Archive for the ‘Audio Free’ Category
RVIFF Reviews: Coffee Shop Time Recursions, Steamy Intrigue, and Profundity from a Balcony
September 11th, 2023 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
For the second 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.
The Balcony Movie [Poland, Pawel Lozinski, 2021, 4] Over the course of a year, a documentarian conducts interviews with passersby from his apartment balcony, coaxing them to reveal their lives and worldviews. Simple premise yields a rich portrait of humanity.
Naturally a film about people walking along a sidewalk also features many excellent dogs.
Broker [South Korea, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2022, 4] An unlikely temporary family forms when a dry cleaner (Kang Song-ho) and his accomplice (Gang Dong-won) attempt to sell a young woman’s (Ji-eun Lee) baby, with a tough minded cop (Boona Dae) on their trail. Koreeda’s deft touch with emotion illuminates material that in lesser hands would easily slop over into manipulative sentimentality.
Stars at Noon [France, Claire Denis, 2022, 4] Trapped and on the skids in COVID-era Nicaragua, a flailing journalist (Margaret Qualley) involves herself with a British businessman (Joe Alwyn) who turns out to be in worse trouble than she is. Denis reconfigures the international intrigue genre to her moody, elliptical style, with a sexual frankness no American director would dare attempt. Qualley burns the screen with a nervy, livewire portrayal of a woman in distress in a world without rescuers.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes [Japan, Junta Yamaguchi, 2020, 4] A coffee shop owner and his pals look for ways to capitalize on the fact that TV monitors in the cafe and his apartment upstairs are connected on a two minute time delay. Fun, fast-moving micro-budget time travel comedy shot on a phone in a single take.
Making of shots alongside the credits roll include a shot of the whiteboard where the filmmakers diagram the story’s many time recursions.
Due to moderate demand, the RVIFF shirts I made for the two of us are available in the Ken and Robin merch store.
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.
RVIFF Reviews: A Girl with Uncanny Powers, Sonic-Culinary Experimenters & Javier Bardem Schemes and Squirms
September 10th, 2023 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
For the second 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.
The Kings of the World [Colombia, Laura Mora Ortega, 2022, 4] Receiving notice that he has won legal title to a small restituted property, a Medellin street kid sets out with his buddies on a dangerous journey into the rural highlands. An immersive quest as unnerving as it is visually poetic, in a style that traces its descent from Terence Malick.
The Five Devils [France, Léa Mysius, 2022, 4] Uncanny powers awaken in an observant 8 year old (Sally Dramé) when the release of her father’s sister (Swala Emati) from psychiatric confinement upsets her beloved mom (Adèle Exarchopoulos.) Creates an absorbing union of opposites by presenting Stephen King-esque subject matter in an assured French art cinema style.
This might have scored a higher profile among fans of horror-adjacent or fantastic cinema if the North American marketing campaign had remotely hinted at its actual content.
By the Grace of God [France, François Ozon, 2019, 4] When they discover years after their childhood abuse that the priest responsible is still in contact with children, a group of men in Lyon launch what becomes a multi-pronged process to seek justice and reform of the Catholic church. Ozon adopts a matter-of-fact docudrama style that embraces the literal and emotional complexities of an infuriating and all too familiar real story, here with the victims at its center.
The Good Boss [Spain, Fernando León de Aranoa, 2021, 4] Paternalistic factory owner (Javier Bardem) over-involves himself in the lives of his employees. Bardem alternately schemes and squirms in this droll, progressively acidic workplace satire.
Flux Gourmet [UK, Peter Strickland, 2022] Internal tensions come to a head for a sonic-culinary performance art group when they accept a residency at a strange institute run by a demanding benefactor (Gwendoline Christie.) Surreal, horror-inflected black comedy of digestive anxiety might be Strickland’s most fully developed look at the destructive power of art.
Due to moderate demand, the RVIFF shirts I made for the two of us are available in the Ken and Robin merch store.
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.
RVIFF Reviews: Film About Film, Yakuza Vengeance, and Plenty of Soju
September 9th, 2023 | Robin
A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature
For the second 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.
Hal [US, Amy Scott, 2018, 4] Documentary profiles Hal Ashby, the combative, instinct-driven director of seminal American New Wave films including Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Coming Home and Shampoo. Moving portrait of an uncompromising artist who fought the system when it was weak enough to sometimes lose.
