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Archive for November, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Andor, Guardians Holiday Special, and Wednesday

November 29th, 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

Andor Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Tony Gilroy, 2022) After a fatal run-in with security guards on the industrial world of Ferrix, small-time criminal Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) accepts recruitment for a one-time heist mission from a mysterious rebel operative (Stellan Skarsgård.) Ensemble drama hoards the space opera thrills in favor of the question: what if all the spear-carriers in the Star Wars universe were fleshed-out people working through complicated inner conflicts?—RDL

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Television, US, Disney+, James Gunn, 2022) To give Peter Quill (Christopher Pratt) the perfect Christmas, Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) go to Earth to get him the perfect present, legendary hero Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon.) Goofy, affectionate Yuletide comedy rehabilitates the concept of the Star Wars Holiday special, showcasing the comedy duo of Bautista and Klementieff.—RDL

Hangmen Also Die! (Film, US, Fritz Lang, 1943) After killing “Hangman” Heydrich, Dr. Svoboda (Brian Donlevy) takes refuge with a chance-met girl (Anna Lee), endangering her professor father (Walter Brennan) when the Nazis take hostages to smoke him out. After a slow start, Lang ratchets up the tension in a weird echo of M as the Nazis hunt Svoboda and the Resistance frames a patsy. Story (and uncredited scripting) by Bertolt Brecht! –KH

Lost Bullet 2 (Film, France, Guillaume Pierret, 2022) Ace mechanic Lino (Alban Lenoir) obsessively hunts the killer of his brother and mentor as his ex Julie (Stefie Celma) unwillingly covers for her fellow cops. Both fights and car chases improve in this sequel, which is more than reason enough to watch it. Morgan Dalibert’s cinematography captures the open road of light and speed beautifully. –KH

Wednesday Season 1 (Television, US, Netflix, 2022) Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) resolves to rebel against her new school, the exclusive academy for supernatural outcasts her parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman) attended, but finds an extracurricular interest in mystery-solving when a series of killings threatens the community. Clever import of an existing property into the Veronica Mars formula. Much depends on Ortega’s amazing ability to convey the vulnerability of her hard-nut, selfish character through the eyes alone.—RDL

Episode 524: Let’s Just Dump It in the West

November 25th, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we mull a peculiar property of RPGs as narrative, the expectation that a scenario will set up more plot elements than it actually pays off.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman, the Cartography Hut gets out a map to look at the 50 square mile legal loophole known as Yellowstone’s Zone of Death.

Then the Tradecraft Hut delves into recent headlines suggesting that the Chinese government has set up clandestine police stations throughout the world, including three of them in Robin’s Toronto stomping grounds.

Finally we finally get around to a segment we assumed we had done long ago, venturing into the Eliptony Hut to celebrate that most illustrious of cryptids, Mothman.

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

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.


Godsforge, Atlas Games’ fast-paced game of battling spellcasters, is now on Kickstarter. Grab wizardly first dibs on the new 2nd Edition of Godsforge, and two new expansions, Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses, from November 8 to December 8th.

Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.

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!

Delta Green Iconoclasts, a campaign of horrors modern and ancient, brings a team of Agents to a scene of horrors all too real: Mosul in 2016, held by the self-styled Islamic State in a reign of depraved brutality. From a small base at the Kirkuk airfield, the Agents must research the horrors to come and prepare for a harrowing infiltration. Terrors and new supplementary material await, now in PDF, hardback now in preorder.

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Wakanda Forever, a French Action Thriller, Plus Burglars, FIFA, and Other Criminals

November 22nd, 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

Lost Bullet (Film, France, Guillaume Pierret, 2020) Furloughed to work as mechanic for a fast pursuit police squad, a determined convict (Alban Lenoir) is framed for murder and escapes to clear his name. Tight actioner with brilliantly conceived, precision-executed car chases and hand-to-hand fights, anchored by a smart script where each member of its last cast of characters pursues their own specific agenda.—RDL

Recommended

The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown (Fiction, Lawrence Block, 2022) After reading Fredric Brown’s classic novel What Mad Universe, obsolescent burglar-bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr sideslips into a world where he can pull one last job. Each of Block’s dozen Burglar books is something of a delicate confection, and this one reaches Viennese levels of sweetness while slightly neglecting the tight plotting in favor of fond metafiction. If you haven’t read any Rhodenbarr capers yet, this is where to finish, not where to begin. –KH

Esther Povitsky: Hot For My Name (Television, US, Comedy Central, Nicholaus Goossen, 2020) Punchy, perfectly delivered standup bits interspersed with Esther’s bemused parents gently negging her, finishing with a musical number. A pure standup special would have been my personal preference, but everything here works. –KH

