Ken and Robin Consume Media: 28 Years Later, Captain America, and the Occult Detective Who Went Mundane
July 9th, 2025 | 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
28 Years Later (Film, US/UK, Danny Boyle, 2025) 28 years after the rage virus depopulated Britain, a 12-year-old boy (Alfie Williams) sets out with his ailing mother (Jodie Comer) from their increasingly medieval home on Holy Island in search of a cure for her. Remarkably beautiful film pits a mythic English remnant against brutish monsters, hitting notes of legend amidst the horror. The score by Young Fathers drives the action, along with brilliant edits by Jon Harris.—KH
The Devil’s Envoys (Film, France, Marcel Carné, 1942) Immortal troubadours with infernal powers (Alain Cuny, Arletty) arrive at a castle in 1485 to torment residents with their seductive wiles on behalf of their master, the Devil (Jules Berry). Fantasy of courtly love drapes a captivating fairy tale atmosphere over a fatalistic view of romantic obsession.—RDL
Dream Scenario (Film, US, Kristoffer Borgli, 2023) Self-centered nebbish biology prof (Nicolas Cage) goes viral when he inexplicably begins to appear in peoples’ dreams. The queasy specter of Charlie Kaufman hangs over this dark comic fable about the hubris of the small.—RDL
Now Beacon, Now Sea (Nonfiction, Christopher Sorrentinno, 2021) Novelist examines his tortured relationship with his angry, unappeasable, self-isolating mother. Memoir of a life shaped by intractable parents told with rueful rigor.—RDL
The Red Dance (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1928) In the lead up to the Russian Revolution, a stalwart young arch-duke (Charles Farrell) and a political prisoner’s passionate daughter (Dolores del Rio) fall In love. Rollicking historical melodrama with energetic action set pieces.—RDL
Speaking of Murder (Film, France, Gilles Grangier, 1957) Gruff garage owner who runs a robbery crew on the side (Jean Gabin) tries to keep his parolee younger brother (Marcel Bozzufi) away from a gold-digging manicurist (Annie Girardot.) Tough, compact crime drama populated by a deep cast of Gallic mugs.—RDL
A Wounded Fawn (Film, US, Travis Stevens, 2022) Museum curator (Sarah Lind) goes to the remote cabin of her new beau (Josh Ruben) for a romantic weekend, not knowing that he is a serial killer planning her murder, or that a being of mythic vengeance waits in the surrounding woods. Stylized vengeance flick fortified with art historical and mythological references and the rare awareness that the typical real serial killer is a pathetic drip.—RDL.
Good
Every Lucius Leffing Story (Fiction, Joseph Payne Brennan, 1962-1990) Lucius Leffing began as Brennan’s occult detective, and morphed into a more regular detective when the mystery magazines wouldn’t buy ghost stories. The result, a not-entirely-Holmes pastiche on the borders of mystery and weird tales, the nostalgia of the ghost story reinforced by the nostalgia of the Holmesian short in the age of the crime novel. I found myself entranced, yes even by the hokey Lovecraftian convention novella Act of Providence (1979), but I cannot convince myself that everyone (anyone?) will be as susceptible, so I dropped it a grade.—KH
Okay
Captain America: Brave New World (Film, US, Julius Onah, 2025) Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and newly-elected President “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) find themselves at odds as a conspiracy undermines a key treaty. Abandoning not just the political but the narrative coherence of the previous two Cap films proves disastrous for a film already drowning in the new Marvel slurry. One or two good fight scenes and an intermittently game Ford don’t rescue it.—KH