I Like Movies [Canada, Chandler Levack, 2022, 4] High school senior and aspiring filmmaker who masks his mental health issues with insufferable arrogance gets a shot of reality when he takes a job at a video store. Observational dramedy regards its protagonist with a rueful sympathy that cuts through the usual phony nostalgia of the coming-of-age genre.
The Novelist’s Film [South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022, 4] A day of mostly chance encounters with past acquaintances leads an acclaimed novelist (Lee Hye-yeong) to try her hand at filmmaking. A strong entry in the prolific director’s career-long exploration of social awkwardness, metatextuality, and the revelatory permission granted by alcohol—in this case, makgeolli.
Alcarràs [Spain, Carla Simón, 2022, 4] Family of peach farmers face an uncertain future when their orchard, which they own only by an old verbal contract, is slated for replacement by a solar panel installation. Naturalistic ensemble drama portrays the 21st century version of the agrarian struggle, with a truthful look at familial conflicts.
Return to Seoul [France, Davy Chou, 2022, 5] Young French woman (Park Ji-min) initiates years of inner turmoil when, during an unexpected trip to Korea she ambivalently seeks her birth parents. Incisive writing and emotion-packed visuals brought into stunning focus by a searing, lucid performance from Park. And it’s her first movie role!
Outrage Coda [Japan, Takeshi Kitano, 2017, 4] A murder committed by a dimwitted mid-level yakuza on Jeju Island Korea brings the dangerous gangster Otomo (Beat Takeshi) back to Japan to unleash a final eruption of violent reprisal. After the nihilistic contempt of the first two installments, Kitano lets some of the elegiac wryness of his earlier crime films creep back into the trilogy’s conclusion.
Arab Blues [France/Tunisia, Manele Labidi, 2019, 4] Parisian psychoanalyst (Golshifteh Farahani) moves back to her childhood home in Tunis to open a practice, finding surprising demand for treatment and resistance from family and a handsome but rule-bound police officer. Comic drama takes on the clash between secular and Islamist worldviews with the subversive weapon of charm.
Due to moderate demand, the RVIFF shirts I made for the two of us are available in the Ken and Robin merch store.
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.
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Barbie, Renfield, and More Noir City
September 5th, 2023 | 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
Barbie (Film, US, Greta Gerwig, 2023) Weird feelings prompt Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) to journey to the troubling real world, where tagalong Ken (Ryan Gosling) learns about the patriarchy and resolves to bring it back to the innocent Eden that is Barbie Land. Surreal essay film with jokes and musical numbers uses women’s ambivalence toward the iconic doll as a synecdoche for their ambivalence toward gender expectations. Ironically given the theme, the juiciest, most layered part goes to Gosling, who makes a full feast out of it—RDL
Blood on the Moon (Film, US, Robert Wise, 1948) Drifter Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) rides into a conflict between rancher John Lufton (Tom Tully) and homesteaders backed by his friend Tate (Robert Preston) but uncovers chicanery, while finding love in Lufton’s daughter Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes). Wise keeps an atmosphere of uncertainty and menace brewing throughout the film, even as the plot takes its own sweet time getting to the final gunfight. Mitchum is, of course, magnificent, as is homesteader Walter Brennan. –KH
Chicago Deadline (Film, US, Lewis Allen, 1949) Reporter Ed Adams (Alan Ladd) discovers a dead beauty (Donna Reed) and becomes obsessed with tracking her history, uncovering unsavory secrets along the way. Crackling dialogue, ample Chicago shooting locations, and another strong weasel turn from Berry Kroeger as a gangster make this film a delight, though never a Laura. —KH
Dark Archives: a Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin (Nonfiction, Megan Rosenbloom, 2020) In her role as a member of the Anthropodermic Book Project, the author visits special collections throughout the US and Europe gathering samples for the DNA test that separates authenticity from legend for books reputed to be bound in tanned human remains. Contrary to horror tropes, the most prolific makers of these troubling artifacts turn out not to be blasphemous occultists, but 19th century men of science, And obviously a fictionalized ABP is your next group of player characters.—RDL
Fanny: The Right to Rock (Film, Canada, Bobbi Jo Hart, 2021) Now in their sixties, the core members of Fanny, a hard-rocking early 70s band with an all-woman, Filipina, queer roster that broke barriers without ever quite breaking through, reunite to record a new album. Arts profile documentary loves and celebrates its subjects as they look ruefully at the past and hopefully to the future.—RDL
