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Archive for December, 2020

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Hand, le Carre, and, once more, The Mandalorian

December 29th, 2020 | 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

Curious Toys (Fiction, Elizabeth Hand, 2019) Living in Chicago’s Riverview amusement park in 1915, gamine Pin stumbles onto a serial killer of young girls. Featuring cameos by Charlie Chaplin and Ben Hecht, Hand’s assured thriller prods and pokes (and gazes) at femininity and the images thereof. Story elements such as Chicago’s film industry and especially Pin’s erratic confidant Henry Darger bring those themes effortlessly into focus. –KH

Hard Light (Fiction, Elizabeth Hand, 2016) Pill-popping punk photographer Cass Neary gets dragooned into a series of murders with roots in the 1970s groupie scene and in an experimental occult film shot in Cornwall. Hand’s almost-occult crime series again satisfyingly walks several high-wires: broken but appealing protagonist, forgotten past and collapsing present, crime and horror. Hand’s Cass Neary series by now withstands comparison to William Gibson’s Bigend trilogy. –KH

Hunter with Harpoon (Fiction, Markoosie Patsauq, 1970) Inuit hunters embark on a deadly journey to find and kill a rogue polar bear. Harrowing novella of life and death in an unforgiving environment, packed with incident and told with startling, straightforward authority.—RDL

Lord of Light (Fiction, Roger Zelazny, 1967) The Buddha attempts to destroy the rule of the Hindu gods; alternately, an immortal culture-jamming spaceship crewman named Sam sabotages his fellow immortals’ attempt to keep their descendants’ planet culturally static. Zelazny deliberately wrote this SF novel in a fantasy register, or vice versa, in a critical test of Clarke’s Third Law. Cosmic scope packed into 250-odd pages makes for a heady read, as does Zelazny at the height of control over his own style. –KH

The Mandalorian Season 2 (Television, US, Jon Favreau, Disney+, 2020) Mandalorian fundamentalist (Pedro Pascal) quests to fulfill his geas and return Grogu (Baby Yoda) to the Jedi for further training. Punchy, minimalist episodes (again inspired by 1960s serial TV such as The Rifleman and Kung Fu) let the production design and interstitial dialogue build upon (and build out) the Star Wars universe while the themes (and Ludwig Göransson’s theme) carry the emotional weight. All this, plus the return of Space Bill Burr! –KH

A Perfect Spy (Fiction, John le Carré, 1986) When his con man father dies, the M16 Head of Station in Vienna drops out of sight with the embassy burnbox, to write a memoir addressed to his son and his mentor. Literary fiction techniques come to the fore in this quasi-autobiographical novel from the tail end of le Carré’s Cold War phase.—RDL

La tête d’un homme [A Man’s Head] (Film, France, Julien Duvivier, 1933) Chief Inspector Maigret (Harry Baur) suspects that the bumpkinish delivery man arrested for the murder of a wealthy American matron is merely a patsy. Simenon adaptation builds from clipped police procedural to a crescendo of expressionist dread and melancholy.—RDL

Good

The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life (Nonfiction, John Le Carré, 2016) The celebrated spy novelist presents his finest anecdotes about his encounters with heads of state, warlords, movie people, and other shady characters. With the possible exception of his piece on his con man father, the real David Cornwell remains as staunchly in the background as George Smiley ever could.—RDL

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mandalorian, Ma Rainey and Streep/Soderbergh

December 22nd, 2020 | 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

Let Them All Talk (Film, US, Steven Soderbergh, 2020) Superstar literary author (Meryl Streep) invites formerly close friends, the centered Susan (Dianne Wiest) and desperate, embittered Roberta (Candice Bergen) on a transatlantic cruise. Multiple unanswered questions lend narrative suspense to deceptively light drama driven by improvised dialogue. Soderbergh makes canny use of Streep’s star persona.—RDL

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Film, US, George C. Wolfe, 2020) At a Chicago recording date for indomitable blues performer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) an ambitious young trumpeter (Chadwick Boseman) makes his grab for stardom. Wolfe’s darting camera bridges the cinematic and the theatrical to give this contemporary stage classic a filmed treatment in accordance with its stature. This difficult feat requires electric performances, which Davis and Boseman unsurprisingly deliver.—RDL

