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Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Shadow Strays, Rumours, and Neorealist Folk Horror

October 22nd, 2024 | 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.

Ken was on the road this week.

Recommended

Il Demonio (Film, Italy, Brunello Rondi, 1963) In rural southern Italy, an unbalanced young woman (Dalia Lavi) outrages her village by casting a spell on the burly farmer (Frank Wolff) she yearns for, triggering an exorcism attempt. Neorealist horror casts an ethnographic eye on rites and workings ranging from the religious, to folk-religious to forbidden witchcraft.—RDL

I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition (Nonfiction, Lucy Sante, 2024) Acclaimed nonfiction writer recounts the circumstances of her recent, late-in-life embrace of her trans identity and a previous life spent resolutely suppressing it. A personal narrative of punishing internal confusion told with admirable clarity.—RDL

Rumours (Film, Canada, Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson,, 2024) At a G7 summit to discuss an unspecified world crisis, leaders including the amorous German chancellor (Cate Blanchett) and dreamy, melancholy Canadian PM (Roy Dupuis) find themselves suddenly isolated and beset by self-pleasuring bog corpses and a giant brain. SF/fantasy satire, surreal by the standard of any other filmmaker but a swerve toward normal for Maddin, plants a flag as the defining political film of the Biden era.—RDL

The Shadow Strays (Film, Indonesia, Timo Tjahjanto, 2024) While recuperating on a mission for a ruthless league of assassins, a highly trained teen killer (Aurora Ribero) takes it upon herself to protect a neighbor kid trying to save his mom from a perverse drug gang. Unremitting ultra-hard actioner is Tjahjanto’s best film, and the best Indonesian martial arts film since The Raid.—RDL

Good

Bird Box (Film, US, Susanne Bier, 2019) Pregnant, standoffish painter (Sandra Bullock) struggles to survive when an invasion of spectral, suicide-causing entities collapses civilization. Somber post-apocalyptic horror crosses motifs from A Quiet Place and The Crazies, leaning on Bullock’s built-in audience rapport to maintain sympathy for a hardened, withholding protagonist.—RDL

The Fifth Cord (Film, Italy, Luigi Bazzoni, 1971) Volatile drunk journalist (Franco Nero) investigates a bewildering series of thrill killer attacks and murders, all of them somehow connected to him. Compellingly composed giallo, shot by Vittorio Storaro and scored by Ennio Morricone, challenges our  sympathy for the protagonist, but leaves that thematic thread dangling.—RDL

Vampire Circus (Film, UK, Robert Young, 1972) Fifteen years after staking their local vampire count (Robert Tayman), villagers react with passive bafflement to a visit from a weird circus. Entry from Hammer’s sexy era favors images and atmosphere over story logic.—RDL

Okay

The Adventurers (Film, China, Stephen Fung, 2017) Pursued by a dogged police inspector (Jean Reno) and aided by a charming infiltrator (Shu Qi) and wet-behind-the-ears techie (Yo Yang), an international jewel thief (Andy Lau) pursues one last job in hopes of smoking out the betrayer who sent him to prison. Glossy, generic big-budget heist flick. Not to be confused with 1995’s The Adventurers starring Andy Lau.—RDL

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