Ken and Robin Consume Media: Somebody Just Wanted the Heck Outta Dubrovnik

May 21st, 2019 | 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

Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos (Nonfiction, Priyamvada Natarajan, 2016) Astrophysicist surveys the discoveries that upended the field, from the heliocentric solar system to the expanding universe, black holes, dark matter, universal acceleration and beyond. Illuminates not only these key concepts, but the changes in the structures of institutions of science that determine the speed with which new understandings are dismissed or adopted.—RDL

Men in War (Film, US, Anthony Mann, 1957) Weary lieutenant (Robert Ryan) attempting to get his dwindling platoon back to base commandeers the Jeep a brutally savvy sergeant (Aldo Ray) is using to drive his catatonic Colonel. Spare, fatalistic war drama shares a hardboiled spirit with Mann’s westerns.—RDL

The Rider (Film, US, Chloe Zhao, 2017) A severe head injury leaves a young Lakota rodeo rider (Brady Jandreau) wondering if he can continue in the sport he defines himself around. Gorgeously shot, perfectly modulated slice-of-life drama features a cast of community members as versions of themselves.—RDL

Viva (Film, US, Anna Biller, 2007) Frustrated housewife seeks (Biller) sexual adventure after her husband storms out on her, leading to encounters with a succession of skeevy lotharios.  Satirical feminist script-flipping of early 70s sexploitation flicks commits utterly to its stylistic pastiche, from zowie color palette to lovingly sly set decoration to period-specific stilted line delivery.—RDL

Good

Castle Skull (Fiction, John Dickson Carr, 1931) Detective Henri Bencolin arrives at Castle Skull, where actor Myron Allison has been burned alive. Early Carr attempts something like a “cozy Gothic” and unsurprisingly hits the rocks between the two subgenres. Flashes of brilliance and grue foreshadow Carr’s genius, though. –KH

Heaven’s Gate Director’s Cut (Film, US, Michael Cimino, 1980/2012) As wealthy cattle magnates in 1890s Wyoming organize death squads to wipe out recent immigrants, a town sheriff with patrician roots (Kris Kristofferson) and a rustler-killing ranch foreman (Christopher Walken) vie for the independence-minded brothel proprietor (Isabelle Huppert) who loves them both. In its restored, director-approved form, the film whose commercial failure killed the American New Wave registers as neither bomb nor masterpiece, but a grandiose and almost oppressively beautiful visual work bogged down by its inability to compress any scene.—RDL

Okay

Arrow (Television, US, CW, Beth Schwartz, 2018-2019) A stint in prison for Oliver and flashes of Star City’s grim future provide the backdrop for a new challenge to the Queen legacy from a copycat archer. Arrow’s core formula, with its time-jumping structure and tortured hero is tougher to reiterate than most, as this effort to throw new genres into the mix demonstrates.—RDL

The Mischief Makers (Fiction, William Haggard, 1982) The Security Executive calls in retired Colonel Russell to consult on a load of Algerian weapons and a brewing race riot. Haggard gets his head back around the plot, and one or two characters show the old flash, but the author is tired and lets his politics drive story once or four times too often. –KH

Ire-Inspiring

Game of Thrones Season 8 (Television, US, HBO, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, 2019) The Daenerys/Northern Alliance decides the fate of Westeros in final battles against the Night King and Cersei. The question posed by the final season was whether the show would disappoint by sticking to its original revisionist ethos, or by turning suddenly aspirational. Gobsmackingly, it to splits the difference and does both! Misconceived ideas, ill executed.—RDL