frustrations with “decompressed storytelling” aside, though, these books built the Marvel Cinematic Universe and remain foundational. –KH

Werewolf by Night (Television, US, Disney+, Michael Giacchino, 2022) A ringer (Gael Garcia Bernal) joins a group of murderous monster-hunters to compete for the right to possess a powerful artifact. Styled in homage to the Universal horror canon, this self-contained weird adventure zippily dispatches a simple narrative, and introduces three characters from the comics with not an iota of unnecessary backstory. I have arguably upgraded this a level just for the reel change marks.—RDL

Good

1920: The Year of Six Presidents (Nonfiction, David Petrusza, 2006) Teddy Roosevelt wanted to run in 1920 but died, Wilson crippled his party with the same delusion, Hoover waited for a sure thing, Harding and Coolidge ran two races on one ticket, and FDR agreed to be the sacrificial VP candidate to build connections for the future. Petrusza tells the story of one of America’s most fascinating elections adequately but without much brio, and with barely any detail on the actual Democratic candidate. –KH

Leonor Will Never Die (Film, Philippines, Martika Ramirez Escobar, 2022) Long-retired Filipina screenwriter Leonor (Sheila Francisco) gets hit on the head by a falling TV while writing a comeback script and falls into the world of her own action film. Wonderfully loopy homage to 80s Philippine action flicks gets meta while sweetly if unsubtly plumbing family trauma, but as so often happens the ending cops out. –KH

Werewolf by Night (Television, US, Disney+, Michael Giacchino, 2022) Werewolf Jack Russell, and yes that’s really his name in the comics (Gael Garcia Bernal) competes with a clan of monster-hunters and stereotypes for the mystical monster-zorching Bloodstone. Delightful 1940s black-and-white production and a fun guest spot help the hour mostly fly by, but at the end it’s just a fine werewolf thing and not a very compelling story. –KH

Okay

She-Hulk, Attorney at Law (Television, US, Jessica Gao, 2022) After an accident involving her cousin Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) leaves her with the ability to transform into a more controlled version of the Hulk, perennially single district attorney Jessica Walters (Tatiana Maslany) takes a new job heading a defense team specializing in super-powered cases. Though it does give pause when the finale breaks the fourth wall to make critiques of past MCU content you have also read in this very column, the show never decides whether it wants to be a legal procedural, a dating travails sitcom, or a Marvel serial. If you’re going to do episodic TV, pick a formula and execute it.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Rotoscoped Witchery, Lockdown Paranormalism, and M. R. James Goes Italian

October 11th, 2022 | 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

Agatha (Film, US, Roland Becerra & Kelly Bigelow Becerra, 2022) Terminally ill watcher (Ryan Whiting) follows a witch (Emily Joyce-Dial) deep into an urban wasteland in search of a magical cure. Even at its tight 60-minute run time, this lushly rotoscoped urban fairy tale gobsmacks the viewer with details, images, and tonal discomfort, the latter accentuated by a superbly discordant score by Jeremy Santiago-Horsman. –KH

Something in the Dirt (Film, US, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, 2022) Neighbors John (Moorhead) and Levi (Benson) attempt to capture a paranormal event in Levi’s apartment as mysteries and pareidoliac connections compound. Your response to this film will depend entirely on your response to “what if paranormal Slacker, but a two-hander because filmed during lockdown, oh and also unreliable narrators and meta-documentary.” I bought the bit and enjoyed the ride mightily. –KH

Whistle, And I’ll Come to You (Film, Italy, Valentina Battorti, 2022) Skeptical professor Parkins (Giorgio Guerra) digs up a Templar whistle while vacationing in Burnstow. Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography by Battorti (who also wrote and costume-designed) highlights this well-paced 68-minute M.R. James adaptation, and Matthew James’ score swells between 40s and 80s orchestrations. Italians playing MRJ’s uber-English characters does add a note of incongruity. –KH

Good

The Keep (Film, US, Michael Mann, 1983) To the dismay of an SS-skeptical German officer (Jurgen Prochnow), stupid Nazis stir an ancient being from his Romanian fortress prison, summoning a counterforce in the form of a super-powered, exposition-eschewing, lidbidinous stranger (Scott Glenn.) Operatic weird fantasy shot at the height of high 80s style can’t be described as fully realized but nonetheless exerts a dreamlike pull.—RDL

Stoyan (Film, Spain, Roberto Ruiz Cespedes, 2022) When her son Stoyan (Max Ulloa) disappears, Maika (Marta Milans) follows the instructions of a heretical Buddhist sect to see him again. The B-plot of this karmic horror film, following existential police detective Israel (Tristán Ulloa) investigating linked deaths, works better and more consistently than the over-promised and under-explained main story, though it remains a meaty take on what exactly separation from emotional ties entails. –KH

Okay

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Film, US, Peter Farrelly, 2022) Bibulous New York merchant marineman (Zac Efron) decides to bring comfort to his buddies serving in Vietnam with an unauthorized mission to show up there with a duffel bag of beers. Efron transforms radically out of his boyishness in a dramedy docudrama that could have used a rewrite pass for subtlety.—RDL

Incantation (Film, Taiwan, Kevin Ko, 2022) The horror starts up again after six years when a woman who profaned a profane scenario and learned too much about a god regains custody of her young daughter. Mixmasters horror sub-genres ranging from found footage to J-Horror, from Western exorcism flicks to 70s Asian black magic and throws them at the viewer for two hours, without the crucial moments of pause that make scares work.—RDL