Posts Tagged ‘Ken and Robin Consume Media’
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Star Trek, Thunderbolts*, The Ballad of Wallis Island
September 23rd, 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
Ladies’ Paradise (Film, France, Julien Duvivier, 1930) Pure-hearted girl (Dita Parlo) reluctantly takes a job in the bustling department store putting her uncle’s fabric shop out of business, catching the eye of its ambitious owner (Pierre de Guingand.). Densely visual, with a quick cutting style that will be obliterated by the coming of sound film and not return for half a century, this modernist melodrama appears to take aim at progress but is actually after an older adversary. Based on an Emile Zola novel.—RDL
Marilyn’s Eyes (Film, Italy, Simone Godano, 2021) Sentenced to remedial behavioral therapy at an outpatient clinic, a chef with anger issues (Stefano Accorsi) and a would-be actress / pathological liar (Miriam Leone) contrive to turn its lunchroom into a high-end restaurant. Psychological rom com features plenty of complications and the magnetic performances essential to the genre.—RDL
The Martyred (Film, South Korea, Yu Hyun-mok, 1965) As the South maintains a precarious hold on Pyongyang during the war, an army officer investigates a Northern massacre of Christian pastors to confirm that it suits his superior’s propaganda objectives. Solemn debate drama examines the ethics of fighting despair with deception.—RDL
Good
The Ballad of Wallis Island (Film, UK, James Griffiths, 2025) Exasperated singer-songwriter (Tom Basden) discovers that his lucrative gig on a remote island is for an audience of one, an awkward superfan (Tim Key), who has also invited his ex (Carey Mulligan) to put their band back together. Adapted from a short, this has too little story for a feature, and strives to ingratiate, albeit with appealing characters and performances.—RDL
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 (Television, US, Paramount+, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, 2025) The Enterprise crew battles the Gorn and encounters an ancient evil. Everyone’s favorite starship continues its drift from TOS to TNG as its model, which is a problem for a couple of reasons: 1) the structure is built for a longer per season episode order and 2) the freaking holodeck.—RDL
Not Recommended
Thunderbolts* (Film, US, Jake Schreier, 2025) When her high-handed boss (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) hires other expendable operatives to dispose of her, despondent assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) teams up with them, and Bucky (Sebastian Stan), to keep an amnesiac metahuman (Lewis Pullman) out of her hands. Second and third tier characters battling the personification of clinical depression in the hollowed-out ruins of Avengers HQ supply an inadvertently apt summation of the state of the mega-franchise.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ken Reports from Noir City Chicago
September 17th, 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
Caught Stealing (Film, US, Darren Aronofsky, 2025) Alcoholic washout bartender Hank (Austin Butler) gets dragged into seedy, dangerous crime doings by cat-sitting for his seedy British neighbor (Matt Smith). Plenty of people object to Smith’s blundering, obvious performance but it’s clearly of a piece with Aronofsky’s heightened “animated cartoon but with consequences” sensibility along with the other cartoonish but very dangerous gangsters. Adding real danger to a Guy Ritchie-style crime flick perfectly suits Aronofsky, and gives this film more bite and staying power than its Nineties charm alone would have.—KH
Detour (Film, US, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) Lovesick pianist Al (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with a bad hat (Edmund MacDonald) but gets in even worse trouble when he gives a ride to hellcat Vera (Ann Savage). Poverty Row classic takes its sweet time getting started but once the gears of Fate start grinding Al they just never stop. Ulmer was a master at doing a lot with a little, and he never did more with less than this film.—KH
The Hot Spot (Film, US, Dennis Hopper, 1990) Drifter Harry Madox (Don Johnson) gets caught in small-town Texas between his boss’ predatory wife Dolly (Virginia Madsen) and Gloria (Jennifer Connelly), a good girl with a dark secret. Relentless noir originally scripted in 1962 for Robert Mitchum became Dennis Hopper’s vehicle for over-the-top emotional direction: if sunshine Gothic were a thing this would be that thing. The Jack Nitzsche score, featuring Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, and others, really sells this beautifully rancid film.—KH [Note: For this Noir City KARCM I am reviewing some films I saw last week that I’ve already seen, but that I haven’t covered in these hallowed pixels before. After all, the whole point is to point you beloved readers to good movies.]