The Mandalorian Season 2 (Television, US, Jon Favreau, Disney+, 2020) Aided along the way by a rotating roster of bad-asses, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) seeks a Jedi to take custody of the Kid. Lives up to the brilliance of the first season by keeping its arc the simplest of strings to connect independently satisfying episodes. Also of note: the way it leans into the cruelty of the setting, which the franchise has been fleeing since the Ewoks showed up. Where do I fall on the thing that happens at the end? I had both reactions!—RDL

The Two-Penny Bar (Fiction, Georges Simenon, 1932) Acting on a tip from a condemned prisoner regarding an old murder, Inspector Maigret infiltrates a community of Sunday revelers. The Maigret books don’t need to be read in order, making this structurally straight ahead entry, as usual favoring social observation over a puzzling mystery, an excellent starting point.—RDL

Good

The Flight Attendant Season 1 (Television, US, Steve Yockey, HBOMax, 2020) After a night of sex with millionaire passenger Alex (Michiel Huisman), alcoholic mess/flight attendant Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) wakes up next to his murdered corpse. This series wants so badly to channel Hitchcock’s mid-period neo-screwball man-on-the-run films that you kind of root for it. (It’s far from easy — even Stanley Donen just barely did it once!) Cuoco’s comedy experience gives her the needed timing in the role, and Cassie’s traumatic mental collapse (illustrated among other things by Alex reappearing to her throughout) mostly plays well. Zosia Mamet as her lawyer/best friend is a treat, too. But four hours (tops) of story across eight episodes means some arbitrary choices, second-tier dialogue, and (of course) divagating subplots. –KH

Okay

Autumn Leaves (Film, US, Robert Aldrich, 1956) Lonely typist (Joan Crawford) discovers the pathological side of her quick-talking young suitor (Cliff Robertson) only after she marries him. Aldrich, a specialist in caustic portrayals of tormented people, undercuts the therapeutic message of the script’s final act with every fiber of his noirish being.—RDL

Mannequin (Film, US, Frank Borzage, 1937) Anxious to escape poverty, a hard-working seamstress (Joan Crawford) marries a no-good fight promoter (Alan Curtis) who pushes her into the arms of a besotted shipping magnate (Spencer Tracy.) The antagonist never offers a credible threat to the happiness of the leads in this well-directed romantic melodrama.—RDL

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Episode 426: Licensed Mumming

December 18th, 2020 | Robin

In our last episode of 2020 we lurch, masked and tipsy, into the Kringle Hut, to fashion a horror scenario around the Newfoundland tradition of mummering.

Beloved Patreon backer Noel Warford convenes a session of Ask Ken and Robin to inquire into the cosmology of his Hellenistika project.

In the Cinema Hut we kick off a series exploring Horror movie essentials. We’re going chronologically so let’s start with the silent era and see how far 15 minutes will take us.

Finally the Eliptony Hut whisks us to Brazil in the 60s for the sinister and enigmatic Lead Mask Case.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, Feng Shui 2, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. Delta Green: The Labyrinth is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Leary in Love, Selena in the Zoom Kitchen

December 15th, 2020 | 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

My Psychedelic Love Story (Film, US, Errol Morris, 2020) Joanna Harcourt-Smith recounts her cameo-studded tale of lysergic acid and international intrigue as Timothy Leary’s lover and confidant from his fugitive years to his coming out as an FBI informant. Master documentarian Morris gives the archival clips and images suitably trippy graphic treatment while hewing closely to his protagonist and her story.—RDL

Strange Cargo (Film, US, Frank Borzage, 1940) Irresistible hardened criminal (Clark Gable) escapes from the French Guiana penal colony, accompanied by a tough saloon performer (Joan Crawford) and a mysteriously prophetic Bible-toter (Ian Hunter.) Expressionistic parable of survival and redemption.—RDL

