Ken and Robin Consume Media: Backrooms, Obsession, Fallout, and The Sleuth of Baghdad

June 23rd, 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.

The Pinnacle

Dry Summer (Film, Turkey, Metin Erksan, 1964) Domineering farmer (Erol Tas) bullies his younger brother (Ulvi Dogan) into his plan to deprive neighbors of their property’s spring water, while coveting his strong-willed bride (Hülya Koçyigit). Stark morality tale ratchets up the audience’s desire for its incorrigible bastard protagonist’s comeuppance.—RDL

Recommended

Backrooms (Film, US, Kane Parsons, 2026) Embittered furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) stumbles into a labyrinthine otherworld that imperfectly mimics grim, anonymous commercial interior spaces; his tense therapist (Renate Reinsve) goes to look for him. Not since Kiyoshi Kurosawa crept onto the horror scene has deteriorating industrial design provoked as much unease as in this adeptly realized weird fable.—RDL

Fallout Season 1 (Television, US, Prime, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, 2025) In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a sheltered vault-dweller (Ella Purnell) seeks a decapitated head McGuffin to free her kidnapped father (Kyle McLachlan), crossing paths with an ill-treated soldier (Aaron Moten) and mutant revenant gunslinger (Walton Goggins) who want it for their own purposes. Keeps the momentum on the boil and lore revelations coming while threading the actions of multiple protagonists.—RDL

Obsession (Film, US, Curry Barker, 2026) Romantically maladroit music shop employee (Michael Johnston) makes an ill-advised wish for the intense love of a co-worker (Inde Navarette) who probably thinks of him as strictly a friend. Navarette’s calibrated yet jaw-dropping performance as the unfortunate wish object powers a sly riff on a classic horror premise.—RDL

Secret Mall Apartment (Film, US, Jeremy Workman, 2024) In 2004 a group of street-level Providence RI artists find a large dead spot behind the scenes of a high-end shopping mall and for four years covertly transform it into a second living space. Documentary uses footage taken by its subjects on early digital cameras to tell a shaggy dog story exploring the questions around hidden and ephemeral art. The role played in all of this by the weird geometry of the mall, built as it is to hug the rerouted Providence River, remains an exercise for the Mythos-aware viewer.—RDL

The Sleuth of Baghdad (Fiction, Charles B. Child, 2002) This collection assembles fifteen of the 34 stories, published between 1947 and 1969, featuring homicide inspector Chafik J. Chafik of the Baghdad Police. A mix of procedural and pure deduction, with a smattering of terrific impossible murders, the evocation of a thoroughly destroyed milieu is its most interesting feature.—KH

Okay

Sucker Free City (Film, US, Spike Lee, 2013) The paths of an empathetic gangbanger (Anthony Mackie), felonious finance company gopher (Ben Crowley), and impetuous triad debt collector (Ken Leung) cross in San Francisco’s Balkanized criminal underworld. Pilot for unproduced Showtime show, shot on blown-out early oughts digital video, transfers Lee’s concern for clashing local communities out of NYC, with less rounded characterization than his own scripts and a tacked-on ending.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Backrooms, The Furious, and One of Korea’s Robin Hoods

June 16th, 2026 | Robin

Recommended

Backrooms (Film, US, Kane Parsons, 2026) Failed architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) phases into an eerie yellow liminal space beside his furniture store’s basement and the creepery commences. Renate Reinsve enlivens a tricky role as Clark’s baggage-laden therapist, and the “follow these characters’ linear path through a series of increasingly unnerving sets” storyline relies strongly on her and Ejiofor’s sheer believability. You can occasionally sense the script and scope threatening to escape directorial control, but those swerves often bring their own frisson. And hey, it’s Parsons’ first feature film.—KH

The French Conspiracy (Film, France, Yves Boisset, 1972) Burned out activist (Jean-Louis Trintignant) becomes a pawn in a Deuxieme Bureau scheme to lure an exiled Algerian resistance leader (Gian Maria Volonte) onto French soil. Paranoid spy thriller with a stacked cast and more actual geopolitics than the genre usually admits.—RDL

The Furious (Film, Hong Kong/US, Kenji Tanigaki, 2026) Mute repairman Wei (Miao Xie) and investigator Navin (Joe Taslim) team up to rescue loved ones from evil human traffickers in not-Bangkok. Although Taslim’s dogged charm remains intact, and up-and-comer Brian Le stuns in a “biggest henchman” role, the real standout is Tanigaki’s collaboration with action choreographer Kensuke Sonomura. Together, they create a symphony of bone-crunching battles featuring whole new ways to dodge, hit, weave, and climb in combat. Not quite best of breed, but hey, it’s Tanigaki’s first feature film.—KH

