Ken and Robin Consume Media: F1, 28 Years Later, and a Restored Wax Museum
July 15th, 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, UK, Danny Boyle, 2025) Trained too young as a biozombie-hunting warrior by his gung ho dad (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), 12 year old Spike (Alfie Williams) forsakes the safety of his island enclave to find a doctor for his ailing mom (Jodie Comer.) Takes care of its Brexit metaphor obligations early to then take the series and genre in big, unexpected directions.—RDL
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse (Film, US, Molly Bernstein & Philip Dolin, 2025) Arts profile doc shows the shadow Maus has cast over its subject’s life, and how his wife Francoise Mouly transitioned 60s comix into 90s high culture.—RDL
The Bride of Newgate (Fiction, John Dickson Carr, 1950) To secure her inheritance, haughty gentlewoman Caroline Ross marries condemned man Dick Darwent, convicted of murder, the day before his scheduled execution in June 1815. When reprieved by a stroke of luck, Darwent must try to find the real killer while avenging himself on Caroline and her bully-boy. Breathless historical mystery never slows down, action and fight scenes piled on occasional deduction, buoyed by Carr’s top-notch (if slightly obvious) historical research.—KH
The Cassandra Cat (Film, Czechoslovakia, Vojtech Jasný, 1963) A small town panics when a magician’s troupe arrives with a feline who, when his cool sunglasses are removed, literally reveals the true colors of everyone caught in its gaze. Gently barbed whimsical fantasy captures a mood of evanescent magic. AKA When The Cat Comes.—RDL
F1 (Film, US, Joseph Kosinski, 2025) Desperate for a win, Formula 1 team owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) hires long-faded prodigy driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) to partner his rising star Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). Like Formula 1 itself, this sports movie zooms along a familiar track, and the handling makes all the difference. Hans Zimmer’s EDM-infused score and the spectacle of real race cars really racing provide the boost to pro performances from Pitt (whose eye work has never been better), Bardem, and Kerry Condon. It’s nothing special, done very well, which in 2025 is something special.—KH
A Gentleman and a Thief (Nonfiction, Dean Jobb, 2024) Biography of suave, prolific 1920s jewel purloiner Arthur Barry is well-told, well-researched and packed with telling detail to import into your Call or Trail of Cthulhu game.—RDL
Hour of the Gun (Film, US, John Sturges, 1968) When one brother is murdered and the other wounded as a reprisal for the Gunfight at the OK Corral, self-contained marshal Wyatt Earp (James Garner) and his caustic death dealer pal Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) hunt those responsible, commanding cattle rustler Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) included. Laconic, lavishly cast take on the west’s defining vendetta assigns Earp the dramatic poles of law versus vengeance.—RDL
Mystery of the Wax Museum [Restored Version] (Film, US, Michael Curtiz, 1933 [2020]) Fast-talking reporter (Glenda Farrell), chasing a scoop about missing bodies, snoops around a wax museum run by crippled genius Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill). Glorious two-strip Technicolor is the main attraction in this restored pre-Code thriller, but Farrell is terrifically game. Fay Wray belts out a few good screams, too.—KH
Spaceship Earth (Film, US, Matt Wolf, 2020) Documentary profiles the not-quite-a-cult eccentrics who attracted media buzz and controversy with their Biodome 2 enclosed environment project. Look behind the scenes of a category-defying enterprise intrigues despite the reluctance of interview subjects to let their guards down.—RDL
Okay
The Black Windmill (Film, UK, Don Siegel, 1974) Arms smuggler (John Vernon) abducts the son of MI5 officer Tarrant (Michael Caine) to get a stash of diamonds used by MI5 as a slush fund. For the first two thirds of this strangely inert spy thriller, the only thing worth watching is Donald Pleasance’s tic-filled performance as Tarrant’s superior. It lurches back to life when Tarrant starts back on the kidnappers’ trail, but by then it’s too late. How Don Siegel of all people let this happen is a bigger mystery than anything in the film.—KH