Larceny (Film, US, George Sherman, 1948) Con men Rick (John Payne) and Silky (Dan Duryea) plan to grift a war widow (Joan Caulfield) out of the money for a no-fooling teen center and war memorial but Silky’s girl (Shelley Winters) has her own angle. A beautiful con and two beautiful dames plus Dan Duryea at his oiliest and most menacing keep John Payne hopping on the edge of disaster throughout, propelling the film zippily through a smorgasbord of wonderful character moments. –KH
Young and Innocent (Film, US, Alfred Hitchcock, 1937) Straight-laced police inspector’s daughter (Nova Pilbeam) breaks all the rules to help a handsome young man (Derrick de Marney) prove it wasn’t him who murdered an older actress. This early example of Hitchock’s favorite innocent fugitive formula features such quintessentially English obstacles as people posing as members of other social classes and the need to extricate oneself from an awkward social obligation.—RDL
Good
Moonrise (Film, US, Frank Borzage, 1948) Tormented by his father’s hanging for murder, borderline Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) both lashes out and flees within himself in a performance that tries to entirely internalize the noir transgression-and-pursuit (and doesn’t entirely land). Gail Russell is luminous as the girl who almost involuntarily sees the wounded boy inside, but Borzage indulges his silent-film instincts for big drama at the final expense of tension and tone. –KH
Renfield (Film, US, Chris McKay, 2023) Seeking to break his codependent relationship with his master (Nicolas Cage) Dracula’s longtime familiar (Nicholas Hoult) teams up with an incorruptible New Orleans cop (Awkwafina) bent on taking down the crime family that killed her dad. Juicy performances and a gleefully over-the-top vibe almost rescue a script that fails to find its footing after rushing the setup and generally appears to have come out the worse for wear from the development process.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Noir City 2023 and an Aubrey Plaza Double Bill
August 29th, 2023 | 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
Call Northside 777 (Film, US, Henry Hathaway, 1948) Crusading reporter P.J. McNeal (Jimmy Stewart) re-investigates the case of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte), convicted cop killer. Propulsive true-crime thriller full of real-life Chicago locations ignites thanks to Stewart’s patented slow-burning outrage. Not actually noir, but shot like one by Joseph MacDonald. –KH
Emily the Criminal (Film, US, John Patton Ford, 2022) Beleaguered food service worker (Aubrey Plaza) accesses her repressed dark side after she becomes a runner for a credit fraud gang. Socially aware, character-driven crime drama with Plaza’s intense, layered performance as its centerpiece.—RDL
Force of Evil (Film, US, Abraham Polonsky, 1948) Numbers-racket lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) sticks his neck out for his small-time brother Leo (Thomas Gomez) as the mob and big business forcibly consolidate the numbers rackets in New York City. A superb noir in which the transgression is (selfish) brotherly love against a soulless capitalist system, it manages both a crime-insider and romantic tone without breaking stride. –KH
He Walked By Night (Film, US, Alfred L. Werker, 1948) Electronics nut Roy Morgan (Richard Basehart) graduates from burglary to murder and armed robbery in L.A. while staying one step ahead of the cops (Roy Roberts and Scott Brady). Basehart’s feral charm and John Alton’s noir lensing keeps you watching this (actual) proto-Dragnet as the twists and turns of the case accelerate. When an uncredited Anthony Mann shot the climactic storm-sewer chase, I bet he thought “This is going to be the best noir sewer chase filmed in 1948.” Based on the real-life case of Erwin “Death Ray” Walker and featuring the dawn of the Identikit. –KH
The Last Duel (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 2021) The events surrounding a rape accusation resolved through trial by combat in late 14th century France are retold from the varying perspectives of the impetuous, self-concerned husband (Matt Damon), the sleazy, well-connected perpetrator (Adam Driver) and the outraged, determined victim (Jodie Comer.) Historical drama varies the Rashomon structure by depicting revealing but relatively subtle differences in understanding between the focus characters.—RDL
Unfaithfully Yours (Film, US, Preston Sturges, 1948) Convinced of his wife’s (Linda Darnell) adultery, conductor Sir Alfred de Carter (Rex Harrison) plans her murder. A weird but very funny slapstick domestic comedy perhaps best understood as a parody of noir, its high point is musical director Alfred Newman’s synchronization of the diegetic classical score (both thematically and rhythmically) with de Carter’s fantastic thoughts of revenge, and the return of those scores as farce in the final act. –KH