The Killing (Film, US, Stanley Kubrick, 1956) Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) leads a crew of five in a perfectly choreographed racetrack holdup. Believe it or not, something goes wrong. Kubrick’s first American feature layers scene onto scene, often repeating the action from a different viewpoint to assemble an almost Cubist view of the caper. Much of the film’s strength, however, comes not from Kubrick but from scriptwriter (and hard-boiled novelist) Jim Thompson; the toxic interplay between husband and wife Elisha Cook Jr and Marie Windsor provide the emotional heat (and faulty decision-making) at the heart of this noir.—KH
Out of the Past (Film, US, Jacques Tourneur, 1947) Gone to ground in a small town, former detective Jeff Markham (Robert Mitchum) gets dragged back into the search for corrupt millionaire Whit’s (Kirk Douglas) missing girl Kathie (Jane Greer). None of the three main actors were over 30, and their energy drives what could have been a convoluted switchback of a story, as Tourneur masterfully layers in suspense beat after suspense beat to ratchet up the tension. An uncredited Frank Fenton provides duelistic dialogue while cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca lights up clouds of pointed cigarette smoke in this ne plus ultra of 1940s noir.—KH
Good
My True Story (Film, US, Mickey Rooney, 1951) Paroled thief Ann Martin (Helen Walker) gets enmeshed in another long con masterminded by her old boss Trent (Wilton Graff), to steal precious oil of myrrh from a perfumier’s widow. Walker’s constant code-switching from hood to flirt to respectable lady is the best thing in the movie, Graff’s oily “budget George Sanders” performance is the second-best. Once you get over the notion of a myrrh heist, the movie plays out predictably though seldom without interest.—KH
Tension (Film, US, John Berry, 1949) Cuckolded, bespectacled pharmacist Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) takes on a second, glasses-free identity so he can kill the lover of his wife Claire (Audrey Totter) but gets caught in a squeeze play. Totter and Basehart between them keep this one popping almost up to Recommended, although it’s almost too straightforward a plot to live up to the high concept. Cyd Charisse isn’t quite wasted as the girl next door, but when Richard Basehart (even without glasses) is the interesting half of a couple things need some kind of adjustment.—KH
The Woman in the Window (Film, US, Fritz Lang, 1944) Psychology professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) meets the even-more-beguiling subject (Joan Bennett) of a beguiling painting while his wife is out of town, and that’s when the nightmare begins. With a superb cat-and-mouse tension ratchet driving it along with real guilt and terror, plus Dan Duryea in an early (but still slimy) role, this could have been one of the greatest noirs ever. But the ending just ruins it all, sadly.—KH
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Caught Stealing, The Studio, More Anthony Boucher Mysteries
September 2nd, 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.