FIFA Uncovered (Television, US, Netflix, Miles Coleman & Daniel Gordon, 2022) Docuseries meticulously lays out the case that the corruption of the organization that rules World Cup football is not an anomaly, but has been its core mission since sponsorship money first flooded into the sport. The biggest proof it offers for the hubris of FIFA bigwigs is that all of them agree to appear on camera for interviews, confident that their powers of weaselry will once again prevail for them.—RDL

The Interrupters (Film, US, Steve James, 2011) Documentary profiles former Chicago gang members who now work for a city program directly intervening to defuse disputes that might otherwise escalate to murder. Presents the sociological issues while wisely placing the emphasis on the people working to redeem themselves and rescue others.—RDL

Lost Bullet (Film, France, Guillaume Pierret, 2020) On work release for the cops, ace mechanic Lino (Alban Lenoir) must find the titular bullet and clear his name after being framed for murder. Perfectly tuned actioner remarkably eschews suspense for adrenaline, and commendably refrains from murdering a bunch of bystanders. –KH

The Poisoned Chocolates Case (Fiction, Anthony Berkeley, 1929) Six members of the Crimes Circle, including both of Berkeley’s series detectives, attempt to solve a Scotland Yard cold case: Sir Eustace Pennefather receives a mysterious box of chocolates, gives them to fellow clubman Graham Bendix, and Bendix’ wife Joan dies of poison. Each member proposes a strong solution in turn, demolishing the previous solution (and demonstrating the fundamental arbitrariness in mystery novel construction) along the way. Clever and arch, a remarkable feat of deconstruction for 1929; the linked edition contains two more solutions, by Christianna Brand and Martin Edwards. –KH

Okay

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Film, US, Ryan Coogler, 2022) After the death of King T’challa, Wakanda faces renewed factionalism at home and a rising rival vibranium kingdom, Talokan, ruled by Namor (Tenoch Huerta). It’s hard to resent the film’s decision to mourn Chadwick Boseman, but it adds another half-hour when not much happens, along with a pointless CIA subplot, an overlong Namor backstory, and the introduction of a superfluous super-scientist to a movie ostensibly about Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright). Lupita Nyong’o is great as superspy Nakia, and props for having the final fight in daylight, I guess. –KH

Episode 523: Never Seen With a Windsock

November 18th, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to start researching real-world places we intend to use in our games.

The Archaeology Hut dusts off a request from estimable backer Steve Dempsey for a profile of innovative site diggers Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler.

At the behest of regal backer Paul Douglas the Mythology Hut checks of the theory of Iranian influence on Arthurian legend.

Finally the Consulting Occultist reaches into his tarot collection for HEXEN 2.0, making this also a Culture Hut installment about its creator, contemporary artist Suzanne Treister.

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

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.


Godsforge, Atlas Games’ fast-paced game of battling spellcasters, is now on Kickstarter. Grab wizardly first dibs on the new 2nd Edition of Godsforge, and two new expansions, Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses, from November 8 to December 8th.

Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.

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!

Delta Green Iconoclasts, a campaign of horrors modern and ancient, brings a team of Agents to a scene of horrors all too real: Mosul in 2016, held by the self-styled Islamic State in a reign of depraved brutality. From a small base at the Kirkuk airfield, the Agents must research the horrors to come and prepare for a harrowing infiltration. Terrors and new supplementary material await, now in PDF, hardback now in preorder.

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Decision to Leave, Bullet Train, and a Water Nymph Urban Geographer

November 15th, 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

Decision to Leave (Film, South Korea, Park Chan-wook, 2022) Insomniac homicide detective Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-li) becomes romantically entangled with his chief suspect Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the wife of the dead man. Audacious, melancholy, and gut-clenching in turns, this surveillance noir perfectly blends the policier and the romance. Controlled allegro editing by Kim Sang-bum plays beautifully off the classical woodwind score by Jo Yeong-wook. –KH

Recommended

The Blessing (Fiction, Nancy Mitford, 1951) The marriage of a young Englishwoman to an aristocratic French war hero hits a snag when infidelity is discovered and their precocious young son, enjoying the spoiling that results, contrives to thwart their reconciliation. Mitford expands her brilliantly funny social observation across the Channel.—RDL

Bullet Train (Film, US, David Leitch, 2022) Self-improving smash and grabber for hire (Brad Pitt) takes an assignment to steal a briefcase, little suspecting that the train it’s on is populated by assassins pursuing contradictory missions. Post-Tarantino action comedy with a gloriously zowie color palette pulls off the daring formal feat of not just homaging From Russia With Love’s iconic train fight, but then successfully repeating it another seven or eight times.—RDL