The Velvet Touch (Film, US, John Gage, 1948) Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) murders her grasping producer Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) and watches her unhappy rival Marian (Claire Trevor) take the fall. As great as the murder triangle is, the real highlight of this Broadway noir is Sydney Greenstreet as a proto-Columbo (and the least New York NYPD cop in history). Leo Rosten’s script often achieves proper wit and bite, disguising a fairly straightforward story. –KH
Good
Burst City (Film, Japan, Gakuryū Ishii, 1982) In the proto-apocalyptic outer slums of Tokyo, rival punk bands do battle as yakuza press quasi-mutants into forced labor on a construction project. Frenetic, assaultive extreme cinema piece documents the vibe of the original Japanese punk scene.—RDL
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Film, Guy Ritchie, 2023) Ultra-competent operative (Jason Statham) trades barbs with his luxury-loving handler (Cary Elwes) and glamorous techie (Aubrey Plaza) as they pursue a high-tech macguffin about to be sold off by a roguish arms dealer (Hugh Grant.) Sleek, breezy celebration of its performers’ charisma.—RDL
Road House (Film, US, Jean Negulesco, 1948) Spoiled sociopath Jefty (Richard Widmark at his Widmarkiest) hires new flame Lily (Ida Lupino) to sing at his nightclub/bowling alley, to the consternation of his friend and enabler Pete (Cornel Wilde). The architecturally insane road house set is a visual gift that keeps on giving, Celeste Holm is charmingly snappish as good girl Susie, and Ida Lupino lovers should definitely bounce this up to Recommended. –KH
Incomplete
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Film, US, Joaquim Dos Santos & Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) reunites with Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and discovers that he’s been left out of the interdimensional spider-hero league as a dread mythic development barrels his way. On one hand, features many engagingly animated spider persons; on the other, is 15% longer than Citizen Kane and consists entirely of set-up for another movie, without even the courtesy of a decent cliffhanger.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Star Trek, Yellowjackets, and Ma Dong Seok Slapping Yet More Dudes
August 22nd, 2023 | 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
Accident Man (Film, UK, Jesse V. Johnson, 2018) Cold-hearted hitman (Scott Adkins) traces the death of his pregnant ex to his own colorful assassination gang. Skillfully choreographed and staged martial arts flick takes its time to establish its characters and their relationships.—RDL
The Round Up (South Korea, Sang-yong Lee, 2022) Burly police lieutenant Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong Seok aka Don Lee) is back, this time on the trail of an expat kidnapper who has been killing his fellow Korean nationals in Vietnam. Like many sequels, this leans into self-aware comedy, but does so without sacrificing smart police procedural plotting and the crunching ass-beatings we’ve signed on for.—RDL
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 (Television, US, Paramount+, Akiva Goldsman & Henry Alonso Myers, 2023) The shadows of wars past and future hang over Pike and the Enterprise crew as they continue their interstellar exploration mission. Though thrown off-balance by three comic change-of-pace episodes in a ten episode season, the show keeps its focus on procedural problem-solving and navigates clear of a sophomore slump.—RDL
Yellowjackets Season 1 (Television, US, Showtime, Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson & Jonathan Lisco, 2021-2022) A blackmail scheme and a likely murder provoke unwanted recollections for a group of women (Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress) who as members of a high school soccer team were stranded after a plane crash and did some terrible things. It’s a testament to our era of siloed culture that this tense, funny double ensemble piece, which is popular and much-talked about, could so clearly establish itself as folk horror from episode one yet gain comparatively little mindshare among genre nerds.—RDL
Good
Anonymous Club (Film, Australia, Danny Cohen, 2019) Impressionistic documentary depicts singer songwriter Courtney Barnett as she struggles with self-doubt and depression on the road and at home. You’ll learn more about the subject from her songs than in this diffuse portrayal, but it does portray the outwardly uninteresting life of a prolific artist and closes on a profound bit at the end.—RDL
Okay
Extraction 2 (Film, US, Sam Hargrave, 2023) Not actually dead after the first film, self-loathing commando Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) returns to bust his sister-in-law (Tinatin Dalikashvili) out of a Georgian prison. Golshifteh Farahani has a little bit more to do this time out as Rake’s handler, and the pseudo-single-take prison break is almost too lavishly violent, but the rest of the film grinds into messy predictability, losing the tension and tang that made the first one mostly kind of work. –KH
Titles Announced for Second Annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival
August 17th, 2023 | Robin
The 2nd annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival announces its 2023 line-up.
