September « 2024 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for September, 2024

Episode 618: The Big Dipper is Weird

September 27th, 2024 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we look at the changes Ken did and didn’t make in character creation for Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition.

The Cinema Hut highlight’s Robin’s fantasy, horror and SF discoveries from the 3rd Annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else we chat with Taylor Navarro, designer of self-published games Chefs de Partie and Not Yet: A Romantic Duet and freelancer extraordinaire.

Finally the assignment for Ken’s Time Machine is to get Czech democratic politician Jan Masaryk out of the country before his 1948 murder.

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.

The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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Tags: Cinema hut, Gaming hut, Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken's Time Machine

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Substance, Dali’s Tarot, Evil, and The Twelve

September 24th, 2024 | 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.

Dalí. Tarot. (Tarot, Salvador Dalí, 1984; Nonfiction, Johannes Feibig, 2019) An oversized deck packed in a velveteen slipcase with a full guide to each card in the accompanying guidebook, this is a Tarot for showing off first and using second or never. Fortunately, Dali’s interpretations of the cards (generally involving collages from bits of older paintings) are worth showing off: the best images truly unlock something personal in the archetype, and even the laziest ones (Dali was forced to finish the deck by a lawsuit) show a playful irony absent from most decks (and from the po-faced guidebook). The book tries its best to source the collages and talk Jungian bafflegab, which is really all you want from it, and the whole production almost justifies its hefty pricetag.—KH

Evil Season 1 (Television, US, CBS, Robert and Michelle King, 2019) Forensic psychologist with four young girls and a badass dark side (Katja Herbers) teams with empathetic, psilocybin-ingesting priest in training (Mike Colter) and sardonic techie (Aasif Mandvi) to evaluate potential possession cases for New York’s Catholic diocese. Brings exorcism horror to the occult investigation procedural with puckish humor and a cunningly interwoven case-of-the-week and continuity elements.—RDL

Ponniyin Selvan Part 2 (Film, India, Mani Ratnam, 2023) Swashbuckling princeling (Vikram) races to stop a complex conspiracy to assassinate the Chola emperor and his warrior sons. Though a couple of its many plot threads could have been more neatly tied off, the conclusion of this stunning-looking action adventure historical epic thoroughly blockbusts all the same.—RDL

The Substance (Film, France/UK, Coralie Fargeat, 2024) When her crass producer (Dennis Quaid) decides to replace her, a celebrity fitness instructor (Demi Moore) undergoes a weird science treatment that horribly replicates a younger counterpart (Margaret Qualley.) High focus photography and moist sound design fuse into a tactile filmgoing experience in a gleefully unsubtle Kubrickian body horror satire portraying beauty standards as a social force prompting women to make war on themselves.—RDL

The Twelve: The Complete Series (Comics, J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Weston, 2008-2012) Twelve random third-tier superheroes succumb to a Nazi suspended-animation booby trap in 1945 Berlin only to wake up in 2008 as curiosities. Straczynski tries with some success to get inside the head of the Twelve and their diverse responses to their condition, while plotting a good old-fashioned superhero mystery story around their group. Weston’s clean, unfussy art perfectly complements JMS’ post-Watchmen narrative.—KH

Good

Dangerous Crossing (Film, US, Joseph M. Newman, 1953) When a woman’s (Jeanne Crain) new husband goes suddenly missing after their embarkation on a transatlantic honeymoon cruise, the ship’s doctor (Michael Rennie) doesn’t entirely buy his colleagues’ assumption that she is delusional or pulling a scam. Shipbound psychological film noir rooted more than most in 50s sexual politics, based on a John Dickson Carr story.—RDL

The Princess Warrior (Film, Mongolia, S. Baasanjargal & Shuudertsetseg Baatarsuren, 2021) Determined Mongol princess Khutulun (Tsedoo Munkhbat) defies patriarchal expectations to recover the Golden Sutras, symbols of her family’s legitimacy, from the treacherous forces of the Yuan Empire. Ambitious martial arts historical epic from an emerging national cinema, with ninjas. Aka Princess Khutulun.—RDL

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Episode 617: Live at Gen Con

September 20th, 2024 | Robin

Recorded live in a seminar room in the good Marriott at Gen Con, Ken and Robin talk the secret US-UK intergalactic financial war, chicken roasting secrets, our Indianapolis drinks of choice, a 1966 UFO incident and how to real-life investigate the real-life cult in your real-life hometown.

