Ken and Robin Consume Media: Cagney, Gable, and Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy
March 17th, 2026 | 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
Barlowe’s Guide to Fantasy (Nonfiction, Wayne Barlowe and Neil Duskis, 1996) On the same pattern as Barlowe’s earlier Guide to Extraterrestrials, this even more idiosyncratic collection of fantastic heroes and beings covers the ground from griffins (looking nicely ceratopsian) and Grendel to Corum and the Nissifer. Barlowe’s art pops even in the more boring beings, and for illos like the gug and William Hope Hodgson’s swine-thing captures a quality that even their authors might have missed.—KH
Good
Hard to Handle (Film, US, Mervyn LeRoy, 1933) Fast talking promoter (James Cagney) pursues success to impress the gal (Mary Brian) who likes him best when he’s down. Diverting light satire gets extra kick from Ruth Donnelly’s comic turn as Brian’s cash-conscious mother.—RDL
The King and Four Queens (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1956) Raffish adventurer (Clark Gable) inflames suppressed passions at a remote ranch where a rifle-toting matriarch (Jo van Fleet) guards a cache of gold dust and the smoldering wives of her four criminal sons, at least three of whom are dead. Wry hangout Western vibrates with fifties-style sexual repression.—RDL
Okay
Ella McCay (Film, US, James L. Brooks, 2025) Chaos generated by her grasping husband (Jack Lowden) and forgiveness-seeking philandering dad (Woody Harrelson) threaten the surprise ascendance of a charmingly charmless policy wonk (Emma Mackey) to the governor’s mansion. Brooks’ idealism and love for his characters get out of hand in an unfocused, stale-dated look at Obama-era problems.—RDL
