Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ahsoka, Cryptids, R’lyeh, and a Lovecraftian Heather Graham
October 10th, 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
Frogman (Film, US, Anthony Cousins, 2023) After seeing the Loveland, Ohio Frogman as a boy, failed filmmaker Dallas Kyle (Nathan Tymoshuk) returns to the scene to find the cryptid and prove he wasn’t hoaxing. Interesting characters, a great hokey milieu, and a masterful succession of scary reveals combine the chocolate of cryptid movies with the peanut butter of found footage to delicious effect. —KH
Putting the Rabbit in the Hat (Nonfiction, Brian Cox, 2021) The star of Succession and countless film and stage roles looks back with an impolitic eye on his acclaimed acting career and formerly messy personal life. Balances often barbed anecdotes with a fiercely text-based analysis of the acting craft.—RDL
Sojourn (Fiction, Amit Chaudhuri, 2022) Scholar visiting Berlin for a residency experiences dislocation. Short literary novel replicates the feeling of alienated possibility that comes when you step out of your usual context.—RDL
Suitable Flesh (Film, US, Joe Lynch, 2023) A strange obsession with her patient Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) opens psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham) up to horrific body-switching magic. Fast-moving, lurid Stuart Gordon-style adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” continues scripter Dennis Paoli’s (Re-Animator, From Beyond) string of improving (and sexing up) second-tier HPL stories. —KH
This Transient Life (Film, Japan, Akio Jissoji, 1970) Young self-actualized nihilist pursues an affair with his sister, and another with his master’s wife, as he learns to carve Buddhist statuary. Stark, jarring drama pits unbridled carnality against religious discipline.—RDL
Underwater (Film, US, William Eubank, 2020) Capable engineer (Kristen Stewart) pushes through her terror to aid her reassuring captain (Vincent Cassel) in evacuating a drilling installation in the Marianas Trench under assault from unknown creatures. Lean, mean survival horror skips the preliminaries to get right to its Poseidon Adventure meets R’lyeh premise.—RDL
Okay
Ahsoka Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Dave Filoni, 2023) Serenely confident Jedi (Rosario Dawson) reunites with her erstwhile apprentice (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to rescue an old comrade and prevent the return of an ultra-competent foe (Lars Mikkelsen.) Listless, conflict-free dialogue scenes kill any momentum achieved by its action set-pieces as the franchise once again proves that full-on Jedi make lousy protagonists.—RDL
Gods of the Deep (Film, UK, Charlie Steeds, 2023) Miskatonic U. astrobotanist Jim Peters (Derek Nelson) joins a Pickman Corporation-funded submersible expedition to a newly discovered gateway in the Antarctic Ocean floor. Clunky, lazy script, super-cheap production design, and slack direction and editing undercut even the pleasure of puppet Cthulhu vs. Gerry Anderson-style submarine. The actors never give up, though. —KH