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.

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Tags: Eliptony Hut, Food Hut, Gaming hut, Live from GenCon, Nerdtropes

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: More from Noir City Chicago and an Artisanal Counterfeiter

September 18th, 2024 | 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

Le Trou (Film, France, Jacques Becker, 1960) New cellmate Claude (Marc Michel) falls in with a quartet of prisoners with a plan to escape La Santé Prison. From Hawksian hangout to real-time tension, this absolute masterpiece draws the viewer into the prison world and the escape plan of competent, experienced Roland (real-life prison breaker Roland Barbat, playing himself with DeNiro-esque power). Becker’s eye for detail pays off in gritty realism that also triumphs as archetypal drama.—KH

A Gun For Sale (Fiction, Graham Greene, 1936) Hairlipped hit man Raven kills a Czech cabinet minister, bringing Europe to the brink of war—but his only concern is that his employer stiffed him with hot banknotes. Far more cruel (in every dimension) than the (also-Recommended) 1942 film adaptation, this shows Greene’s contempt for all of British society more clearly than most of his work. But his mastery of plot and tension keep the “entertainment” going despite your suspicion that the girl and the detective on Raven’s trail barely exist even to themselves. [CW: Not-very-veiled antisemitism.]—KH

Inferno (Film, US, Roy Ward Baker, 1953) Dodgy prospector Duncan (William Lundergan) and millionaire’s wife Geraldine (Rhonda Fleming) leave millionaire Donald Carson (Robert Ryan) to die in the Nevada desert, but Carson doesn’t cooperate. Insanely overperforming B-picture blends gripping survival drama with daylight color noir, punctuated by actually good use of 3-D establishing the vast depths and dangerous cliffsides of the desert landscape.—KH

The Last Counterfeiter: The Story of Fake Money, Real Art, and Forging the Impossible $100 Bill (Nonfiction, Jason Kersten, 2009/2024) Family ties bring strength and downfall for Art Williams Jr., a scion of Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood who with painstaking craftsmanship devises a way to fake the supposedly uncrackable 1996 US New Note. Grippingly told true crime yarn of hubris and temptation, with the Secret Service in the role of avenging deity.—RDL

Good

Black Tuesday (Film, US, Hugo Fregonese, 1954) Gang boss “King” Canelli (Edward G. Robinson) breaks out of Death Row, bringing along fellow inmate Manning (Peter Graves) to get his hidden loot. It’s great fun to watch Robinson sneer and brutalize, and the procedural elements tick along nicely, but the film stifles somewhat in its police standoff third act.—KH

Okay

Man in the Dark (Film, US, Lew Landers, 1953) Payroll robber Steve Rawley (Edmond O’Brien) is paroled to a surgeon who removes his criminal tendencies, along with his memory of where he hid the loot. When his old gang breaks him out of the hospital, that last bit becomes a problem. Columbia “won” the race to exhibit a 3-D feature with this amiable clunker, featuring lots of scalpels and cigars and spiders and why not a rollercoaster zooming into the audience’s faces, and very little in the way of cleverness or production value.—KH

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Capsule Review Roundup for the 2024 Robin and Valerie International Film Festival

September 17th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

The 3^rd Annual Robin and Valerie film festival has come to an end, as all virtual self-customized film festivals must. Here is my full capsule review round-up of all 45 titles we watched from the well-organized comfort of our couch on a variety of streaming platforms. Check your local version of JustWatch to see which of these are available in your region and on what platform. The Open Vault pick, the recent restoration of 1952’s Never Open That Door, is on BluRay from Flicker Alley but not yet on streaming.

Titles appear in order of preference but with most of them receiving a Recommended rating there’s not really much difference between them. I’d probably list them in a different order a month from now.