You may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about.
Two years ago at the end of the Toronto International Film Festival Valerie and I decided that distribution for foreign, art house and cult titles had reached a stage where we could have a better experience watching titles programmed at home. For a more detailed explanation of our switch from the rigors of an official fest to the affordable, stress-free homemade one, see last year’s announcement.
Once again I have selected from streaming subscription platforms and video on demand titles to assemble a list resembling the TIFFs of yore, hopefully with fewer duds and definitely with easier bathroom breaks and more pauses for naps.
I have favored newer titles wherever possible, in some case reaching back a few years to catch a film we missed from a TIFF fave auteur, or to fill in a particular category, like the doc about movies that ideally starts any fest.
This year I have reached way back into the old modus operandi of our once-favorite fest to program an Open Vault title—a restored and rediscovered film, in this case an American indie from 1961.
France really pulled ahead in the rankings this year, thanks in part to double headers from Claire Denis and François Ozon. I have programmed more films from Japan and South Korea than TIFF would in any given year, because now I am the boss.
Some of you may want to play along at home. Unbelievably, two of you ordered the shirts last year!
As you read the descriptive blurbs below, remember that I haven’t yet seen any of these films and am paraphrasing the promo text. Last year in a couple of cases I discovered that I had badly garbed some of the taglines. I’ve probably done it again; use at your own risk.
Availability will vary by territory; check your local version of JustWatch to see what might be playing on a service near you. I’m in Canada and have chosen titles from Crave, Criterion, Kanopy, Mubi, Prime, and Netflix. I’ll be renting from Amazon, Google, and Apple.
We’ll be mimicking the dates for TIFF, hitting the play button on Thursday, September 7th and wrapping up on Sunday September 20th.
As a sensible person, you may want to wait until I see them and review them before deciding which of them to check out. I’ll be posting capsule reviews and then collecting them in order of preference when RVIFF is done. I’ll also talk about the highlights on the podcast with Ken, focusing on the geek-forward items.
Hal [US, Amy Scott, 2018] Documentary profile of director Hal Ashby.
I Like Movies [Canada, Chandler Levack, 2022] Insufferable teen nurtures his filmmaking dreams.
The Novelist’s Film [South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022] After being brushed off by an auteur director, a novelist decides to make a film.
Alcarràs [Spain, Carla Simón, 2022] A loving, chaotic family of peach farmers faces eviction.
Return to Seoul [France, Davy Chou, 2022] A French woman travels to Korea seeking her birth parents.
Outrage Coda [Japan, Takeshi Kitano, 2017] Gangster rivalries foment deadpan carnage.
Arab Blues [France/Tunisia, Manele Labidi, 2019] A therapist returns to her ancestral Tunisia and acquires a new clientele.
The Kings of the World [Colombia, Laura Mora Ortega, 2022] Medellin street kids undertake a journey.
The Five Devils [France, Léa Mysius, 2022] A bullied kid reveals uncanny powers when the release of her aunt from a psychiatric facility upsets her beloved mom.
By the Grace of God [France, François Ozon, 2019] Three men confront the priest who abused them as children, and the system that covered it up.
The Good Boss [Spain, Fernando León de Aranoa, 2021] Workplace satire with Javier Bardem.
Flux Gourmet [UK, Peter Strickland, 2022] Horror descends on a culinary institute.
The Balcony Movie [Poland, Pawel Lozinski, 2021] Documentary about people who come by the director’s window to chat.
Broker [South Korea, Hirokazu Koreeda, 2022] A baby theft spirals out of control. With Song Kang-Ho.