Undine (Film, Germany, Christian Petzold, 2020) After being dumped by a wayward boyfriend, an intense lecturer on Berlin’s urban geography (Paula Beer) finds delirious love with an industrial diver—the kind that the fates conspire against. Coolly and elegantly refashions myth into a naturalistic, enigmatic fable of the hubris of passion.—RDL

Good

The Great Lie (Film, US, Edmund Goulding, 1941) When her universally beloved pilot husband (George Brent) is presumed dead in a crash, a rich newlywed (Bette Davis) strikes a deal with his pregnant ex, a self-centered concert pianist (Mary Astor), to raise the child as hers. Melodrama with elaborate premise and an undercurrent of expressionist hysteria.—RDL

The Rose in Darkness (Fiction, Christianna Brand, 1979) After changing cars with a stranger in a thunderstorm, washed-up actress Sari Morne finds a dead body in the back seat. Brand’s last mystery pits her first detective, Inspector Charlesworth, against a set of annoying 70s-style Bright Young Things. It takes a while for her innate gift of character to penetrate the weird slang and nicknames in their bohemian set, and while Brand retains her firework ability to misdirect and lay down false trails to the end, she can’t quite get me to buy the bit. –KH

Okay

Death in High Heels (Fiction, Christianna Brand, 1941) When an assistant in a high-end dress shop suddenly dies of poison, Inspector Charlesworth sets out to uncover whodunit. Brand based her first novel on her own experience in a high-end dress shop, but what it gains in realism it loses in her desire to jam as much detail as possible between the covers, from as many perspectives as possible, much of which turns out to be not even red herrings but dropped threads. I did enjoy the sergeants’ irritation with Brand’s detective, but I suspect that’s not a great sign either. –KH [CW: A rare insistent anti-gay tone from an author who later and usually represented her gay characters far more sympathetically than her times’ norm.]

Episode 522: Pre-Rex

November 11th, 2022 | Robin

As noted wearers of colorful shirts, we are uniquely qualified to enter a Hawaiian edition of the Gaming Hut. There we respond to the call of beloved Patreon backer Kristian Groenseth, who wants to us to fit Magnum P.I. into Trail of Cthulhu.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks with J-M and Trish deFoggi about projects incluuuuding 13th Age books and their Dark Owl publishing company.

With the remarkably preserved fossil of the nodosaur Borealopelta back in the news, estimable backer Ross Ireland wants to know whether it heralds a resurgence of Yig worship, or a plain old ordinary return of the dinosaurs. Fun With Science is here to help.

And finally Ken’s Time Machine goes to 1675, a year of war in Europe, and we find out which conflict our vaunted chrono-protagonist wishes to intervene in.

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

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.


Godsforge, Atlas Games’ fast-paced game of battling spellcasters, is now on Kickstarter. Grab wizardly first dibs on the new 2nd Edition of Godsforge, and two new expansions, Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses, from November 8 to December 8th.

Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.

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!

Delta Green Iconoclasts, a campaign of horrors modern and ancient, brings a team of Agents to a scene of horrors all too real: Mosul in 2016, held by the self-styled Islamic State in a reign of depraved brutality. From a small base at the Kirkuk airfield, the Agents must research the horrors to come and prepare for a harrowing infiltration. Terrors and new supplementary material await, now in PDF, hardback now in preorder.

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

Episode 521: You Can’t See Atlantis for All the Cheese Curds

November 4th, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes dons his lovingly constructed Benjamin Disraeli costume to ask how to best portray historical figures at the roleplaying table.

The Cinema Hut looks at the flattening of cinematography in the streaming era, asking the question that is on all of your lips. Is Netflix the new Natalie Kalmus?

Finally a Powell’s sales clerk in Portland breathes a sigh of relief as Ken’s Bookshelf shudders with the weight of his most recent acquisition event, undertaken porely for our vicarious enjoyment.

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

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.


Godsforge, Atlas Games’ fast-paced game of battling spellcasters, is now on Kickstarter. Grab wizardly first dibs on the new 2nd Edition of Godsforge, and two new expansions, Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses, from November 8 to December 8th.

Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.

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!

Delta Green Iconoclasts, a campaign of horrors modern and ancient, brings a team of Agents to a scene of horrors all too real: Mosul in 2016, held by the self-styled Islamic State in a reign of depraved brutality. From a small base at the Kirkuk airfield, the Agents must research the horrors to come and prepare for a harrowing infiltration. Terrors and new supplementary material await, now in PDF, hardback now in preorder.

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

Film Cannister
Cartoon Rocket
d8
Flying Clock
Robin
Film Cannister