The Pinnacle

Are You Lonesome Tonight? (China, Shipei Wen, 2021) After running a man over, a redemption-seeking air conditioner repairman (Eddie Peng) contrives to meet his widow (Sylvia Chang), making a startling discovery about the case. Neo-noir thriller with an almost tangible feeling for the characters’ hot, humid environment and a bag full of narrative surprises.

The Promised Land (Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2023) Stubbornly determined veteran 18th century officer (Mads Mikkelsen) vies for a noble title by promising to successfully cultivate the Jutland heath, gathering misfit allies and enraging a sniveling, murderous rival landowner (Simon Bennebjerg.) Thematically a western, but also in its emotional performances, narrative sweep, and depiction of landscape as divine antagonist, a drink from the well of David Lean.

La Chimera (Italy, Alice Rohrwacher, 2023) Washed-out archaeologist with dowsing powers (Josh O’Connor) returns from prison to his old stomping grounds to reunite with his lost love’s mother (Isabella Rossellini) and his merry band of artifact looters. Beguiling, mythically resonant hangout movie.

The Blue Caftan (Morocco, Maryam Touzani, 2023) For the sake of his steely, ill wife (Lubna Azabal), a maker of exquisite handmade garments (Saleh Bakri) suppresses his attraction for his handsome new apprentice (Ayoub Missioui.) Sad, life-affirming drama painstakingly assembled from small, true moments.

Saint Omer (France, Alice Diop, 2022,4) Author (Kayije Kagame) covering the infanticide trial of a Senegalese philosophy student (Guslagie Malanda) finds uncomfortable resonances with her own life. Observational courtroom drama about the mystery of motivation uses its reporter character not as a narrative device but as a source of emotional connection.

Scarlet (France, Pietro Marcello, 2022) Girl grows from infant to young adult (Juliette Jouan) in an interwar French village whose churlish residents treat her talented woodworker father (Raphaël Thiéry) as an outcast. Lyrical, novelistic drama shows the difference between sincerity and sentimentality.

Subtraction (Iran, Mani Haghighi, 2022) Tehran couple (Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh) discovers that they have exact duplicates, also married to one another. Realist tale of the uncanny offers a brilliantly fresh take on the doppelgänger motif, with culture-specific complications enhancing the suspense.

Love Life (Japan, Koji Fukada, 2022) A woman and her new husband’s grief over the death of her six year old son is complicated by the reappearance of her now homeless ex. Surprising turns give breadth to this moving, emotionally complex naturalistic drama.

Monster (Japan, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2023) A fifth grader’s odd behavior leads a determined mom (Sakura Andô) to accuse his teacher (Eita Nagayama) of verbal and physical abuse, but multiple perspectives reveal a different story. Puzzle drama expresses a deep empathy.

Tiger Stripes (Indonesia, Amanda Nell Eu, 2023) Hassled at school for being a little bit high-spirited, a girl who is the first in her cohort to get her period begins to turn into a tjindaku, the local version of the weretiger. Transforms from a naturalistic feminist coming of age drama into witty teen body horror.

Before, Now & Then (Indonesia, Kamila Andini, 2022) Wife (Happy Salma) of a wealthy philanderer (Arswendy Bening Swara) strives to keep up appearances as her previous life, shattered by war, reasserts itself. Sinuous, compellingly acted drama parallels repressed domestic truths with the forgetting of the Suharto regime’s 65-66 mass killings.

Walk Up (South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022) Abrupt time jumps between scenes set in the same building reveal the shifting relationships between a successful, neurotic filmmaker, his daughter, a couple of girlfriends, and a neglected admirer. Formally disorienting, satirical character piece unnervingly suggests that people can change, but only to find new ways to disappoint, or be disappointed by, others.

The Souvenir Part II (UK, Joanna Hogg, 2021) Film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) turns her grief over her ex-boyfriend’s suicide into her graduate project. Autobiographical drama captures the uncertainty of young adulthood and gaining one’s footing in a creative career with Hogg’s knack for finding evanescent magic in everyday moments.

The Beast (France, Bertrand Bonello, 2023,4) To qualify for a job in an eerily serene AI future, a woman (Léa Seydoux) is sent back into past lives in 1910 and 2014 to purify her past traumas, both involving her relationships with a man (George MacKay.) Reality-shifting dystopian amour fou movie inspired by a Henry James novella.