Stars at Noon [France, Claire Denis, 2022] Desperate love intertwines with political intrigue in Nicaragua. With Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes [Japan, Junta Yamaguchi, 2020] Cafe owner discovers that his television broadcasts from two minutes in the future.
The Real Thing [Japan, Kôji Fukada, 2020] Epic misadventures ensue when a hapless toy salesman rescues a young woman whose car has stalled on railroad tracks.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline [US, Daniel Goldhaber, 2023] Ecoterrorists take on the oil industry.
Hatching [Finland, Hanna Bergholm, 2022] A young girl discovers a mysterious egg.
Girlfriends and Girlfriends [Spain, Zaida Carmona, 2022] Lesbian couples form and rearrange themselves.
You Won’t Be Alone [Australia/UK/Serbia, Goran Stolevski, 2022] An ancient witch possesses a girl in order to understand humanity. With Noomi Rapace.
Swan Song [US, Todd Stephens, 2021] Former hairdresser (Udo Kier) departs his care facility for one last mission.
Tori and Lokita [France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 2022] A pair of African kids roams Belgium alone.
Once Upon a Time In Ukraine [Ukraine, Roman Perfilyev, 2020] A serf and a samurai team up in a mythic reimagining of 19th Ukrainian history.
The Exiles [US, Kent Mackenzie, 1961] A native American family gets by in Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill neighborhood.
Master Gardener [US, Paul Schrader, 2022] A lone man is torn between redemption and violence. With Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver.
Cairo Conspiracy [Sweden/France/Finland/Denmark, Tarik Saleh, 2022] An Egyptian student is drawn into political intrigue when his student advisor, an influential imam, dies.
Piggy [Spain, Carlota Pereda, 2022] Fat girl conceals what she’s seen when the classmates who torment her are taken by a serial killer.
Bliss [Germany, Henrika Kull, 2021] Brothel workers fall in love.
Both Sides of the Blade [France, Claire Denis, 2022] Love triangle drama with Juliet Binoche, Vincent Lindon, and Grégoire Colin.
The Eternal Daughter [UK, Joanna Hogg, 2022] Filmmaker (Tilda Swinton) takes her mother (Tilda Swinton) to an inn hoping her recollections of the place will trigger material for a screenplay.
Thunivu [India, H. Vinoth, 2023] Heisters planning a bank job discover that another mastermind has designs on the same target.
Hit the Road [Iran, Panah Panahi, 2021] Chaotic family goes on road trip.
The Artifice Girl [US, Franklin Ritch, 2022] Chatbot designed to lure sexual predators gets ideas of its own.
Mascarade [France, Nicolas Bedos, 2022] Injured dancer falls for a woman who lives by the scam.
Project Wolf Hunting [South Korea, Hongsun Kim, 2022] Inmates take control of a prison ship only to discover another much worse presence lurks within.
The Gasoline Thieves [Mexico, Edgar Nito, 2019] Young man is drawn into a gas theft ring.
The Braves [France, Anaïs Volpé, 2021] Two actresses live a ride-or-die friendship.
The Crime Is Mine [France, François Ozon, 2023] Homage to 40s film noir with Isabelle Huppert.
Marry My Dead Body [Taiwan, Wei-Hao Cheng, 2023] Detective saddled with a ghost husband enlists him in her current case.
Inspector Ike [US, Graham Mason, 2020] Murder mystery spoof about an understudy who knocks off the lead to get the part, and the dogged detective who pursues the case.
Leonor Will Never Die [Philippines, Martika Ramirez Escobar, 2022] Comatose screenwriter must write her way back to consciousness.
Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday [UK, George Kirby & Harry Kirby, 2022] Guilt-ridden hit man (Scott Adkins) reluctantly takes up the gun again.
Monster Seafood Wars [Japan, Minoru Kawasaki, 2020] Kaiju arise from seafood market.