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth  (Nonfiction, Mark Mazzetti, 2013) The Global War on Terror sends the eternal CIA pendulum between analyst and cowboy swinging hard to the latter, as it transforms into a people-killing agency intertwined with the Pentagon. This ably organized account of post-9/11 to Obama spy games crisply paints a cast of bureaucratic infighters, freelancers and loose cannons.—RDL

Good

Selena + Chef Season 1 (Television, US, HBOMax, Aaron Saidman, 2020) Pop star and cooking novice Selena Gomez makes dishes under the Zoom supervision of LA chefs. Provides suitable amounts of Selena, chefs, and cooking to fit the bill — it won’t really rock the world of any experienced home cook, but that’s not really its job. Attempts at byplay with Selena’s family and friends mostly stay out of the way of the cooking. –KH

Under Occupation (Fiction, Alan Furst, 2019) In 1942 Paris, thriller writer Paul Ricard stumbles into a Resistance operation and joins up. Ricard’s story is not so much a novelistic arc as a series of episodes, some gripping some oblique; Furst’s (still considerable) gift for evocative description is all some stretches have going for them. Furst should probably be praised for avoiding the “real thriller echoes fake Ambler thriller” throughline, but should not be left off the hook for avoiding a throughline altogether. –KH

When Pigs Fly (Film, Germany/US, Sara Driver, 1993) In a rough hewn town somehow both in New Jersey and in Ireland, the gift of a haunted chair saddles an alcoholic jazzman (Alfred Molina) with ghostly houseguests, a child and a bartender (Marianne Faithfull) he once knew. Ramshackle hipster ghost comedy alternates whimsy and melancholy. —RDL

Not Recommended

Evelyn Prentice (Film, US, William K. Howard, 1934) Brilliant attorney (William Powell) defends a young woman charged with the murder of a cad, not knowing that his neglected wife (Myrna Loy) was also dallying with the victim.  Most 30s movies turn into hot nonsense the moment they enter a courtroom and that’s certainly true of this labored melodrama, which gives the frequent costars little opportunity to sparkle together.—RDL

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Episode 425: Pork Chop of the Truth

December 11th, 2020 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how, with conspiracies theories going mainstream, we should create them for our horror games.

In Ripped from the Headlines, backer Gray St. Quintin asks for the real story behind Carpathian tree poaching.

We talk for a while and then get abruptly canceled in the Television Hut, as we look at the impact of streaming on TV structure.

Finally the Consulting Occultist reviews the case files from the 1968 robbery of Israel Regardie’s Los Angeles library.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, Feng Shui 2, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. Delta Green: The Labyrinth is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mank Writes Kane and H. G. Wells is Full of Himself

December 8th, 2020 | 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

Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine (Film, US, Scott Crawford, 2019) Documentary chronicles the scrappy, dysfunctional crew behind the scenes of the scrappy, proudly unrespectable rock magazine that published Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh. Another reminder that the story of any outsider culture institution includes volatile personalities and a hand-to-mouth balance sheet .—RDL

Die, Vol. 3: The Great Game (Comics, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, 2020) Balletic precession into the third act of this story of gamers returning (with their adult baggage) to the fantasy world that trapped them 30 years ago. Gillen’s story slows down just enough to let you feel the blows; Hans’ art if anything intensifies, with seemingly small decisions paying off like depth charges. Bonus points for H.G. Wells being full of himself. –KH [Full disclosure/gratuitous plug: An interview with Ken and Robin appears in the back matter of this volume.]

Night Editor (Film, US, Henry Levin, 1946) To cover up his affair with a rich psychopath (Janis Carter), a spiraling homicide detective (William Gargan) fails to report a murder they witness together. Carter turns in a performance for the villain hall of fame in a B-movie noir so perverse and brutal you wonder how the heck it got past the Hays Office. The title refers not to the main action but to an intrusive framing device set in a newspaper office, meant to launch an anthology series.—RDL

Good

Blackhat (Film, US, Michael Mann, 2015) The FBI releases self-made hacker/ubermensch Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) from prison to help the Chinese MSS (Wang Leehom) track down a malevolent hacker. Mann cannot frame a bad shot, and in the moment the set pieces work amazingly well; but the story needed at least one more dimension to truly ensnare, and Hemsworth needed at least two more dimensions to portray his character. –KH