The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany, İlker Çatak, 2023) Suspecting that a colleague is behind a series of petty thefts, a high school math teacher (Leonie Benesch) sets a trap, plunging the institution into chaos. Edited and scored like a thriller, wicked but played absolutely straight, this nerve-wracking bureaucratic morality tale incisively examines what happens when de-escalation is never an option.

Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 (India, Mani Ratnam, 2022) Flirtatious prince of a defunct kingdom (Vikram) acts as messenger to protect the Chola empire’s royal family from threats both external and internal, including the stratagems of a wily queen (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.) Massively mounted historical adventure epic with swashbuckling, scheming, costumes, battle sequences on land and sea and well-integrated musical numbers.

Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) Hired to lift a curse afflicting a rich family, a team led by a mercenary geomancer (Choi Min-Sik) and a blunt shaman (Kim Go-eun) removes their grandfather’s coffin from his inauspicious grave, digging up more than they expected. Investigative folk horror flick packed with scares, curveballs, and fun character moments.

Never Open That Door (Argentina, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952) Rich family’s dutiful scion tries to protect his sister, a compulsive gambler, from a blackmailer; a blind woman who has longed for the return of her prodigal son discovers that he is a murderous armed robber bent on performing another job. In this diptych of Cornell Woolrich adaptations, the first is a stylish exercise in simple irony and the longer second part is truly brilliant, with a nail-biting extended sequence of suspenseful pure cinema.

Mami Wata (Nigeria, C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023) The adopted daughter (Evelyne Ily Juhen) of an untouched village’s intermediary to the sea goddess struggles to protect it from the encroach of corrupt modernity. Impassioned allegorical drama shot in a striking digital black and white that transforms the actor’s patterned costumes into stark graphic elements.

Holy Spider (Denmark, Ali Abassi, 2022) Risk-taking reporter defies authorities in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad as she tracks a serial killer preying on women in the sex trade. Gritty crime procedural where the social and political context throws additional obstacles into the manhunt and its aftermath.

Peter von Kant (France, François Ozon, 2022) In a typical act of romantic self-destruction, 70s filmmaker Peter von Kant (Denis Ménochet) courts a handsome young man with a tragic past (Khalil Ben Gharbia) by promising to make him a star. Billed as a remake of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, to which it bears the sole resemblance of being set in an apartment, this is actually a rueful and funny highly theatrical chamber biopic of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Isabelle Adjani plays Hanna Schygulla and Hanna Schygulla plays Fassbinder’s mother, who at one point has an impassioned speech defending Isabelle Adjani as Hanna Schygulla.

Amanda (Italy, Carolina Cavalli, 2022) Back in the family manor after an unsuccessful sojourn in Paris, an abrasive slacker (Benedetta Porcaroli) campaigns to reconnect with her alleged childhood bestie (Galatéa Bellugi), now a recluse. Offbeat comedy revives the deadpan stream of 90s indie cinema from a woman’s point of view.

The Beasts (Spain, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022) In rural Galicia, a dispute between an educated French couple (Marina Foïs, Denis Ménochet) who have moved to the area to start second careers as small-scale organic farmers and poor neighbors who want them to sell out to wind farm developers turns increasingly dangerous. Tense social drama of uncompromising people in an uncompromising landscape.

Fallen Leaves (Finland, Aki Kaurismaki, 2023) Alcoholic factory worker and glum grocery cashier encounter grim obstacles on the road to love. Melancholy deadpan (but I said Aki Kaurismaki already) rom com counterpointed by news reports of Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Afire (Germany, Christian Petzold, 2023) As doom looms in the background, a writer staying at a summer house to flail at his sophomore novel (Thomas Schubert) lets his insecurities get the better of him, especially around an unexpected fellow guest (Paula Beer.) Rohmeresque dramedy of emotional self-sabotage in the shadow of disaster.

The Sparring Partner (Hong Kong, Ho Cheuk-Tin, 2022) A psychopathic loser (Yeung Wai Leung) and his questionably functionable roommate (Mak Pui Tung) go on trial for his parents, gruesome murders. Told in fragmented chronology and with quasi-surreal visual devices, this true crime docudrama probes the impossibility of reliably knowing the facts of a case or the motivations of its participants.

