Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Golden Dawn, Chekhov at Tunguska, and Daffy & Porky
April 28th, 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
Bellflower (Film, US, Evan Glodell, 2011) Shy slacker (Evan Glodell) who with his more outgoing buddy (Tyler Dawson) is building a Mad Max car and homemade flamethrower falls for an outgoing blond (Jessie Wiseman) who warns him she’ll hurt him. Disturbing indie drama with artfully degraded cinematography turns the misfit buddy movie into a spiraling alcoholic nightmare.—RDL
Chekhov’s Journey (Fiction, Ian Watson, 1983) An attempt to hypnotize an actor into narrating the life of Anton Chekhov for a Soviet film on his 1890 journey to Sakhalin goes awry when he starts narrating Chekhov’s journey to the Tunguska blast 18 years before it happened. Watson enjoys his big concept almost as much as he enjoys his version of carping, doubtful Chekhov narration, and the intertwining of both (plus more weirdness as things get going) remain enjoyable to the slightly anticlimactic end.—KH
Ginza Cosmetics (Film, Japan, Mikio Naruse, 1951) Overly generous, middle-aged single mom who works as a hostess in a fading bar (Kinuyo Tanaka) perseveres as prospects for a better life elude her. Drama of beautiful disappointment favors realistic character study over heightened stakes.—RDL
Naked Ambition (Film, US, Dennis Scholl & Kareem Tabsch, 2023) Arts documentary profiles cheesecake photographer Bunny Yeager, who helped define the early Playboy style and took the shots that made Bettie Page iconic. Parallels an argument for Yeager’s importance in photography history with a family story of rise and fall and rise synchronized to changing sexual mores.—RDL
Good
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Film, US, Peter Browngardt, 2024) Taking jobs at a chewing gum factory, adoptive brothers Daffy and Porky (Eric Bauza) stumble into a zombie plan from outer space. A team that deeply loves and understands the source material draws on the 30s Bob Clampett versions of the characters, not quite overcoming the fact that they were built to be enjoyed in seven-minute bursts.—RDL
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Magic Arts and the Occult Revival (Nonfiction, Felix John Taylor, 2026) Taylor attempts to tell the story of the Golden Dawn as artistic movement, mostly sticking to the “greatest hits”: Florence Farr, Yeats, Crowley, Machen, Waite, Dion Fortune (plus welcome sidelights on Pamela Colman Smith and Charles Williams). The trouble is that this is still a “greatest hits” book on the GD, which means that if this is your first such book, it’s Recommended for its narrative thrust, plentiful illustrations, and relative clarity, but if not, it’s a Good effort that leaves you wanting more about the art: not just of Yeats or Machen, but much more on the less-picked-over GDs, e.g., J.W. Brodie-Innes, or Algernon Blackwood, or Isabelle de Steiger, or the Pagets.—KH