The Long Dumb Road (Film, US, Hannah Fidel, 2018) Uptight art student (Tony Revolori) receives unwanted life lessons from the extroverted oddball mechanic (Jason Mantzoukas) who fixes his car on his way to his school in L.A. Mantzoukas gets to play a grounded version of his chaotic comic persona in this winning road buddy flick, though its commitment to realism rules out a climactic finish.—RDL

Mank (Film, US, David Fincher, 2020) Convalescing from a car accident, charmingly caustic screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) holes up on an isolated ranch to write the screenplay for Citizen Kane. Dreamlike Hollywood fantasia focuses less on the credit tussle with Orson Welles than the question of why Mank decided to stick it to erstwhile host William Randolph Hearst and, by way of collateral damage, Marion Davies. Points for including periodic cigarette burns to signal the changes of nonexistent reels.—RDL

Okay

21 Bridges (Film, US, Brian Kirk, 2019) Brilliant homicide detective with a strangely long list of kills on his record (Chadwick Boseman) races against the time to catch the coke heisters who gunned down eight of his colleagues. The script sets up the sealing off of New York’s titular bridges as a central premise and then does absolutely nothing with it. Boseman gives it more star power than it deserves as it oscillates between an action-movie reality level and serious drama.—RDL

EMMA. (Film, UK, Autumn de Wilde, 2020) Charismatic landowner’s daughter (Anya Taylor-Joy) meddles in the love life of her socially precarious friend (Mia Goth), to the tart dismay of hunky neighbor Mr, Knightley (Johnny Flynn.) Even the camera moves are broad in this fondant-colored Austen adaptation, which immediately telegraphs character traits that are meant to slowly reveal themselves over the course of the narrative .—RDL

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell (Comics, Warren Ellis and Butch Guice, 2006) A sentient ancient alien weapon lands on Earth, and confronts the Justice League with its greatest fears. The set-up of this comic is by far the best part, as Ellis’ technophile imagination sets up a great hook; the payoff is more than correspondingly weak, however, a repetitive, simple story beat unworthy of Ellis. Grant Morrison did basically the same story vastly better in 1997.

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Episode 424: Reverse Darwinism

December 4th, 2020 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we discuss a key difference between RPG settings and the real world: imaginary politics has a lot more smart people in it.

Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller lures us into an especially osseous Archaeology Hut to contemplate the mammoth bone temple of Kostenki.

In Ask Ken and Robin, esteemed backer Craig Maloney doesn’t want us to forget the Motor City as he demands the hidden Mythos secrets of Detroit.

Then in Ken’s Time Machine we check out the timeline where the First Sino-Japanese War never happened.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, Feng Shui 2, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. Delta Green: The Labyrinth is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Vintage European Noir and Genre

December 1st, 2020 | 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

… And the Fifth Horseman is Fear (Film, Czechoslovakia, Zbyněk Brynych, 1965) Forbidden to practice medicine and seeking only to avoid the eye of the government, Dr. Braun (Miroslav Macháček) nevertheless sets out on a perilous quest for morphine to treat a wounded resistance fighter. Every frame and shot of this film and more (especially the discordant sound design and score) channels and accentuates unease, shading into surreal paranoia. The film pitilessly exposes compromise for what it is while spotlighting a system that makes simple humanity immoral and impossible. Ostensibly set during the Nazi occupation, but filmed without historical costumes or trappings to indict the Communist Party as well. –KH

Recommended

Arcana (Film, Italy, Giulio Questi, 1972) Money-hungry fortune teller (Lucia Bosè) fails to entirely discourage her hot, fey son as he schemes toward an enigmatic inbreak of apocalyptic witchcraft. Surreal Marxist psychosexual urban folk horror benefits from the occasional jaggedness of its execution.—RDL

Ashes and Diamonds (Film, Poland, Andrzej Wajda, 1958) On the night of V-E Day, Polish Home Army fighter Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) gets the order to assassinate the new Communist commissar of a small town. Subverts the Communist propaganda of the source novel by casting the charismatic Cybulski and focusing on his moral struggle between duty and love, and includes powerful imagery that resonates through every major successive Polish film (and then some). A beautiful near-Pinnacle; only the lengthy subplot about a double-dealing apparatchik slackens its power. –KH