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Romania, Radu Jude, 2023) Exhausted PA (Ilinca Manolache) fights brutal Bucharest traffic working on a worker safety video for a performatively concerned foreign manufacturer. Satirical portrait of a nation working itself with to death underpinned by such formal interventions as the heroine’s scabrous bro culture parody TikToks, extended drop-ins from an earlier, Ceaușescu-era film, and a run time that feels like an extra overtime shift.

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (Chile, Francisca Alegría, 2023) Controlling doctor (Leonor Varela) takes her kids back to the family dairy farm after her father suffers a health episode triggered by an encounter with her mother (Mia Maestro), whose suicide occurred decades ago. Eco-themed family drama places well-drawn characters in a magic realist situation.

Cliff Walkers (China, Zhang Yimou, 2021) Communist commandos paratroop into occupied Harbin to perform a mission, unaware that they’ve been betrayed to the puppet government’s secret police. Snowy period espionage action-thriller where nearly every character is engaged in at least a double game.

The Sales Girl (Mongolia, Janchivdorj Sengedorj, 2021) When she subs for a classmate as a sex shop clerk, an unassuming physics student (Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg) bonds with the owner (Oidovjamts Enkhtuul), a former ballet star with lessons to impart on lust, life and loss. Straight from Ulaanbaatar, it’s a quirky, embracing indie comedy-drama with touches of Aki Kaurismaki deadpan.

The Breaking Ice (China, Anthony Chen, 2023) Visiting snowy Yanji for a wedding, a depressed finance worker (Liu Haoran) bonds with two other twenty-somethings, a walled-off tour guide (Zhou Dongyu) and the directionless restaurant employee (Qu Chuxiao) who shares his attraction to her. The love triangle becomes a minor chord and opportunities for cheap melodrama are set aside in a lovely, melancholy drama of connection and reawakening.

The Innocent (France, Louis Garrel, 2022) Shut-down aquarium docent (Louis Garrel) keeps his guard up when his actress mother (Anouk Grinberg) marries yet another ex-con. Smartly written, character-driven suspense comedy alludes to Hitchcock and De Palma.

Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (Japan, Yugo Sakamoto, 2023) Adorably flaky teen girl killers (Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa) get suspended from the Assassins Guild and are targeted by wannabes. This upgrade from the original boasts funnier off-kilter comedy, better fights and a more consistent tone.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Canada, Ariane Louis-Seize, 2024) In a world where vampires live secretly among humans in family units and have their own dentists and psychologists, reluctant bloodsucker Sasha (Sara Montpetit) finds a willing victim in depressed, put-upon high schooler Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard.) Droll horror rom com with nods to quintessential touchstones of Quebecois culture.

Dry Ground Burning (Brazil, Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, 2023) In a Ceilândia favela a gasoline trafficker, her half-sister and all-female gang fend off a police crackdown. Epic-length slice of life drama with non-professional uses diagetic music sequences to widen the characters’ emotional expression.

Shin Ultraman (Japan, Shinji Higuchi & Ikki Todoroki, 2022) A specialist team of government kaiju-fighters grapples with geopolitical repercussions when a giant alien humanoid arrives on Earth to battle the terrifying creatures. Applies a satiric edge to the venerable franchise while still delivering the tokusatsu goods.

The Hole in the Fence (Mexico, Joaquin del Paso, 2021) At survival camp, leaders of a religious order teach young adolescent boys the essential quality they’ll need as sons of the ruling elite—cruelty. Brutal allegorical drama argues that things go Lord of the Flies not when adults are absent, but when they’re present and calling the shots.

The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (UK, William Nunez, 2023) Documentary chronicles the production of the notoriously laughable, Howard Hughes-instigated 1956 Genghis Khan biopic, shot downwind from Nevada a-bomb tests many link to the cancer deaths of stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorhead, Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell. Grounds a real life story with a central metaphor too on-the-nose for fiction by also focusing on the huge number of non-celebrity fallout exposure victims.

Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman (China, Bingjia Yang, 2022) Gruff bounty hunter Blind Cheng steps outside the rules to pursue the well-connected criminal who ordered a wedding massacre. Beautifully photographed, straightahead period martial arts flick.

Mars One (Brazil, Gabriel Martins, 2023) Working class mom (Rejane Faria) and dad (Carlos Francisco) take it hard when their college student daughter (Camilla Damião) announces plans to move in with her girlfriend and their younger son (Cícero Lucas) dreams of setting aside his football talents for a career in space science. Affirming, socially conscious family drama.

Lumberjack the Monster (Japan, Takashi Miike, 2023) Murderous lawyer (Kazuya Kamenashi) tries to figure out why a masked serial killer attacked him, as an obsessive profiler (Nanao) hunts them both. Thriller novel adaptation pays off after getting the complicated plot out of the way, with Miike in his relatively normal mainstream mode.

Good

Cobweb (South Korea, Kim Jee-woon, 2024.5) Convinced they will turn his latest project into a masterpiece and overturn his reputation as a perennial second-rater, an obsessive director (Song Kang-ho) connives his way to an unauthorized reshoot hidden from 70s censors. Broad soundstage satire offers a jaundiced take on creative ambition and is presumably funnier if you really know the Korean film industry.

Okay

Venicephrenia (Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2022) A group of partying Spaniards are targeted by murderous anti-tourism conspiracy in Venice. Topical neo-giallo with script structure issues that prevent de la Iglesia from sustaining his usual momentum.

Unidentified Objects (US, Juan Felipe Zuleta, 2023) Needing cash, an aggrieved gay Little Person agrees to accompany an uninhibited UFO abductee on a road trip to her alien rendezvous point. Attacks its American indie movie stock elements with energy and great seriousness.

Tags: RVIFF

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RVIFF Day 11: French Suspense-Comedy, a Swashbuckling Indian Epic, and Revisionist Ultraman

September 16th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

For the last day of RVIFF I try to program fun things that could still play a film fest, two criteria that can be hard to nail sight unseen.Ideally with kaiju at the end. Let’s see how I did.

The Innocent (France, Louis Garrel, 2022, 4) Shut-down aquarium docent (Louis Garrel) keeps his guard up when his actress mother (Anouk Grinberg) marries yet another ex-con. Smartly written, character-driven suspense comedy alludes to Hitchcock and De Palma.

Unidentified Objects (US, Juan Felipe Zuleta, 2023, 3) Needing cash, an aggrieved gay Little Person agrees to accompany an uninhibited UFO abductee on a road trip to her alien rendezvous point. Attacks its American indie movie stock elements with energy and great seriousness.

Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 (India, Mani Ratnam, 2022, 4) Flirtatious prince of a defunct kingdom (Vikram) acts as messenger to protect the Chola empire’s royal family from threats both external and internal, including the stratagems of a wily queen (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.) Massively mounted historical adventure epic with swashbuckling, scheming, costumes, battle sequences on land and sea and well-integrated musical numbers.

Shin Ultraman (Japan, Shinji Higuchi & Ikki Todoroki, 2022, 4) A specialist team of government kaiju-fighters grapples with geopolitical repercussions when a giant alien humanoid arrives on Earth to battle the terrifying creatures. Applies a satiric edge to the venerable franchise while still delivering the tokusatsu goods.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.

If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

Tags: RVIFF

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RVIFF Day 10: Tehran Dopplegangers, Hanging Out With Looters, and a Classroom Mystery

September 15th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

Dry Ground Burning (Brazil, Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta, 2023, 4) In a Ceilândia favela a gasoline trafficker, her half-sister and all-female gang fend off a police crackdown. Epic-length slice of life drama with non-professional uses diagetic music sequences to widen the characters’ emotional expression.

Subtraction (Iran, Mani Haghighi, 2022, 4) Tehran couple (Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh) discovers that they have exact duplicates, also married to one another. Realist tale of the uncanny offers a brilliantly fresh take on the doppelgänger motif, with culture-specific complications enhancing the suspense.