The Furious (Film, Hong Kong, Kenji Tanigaki, 2026) In his effort to rescue his preteen daughter from human traffickers, a mute handyman (Miao Xie) teams with an equally fight-capable independent investigator (Joe Taslim) searching for his missing reporter wife. In his first feature as helmer, the most exciting action director working today delivers complex, crunching battles in a style adding MMA moves to restrained wirework. HK cinema fans will remember the lead from his scrappy kung fu kid roles in such 90s classics as My Father Is a Hero and The New Legend of Shaolin.—RDL

Lim Kkeok-jeong (Film, South Korea, Yu Hyun-mok, 1961) While ass-kicking the minions of a corrupt mayor, a heroic bandit discovers the righteousness of his daughter. Period adventure epic about Korea’s real-life 16th century Robin Hood equivalent was considered a lost film until a print was found in the Library of Congress and restored by the Korean Film Archive.—RDL

One of Them Days (Film, US, Lawrence Lamont, 2025) When the latter’s sponging boyfriend absconds with their rent money, together Dreux (Keke Palmer) and flaky Alyssa (SZA) quest through South L.A. to replace it. Affirming portrait of a community built around a chaotic buddy comedy.—RDL

Okay

The Law According to Lidia Poët Season 3 (Television, Italy, Netflix, Guido Iuculano and Davide Orsini, 2026) Lidia puts her brother’s political career in jeopardy by browbeating him into defending a friend who killed her abusive husband. To its detriment the show’s final season adopts a serialized structure, giving perfunctory treatment to its cases of the week.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Daredevil, Warp Marine Corps, Christopher Nolan

June 9th, 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

Big Time Gambling Boss (Film, Japan, Kôsaku Yamashita, 1968) After turning down the leadership of his adopted clan, an honorable 30s yakuza tries to mediate between his bullheaded preferred candidate and the expediently chosen winner. Classically constructed tale of a gangland spiral from order into chaos.—RDL

Cécé (Fiction, Emmelie Prophète, 2020) In a gang-ruled Haitian slum, a young woman maintains her independence by parlaying her Facebook likes into an influencer gig. Unsparing social realism for the social media era.—RDL

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (Television, US, Disney+, Dario Scardapane, 2026) Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) spur a popular revolt against tyrannical NYC mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Satisfyingly wraps a two-season arc that remembers what worked about the original show, even though making Kingpin a regular creates a stasis between protagonist and antagonist.—RDL

I am Baseball (Film, Japan, Takashi Ono, 2023) Young widow (Mitsuki Moriyama) is bullied into a maniacal baseball coach’s (Takehiko Fujita) scheme to mold her into the ultimate amateur player. Deeply strange satire of inspirational sports movies hybridizes the Brechtian alienation techniques of the 60s Japanese New Wave with the timeless comedy of guys getting smacked in the nuts.—RDL

The Nolan Variations (Nonfiction, Tom Shone, 2020) Based on lengthy interviews and discussions with Nolan, this examination of the director’s influences, touchstones, and approaches runs from Nolan’s London/Chicago upbringing through Following (1998) to Tenet (2020). Not a production history in any sense, more of a creation history, providing interesting insights into the most bankable great director (or greatest bankable director) of our times.—KH

Operation Mincemeat (Film, UK, John Madden, 2021) Seconded to MI5, a Lt Commander with family problems (Colin Firth) and socially maladroit Flight Lt (Matthew Macfadyen) team with the young widow they both pine for (Kelly Macdonald) to draw German attention from the planned Sicily landing by floating a corpse with fake documents onto the Spanish coast. An invented love triangle adds dramatic beats to a clearly told, stiff upper lip tick-tock of history’s greatest disinformation op.—RDL

Warp Marine Corps: The Complete Series (Fiction, C.J. Carella, 2015–2020) After aliens kill half of humanity, America expands into a hostile and occupied Galaxy. What begins as the Boxer Rebellion in space becomes a Humanity Fuck Yeah saga which takes a turn for the supernatural (paranatural?) horror genre long about Book Three. That book is such a delightful takedown of the Roddenberry “superior aliens judge humanity” trope that I forgive former RPG designer Carella his genre sloshing (which reminds me weirdly of Warren Ellis’ SF/horror) in the next two books. If you enjoy HFY, military sci-fi, and misusing the term tachyon as much as I do, this pentalogy is Recommended.—KH

Good

Satan in High Heels (Film, US, Jerald Intrator, 1962) With $900 stolen from her junkie ex, a carnival burlesque performer (Meg Myles) heads for the big city and the arms of both a connected club owner (Mike Keene) and his ne’er-do-well son (Robert Yuro). Sexploitation filmmakers overshoot the assignment with actual characterization and performances in this hardboiled time capsule of fetish and queer subcultures prior to the sexual revolution.—RDL

Okay

Bad Words (Film, US, Jason Bateman, 2013) Bitter adult (Jason Bateman) uses a loophole to worm himself into a kids’ spelling bee championship, resisting the attempts of his wide-eyed main competitor (Rohan Chand) to befriend him. A heavy reliance on ironic racism as joke fodder stale-dates this otherwise diverting entry in the misanthrope with a heart of gold sub-genre.—RDL