Black Gravel (Film, West Germany, Helmut Käutner, 1961) Truck-driver Neidhart (Helmut Wildt) finds his carefully compartmented life and his black-market gravel scheme unraveling after his ex-girlfriend Inge (Ingmar Zeisberg) comes back to town as the wife of a USAF Major. Neidhart is a fascinating noir protagonist, as he’s not the classic “man who makes one mistake” but a man who only ever acts slightly better than you expect. Käutner’s bleak portrayal of contemporary German society implies he thinks Germany suffers even by that comparison. Unfairly neglected and denigrated by the New Wave. –KH

The Devil Strikes at Night (Film, West Germany, Robert Siodmak, 1957) In 1944, Berlin police commander Kersten (Claus Holm) tracks a serial killer that the SS and Party don’t want to admit exists. Based on the historical Bruno Lüdke case, Siodmak uses noir conventions to transform a policier into the uncovering of societal evil and incompetence. Slightly arbitrary plotting (and an off-kilter love story for Kersten) yields to the pleasures of the redirected signifier. –KH

Le Doulos (Film, France, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) Ex-con Maurice (Serge Reggiani) doesn’t know who he can trust, and given that his best friend Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) talks to the cops, who can blame him? “Le Doulos” means “the informer,” and much of the movie plays out as a series of ultra-cool scenes that don’t get Maurice (or the audience) any closer to understanding who’s informing or what’s going on. Just enjoy the ride and let Melville tell you when he wants to. –KH

The Facts of Murder (Film, Italy, Pietro Germi, 1959) Inspector Ingravallo (Germi) of the Rome police doggedly investigates a burglary and a murder that happened a week apart in next-door houses, and suspects a connection. Claudia Cardinale takes over the screen as a housemaid; the script hints at even darker secrets left not-quite-hidden. Germi resolves the contradictions between neo-realism and noir by playing up their common features: stern morality, black-and-white starkness (mirrored in the “high and low” sets), and pitiful motives. –KH

Four Ways Out (Film, Italy, Pietro Germi, 1951) Four thieves rob a soccer stadium and split up; the film follows their various attempts to escape the law and their own inner demons. Slightly repetitive structure still works thanks to well-drawn characters and a modicum of interwoven stories. Gina Lollobrigida gets top billing for a brief guest role; Cosetta Greco actually deserves it as one thief’s proud wife. –KH

Story of a Love Affair (Film, Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1950) Private eye Carloni (Gino Rossi) uncovers a deadly secret while investigating a millionaire’s wife Paola (Lucia Bosè), driving her old lover Guido (Massimo Girotti) to reconnect with her. Antonioni’s first feature, a loose riff on The Postman Always Rings Twice, is a sheer joy to look at. He refuses to show anything straight-on, except for Bosè (a former Miss Italy who he was sleeping with), creating a vertiginous quality enhanced by the jazzy score. –KH

Good

L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home (Nonfiction, David Lebovitz, 2017) Baker and pastry chef Lebovitz returns with another hilarious, recipe-strewn account of the multitudinous exasperations Paris throws at Americans who dare to live there, this time when he makes a host of rookie mistakes buying and renovating an apartment.—RDL

Okay

May God Forgive You… But I Won’t (Film, Italy, Vincenzo Musolino, 1968) Fast-drawing rancher (George Ardisson) systematically avenges the murders of his family. Racks up a John Woo-level body count as it pushes Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western framework to almost Gothic extremes. The protagonist is called Cjamango McDonald, a totally real name that actual people would in fact have.—RDL

Not Recommended

Bitter Rice (Film, US, Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) On the lam after a jewel robbery, a woman (Doris Dowling) escapes pursuit by throwing in with seasonal rice pickers, arousing the jealousy of a hot-blooded rival (Silvana Mangano.) The schlock instincts of producer Dino De Laurentiis bubble up into this lurid rural noir as it struggles against its socially responsible Neorealist outer layer.—RDL

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