Monster (Japan, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2023, 4) A fifth grader’s odd behavior leads a determined mom (Sakura Andô) to accuse his teacher (Eita Nagayama) of verbal and physical abuse, but multiple perspectives reveal a different story. Puzzle drama expresses a deep empathy.

Dedicated to the memory of its composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto.

La Chimera (Italy, Alice Rohrwacher, 2023, 5) Washed-out archaeologist with dowsing powers (Josh O’Connor) returns from prison to his old stomping grounds to reunite with his lost love’s mother (Isabella Rossellini) and his merry band of artifact looters. Beguiling, mythically resonant hangout movie.

Tags: RVIFF

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RVIFF Day 9: Dreams of Mars, Neo-Giallo in Venice, and a Writer Messing Everything Up

September 14th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

Mars One (Brazil, Gabriel Martins, 2023, 4) Working class mom (Rejane Faria) and dad (Carlos Francisco) take it hard when their college student daughter (Camilla Damião) announces plans to move in with her girlfriend and their younger son (Cícero Lucas) dreams of setting aside his football talents for a career in space science. Affirming, socially conscious family drama.

The Quiet Girl (Ireland, Colm Bairéad, 2022, 4) A young girl, neglected in her own chaotic household, thrives when sent to live for a summer at her mom’s cousin’s dairy farm. Idyllic character drama builds to an intensely poetic conclusion.

Subtitled, because it is in the two great Irish acting languages, Gaelic and mumbling.

Venicephrenia (Spain, Álex de la Iglesia, 2022, 3) A group of partying Spaniards are targeted by murderous anti-tourism conspiracy in Venice. Topical neo-giallo with script structure issues that prevent de la Iglesia from sustaining his usual momentum.

Tags: RVIFF

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RVIFF Day 8: Moving Moroccan Drama, Galician Neighbor Trouble, and the Tilda Swinton Refraction Zone

September 13th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

The Blue Caftan (Morocco, Maryam Touzani, 2023, 5) For the sake of his steely, ill wife (Lubna Azabal), a maker of exquisite handmade garments (Saleh Bakri) suppresses his attraction for his handsome new apprentice (Ayoub Missioui.) Sad, life-affirming drama painstakingly assembled from small, true moments.

Films with confusingly similar names are a staple of a TIFF slate. I didn’t set out to replicate that by scheduling The Beast yesterday and The Beasts today but I am awarding myself bonus points for it nonetheless.

Tilda Swinton again appears as the protagonist’s mother; Lydia Fox plays a character based on Swinton.

When our heroes go on a date to a rep cinema they watch and enjoy The Dead Don’t Die, by kindred spirit Jim Jarmusch.

Tags: RVIFF

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Episode 616: They Got to Construin’ Verbs

September 13th, 2024 | Robin

This week the Gaming Hut populates the town of Locust Grove Oklahoma with gamemaster characters for a Trail of Cthulhu game.

Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Bates convenes the History Hut for the story behind Kentucky’s very specific, dare we say duel shy, oath of office.

Completing our three-part Horror Hut miniseries on reality horror, estimable backer Greg tasks us to devise an alternate scare figure to replace the King in Yellow.

And finally the Eliptony Hut looks into Alaska’s phantom city hoax.

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.

Archive for September, 2024

Episode 618: The Big Dipper is Weird

Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Substance, Dali’s Tarot, Evil, and The Twelve

Recommended

Good

Episode 617: Live at Gen Con

Ken and Robin Consume Media: More from Noir City Chicago and an Artisanal Counterfeiter

The Pinnacle

Recommended

Good

Okay

Capsule Review Roundup for the 2024 Robin and Valerie International Film Festival

The Pinnacle

Recommended

Good

Okay

RVIFF Day 11: French Suspense-Comedy, a Swashbuckling Indian Epic, and Revisionist Ultraman

RVIFF Day 10: Tehran Dopplegangers, Hanging Out With Looters, and a Classroom Mystery

RVIFF Day 9: Dreams of Mars, Neo-Giallo in Venice, and a Writer Messing Everything Up

RVIFF Day 8: Moving Moroccan Drama, Galician Neighbor Trouble, and the Tilda Swinton Refraction Zone

Episode 616: They Got to Construin’ Verbs

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