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Burt Lancaster on the Lam, A Vampire Invite, and Ma Dong-Seok Slapping Down Punks
August 15th, 2023 | 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
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (Film, US, Norman Foster, 1948) Merchant marine deserter on the lam for a bar fight killing (Burt Lancaster) strikes up an unlikely connection with straight-laced nursing assistant (Joan Fontaine.) Lean film noir of rage and its price evokes its London setting with elaborate, expressionistic sets built on a Hollywood backlot.—RDL
The Outlaws (Film, South Korea, Yunsung Kang, 2017) Rule-smudging but dedicated big bruiser cop (Ma Dong Seok aka Don Lee) marshals his bulk and brains to take down a destabilizing gang of ax-happy Chinese Korean gangsters intent on muscling out established rivals. The ideal Ma Dong Seok vehicle builds the audience toward a situation where they can revel in seeing him thoroughly demolish a smaller but oh so deserving opponent, and this, the beginning of a series, does that and wraps it in a gripping police pursuit thriller.—RDL
Good
The Invitation (Film, US, Jessica M. Thompson, 2022) Revealed by a chance DNA test to be the scion of the wealthy Alexander family, Evie Jackson (Nathalie Emmanuel) accepts an invitation to a wedding at the mansion of the Alexanders’ patron, Walter DeVille (Thomas Doherty). Pleasant key change from fairy tale to gothic horror never terrifies, but Emmanuel remains engaging throughout. –KH
Mad Fate (Film, HK, Soi Cheang, 2023) After a brush with a serial killer brings them together, an unstable fortune teller (Ka-Tung Lam) attempts to divert a young man with homicidal ideation (Lok Man Yeung) from his destiny as a murderer. Unsettling juxtaposition of giallo-tinged psychological horror and underdog buddy drama establishes an eccentric orbit around its philosophical ideas.—RDL
Okay
Third Finger, Left Hand (Film, US, Robert Z. Leonard, 1940) Smalltown painter (Melvyn Douglas) struck by vexing love for a self-sufficient magazine editor (Myrna Loy) gets back at her by introducing himself to her family as the husband she invented to protect her career. Light on actual jokes, this screwball comedy coasts on the charm of its stars.—RDL
Viking Wolf (Film, Norway, Stig Svendsen, 2022) Transplanted cop Liv (Liv Mjönes) and her sullen teen daughter Thale (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne) get tangled in a werewolf murder case. Nothing in this draggy, slack film brings anything much to the werewolf film mythos or canon despite a vague nod to the devil and also DNA or something. Norway is pretty, though. –KH
Not Recommended
Heart of Stone (Film, US, Tom Harper, 2023) Embedded within MI6 as a mild-mannered hacker, superspy Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) finds black hat hacker Keya (Alia Bhatt) plotting to bring down Stone’s true patrons, the goo-goo multinational Charter. When I cannot in good conscience recommend a Greg Rucka-written spy flick pitting Gal Gadot against Alia Bhatt, you know it must be derivative, talky, over-CGI’d mush indeed. It even squanders a dirigible! –KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Secret Invasion
August 8th, 2023 | 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
Oppenheimer (Film, US, Christopher Nolan, 2023) Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) runs the atomic bomb program and makes enemies, including rising politico Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.). A double murderers’ row of actors superbly convey Nolan’s theme that human beings are their own chain reaction, as we follow two storylines focused on Oppenheimer and Strauss, intercut like a cooled-down version of JFK. Jennifer Lame’s precision edits and Ludwig Göransson’s modernist score are the absolute standouts in a nearly flawless film. —KH
Recommended
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (Nonfiction, Ben McKenzie with Jacob Silverman, 2023) His acting career sidelined by the pandemic, TV’s Lt. Jim Gordon teams up with a seasoned journalist to investigate their strong hunch that something that walks like a Ponzi and quacks like a Ponzi is in fact history’s biggest Ponzi. McKenzie deploys his storytelling chops to wrap deliberately opaque financial details in a procedural investigation structure. For the first time I understand blockchain, up until the point where it’s not supposed to make sense.—RDL
Mixed by Erry (Film, Italy, Sydney Sibilia, 2023) Aided by his business-minded brother and his violence-ready brother, a meek would-be DJ builds his mixtape fandom into a music piracy empire that eclipses Italy’s legit record business. Layers sprightly light observational comedy onto the Scorsesean rise-and-fall crime docudrama structure.—RDL
