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