Good
Barbie (Film, US, Greta Gerwig, 2023) Mysterious angst grips Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), sending her out of Barbieland and into the real world. Alternately didactic and too on-the-nose, the dialogue kneecaps this ostensible comedy, stopping it dead more than once. Madly brilliant design, generally excellent cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto, and flashes of serene absurdism show what could have gone right, and Ryan Gosling once again shows his great comedic strengths, making more than the best of his role as Beach Ken. —KH
The Black Phone (Film, US, Scott Derrickson, 2022) Kidnapped middle schooler (Mason Thames) receives aid from his psychic sister and the ghosts of previous victims in his attempt to escape the basement of a masked serial killer (Ethan Hawke.) Muted 70s colors, creepy mask design and Hawke’s layered freak characterization stand out in a piece pitched to a scare level your non-horror fan friends and family can withstand.—RDL
Not Recommended
Flaxy Martin (Film, US, Richard L. Bare, 1949) When his double-crossing singer girlfriend (Virginia Mayo) is suspected of murder, a self-righteous mob attorney (Zachary Scott) confesses, thinking he can beat the rap. Great noir cast brings intensity to a thoroughly ridiculous script.—RDL
Secret Invasion (Television, US, Disney+, Ali Selim, 2023) Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to Earth to battle a terrorist insurrection led by a skrull ex-protege (Kingsley Ben-Adir.) Dour, dispiriting slog through a long-foreshadowed plotline devalues our sympathy for Fury and emphasizes the jarring disjunctions that spring from attempts to overlay MCU continuity onto real world geopolitics.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Classic Logo Design, Avant Garde Color Guard, and Noir Rarities
July 25th, 2023 | 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
By Design: The Joe Caroff Story (Film, US, Mark Cerutti, 2022) Arts profile documentary sits down the legendary graphic designer responsible for the West Side Story poster, the 007 logo and the Last Temptation of Christ title treatment among many others to learn the thought processes behind their creation.—RDL
Contemporary Color (Film, US, Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross, 2016) Ten high school color guard squads stage an arena performance with the music stars, including St. Vincent, Ad Rock, Nelly Furtado, and organizer David Byrne, who have composed songs for them. Vibrant documentary paean to the affirming joys of joint creative work under pressure.—RDL
Cry of the City (Film, US, Robert Siodmak, 1948) Wounded cop killer Martin Rome (Richard Conte) attempts to evade detective Candella (Victor Mature) and venal lawyer Niles (Berry Kroeger) to escape with (some) loot and his girl. Taut script provides magnificent character beats for not just ultra-weasel Kroeger but Shelley Winters, Kathleen Howard, and the wonderfully menacing Hope Emerson. A best-of-breed Siodmak B noir. –KH
Good
Kingdom (Film, Japan, 2019) Brash slave intent on rising to fame as a general (Kento Yamazaki) aids the deposed Qin king (Ryô Yoshizawa) as he allies with a hill barbarian army to reclaim his throne. Sometimes on-the-nose but ultimately rousing Warring States epic with a mythic manga sensibility. To clear up or intensify any confusion, yes, it depicts Chinese history but features a Japanese cast speaking Japanese.—RDL
Pitch Black (Film, US, David Twohy, 2000) The determined pilot (Radha Mitchell) of a crashed spaceship reluctantly teams with a prison-bound murderer (Vin Diesel) to protect passengers from the planet’s darkness-dwelling apex predators. Solid exercise in SF problem-solving held back by clumsily executed or insufficiently examined elements.—RDL
Raw Deal (Film, US, Anthony Mann, 1948) Escaped heister Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe) and his partner Pat (Claire Trevor) kidnap Joe-besotted paralegal Ann (Marsha Hunt) to get past the dragnet. John Alton’s paradigmatic noir cinematography, and wonderfully monstrous villain Raymond Burr, are the real standouts in a pulp wallow where Mann visibly (but sporadically) finds his feet as a director of cruelty and fate. –KH
What Have You Done To Solange? (Film, Italy/Germany, Massimo Dallamano, 1972) Philandering teacher Enrico (Fabio Testi) finds himself embroiled as a serial killer murders girls at his school. Exploitative and misogynistic even by giallo standards, it nonetheless features strong mystery plotting and pacing, an ominous Morricone score, and confident if not brilliant camera work. To clear up or intensify any confusion, yes, it depicts an English school but features an Italian cast speaking dubbed English. –KH