The Pinnacle
The Studio Season 1 (Television, US, Apple+, Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen, 2025) Newly fledged film studio head (Rogen) suffers a series of escalating humiliations triggered by his insecurities and need to be liked by the directors and stars who depend on him for a greenlight and then want him out of their way. Cringe comedy turbocharged into uproarious farce by a killer supporting cast (Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O’Hara, Chase Sui Wonders), unusually committed cameos by industry stalwarts playing themselves, and stunningly choreographed extended single takes.—RDL
Recommended
Blanche Fury (Film, UK, Marc Allégret, 1948) Seeking a stable position in life, a disregarded woman (Valerie Hobson) signs on as governess at her rich cousin’s estate, where she is drawn to the brooding foreman (Stewart Granger) who claims to be its rightful heir. Noirish Victorian gothic shot in febrile Technicolor.—RDL
The Booksellers (Film, US, D. W. Young, 2019) Documentary snapshot of the rapid shifts in the New York antiquarian book trade from its dusty past as a haven for curmudgeonly reluctant salesmen to an Internet-driven field where ephemera has become the new hotness. Fran Liebowitz, who knows how to talking head, spices up the proceedings with bon mots and anecdotes.—RDL
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1940) A disappearing writer’s corpse and a series of pranks on Holmesian devotees throws the filming of The Speckled Band into disarray and Lt. Jackson of the LAPD must figure out the mystery. Boucher sidelines Fergus O’Breen here to focus on the cast of “Irregulars,” Holmes fans who exist to distract reader and cops from the real crime and let Boucher (and the reader) have fun with Sherlockian allusions.—KH
Caught Stealing (Film, US, Darren Aronofsky, 2025) Stalled NYC bartender (Austin Butler) is drawn into a struggle between violent gangsters after acceding to his punk neighbor’s cat-sitting request. Butler sews up his ownership of the young Brad Pitt slot in a confident throwback to 70s crime flicks.—RDL
Dusty & Stones (Film, US, Jesse Rudoy, 2022) Traditional country duo travels from their in Swaziland home to an international music competition in Texas. Border-crossing fly on the wall documentary is both stirring and suspenseful, as the viewer wonders which side of America the open-hearted protagonists are headed towards.—RDL
The Moon’s a Balloon (Nonfiction, David Niven, 1971) The Oscar-winning avatar of urbane sophistication wittily recounts the triumphs and disasters of a life marked by a streak of self-sabotaging rebellion. As a kid in the 70s I assumed this book was corny because my grandparents owned it but boy howdy I would have learned a ton if I’d cracked it open then.—RDL
They Were Five (Film, France, Julien Duvivier, 1936) A quintet of skint Parisians pool a lottery windfall to turn a derelict house into a riverside cafe. Proletarian solidarity faces off against existential fatalism in an affecting drama of friendship and betrayal.—RDL
Good
The Case of the Seven Sneezes (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1942) Fergus O’Breen finds himself invited to a silver wedding anniversary party on an island, held 25 years after another murder among the same party. Boucher plays fair (but not entirely plausibly) with the case and dispenses with characterization in an imperfect attempt at atmosphere. [CW: Cat murder, 1940s psychology]—KH
The Case of the Solid Key (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1941) Fergus O’Breen and an Okie playwright join forces to figure out who killed the crooked impresario of a little LA theater, in a locked shed. The theater aspect triumphs over the mystery (which is why it’s Good), but the plot and dialogue seem somewhat stale for Boucher. I didn’t much care for the solution to the locked room, either.—KH
Green Night (Film, China, Shuai Han, 2023) On the fringes of Seoul, a Chinese immigrant customs officer (Bingbing Fan) stuck with an abusive husband winds up on the lam with an impertinent green-haired drug mule (Lee Joo-young.) Occasionally ill-judged naturalistic crime drama questions the premise of the unlikely allies trope.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Weapons, Venus, and Vegan Body Horror from a Nobel Prize Winner
August 26th, 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
The Case of the Seven of Calvary (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1937) A Swiss peace ambassador stabbed on a Berkeley street, the enigmatic “Seven of Calvary” symbol on the body, surely this is a case only a Professor of Sanskrit can solve! Come for the interlocking and overlapping murders, but stay for the glimmering conjuration of the prewar University scene. Boucher’s first novel isn’t his best mystery, but it’s well worth reading.—KH
Green Fish (Film, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong, 1997) Ex-serviceman from a shattered family (Han Suk-kyu) drifts into the orbit of an insecure mobster (Moon Sung-keun) and his trapped girlfriend (Shim Hye-jin.) Refreshes an archetypal gangster plotline by sympathetically zeroing in on the characters’ inescapable brokenness.—RDL
July Rhapsody (Film, HK, Ann Hui, 2002) As tensions rise with his wife (Anita Mui), a stagnating high school teacher (Jacky Cheung) passively allows a self-possessed student (Karena Lam) to throw herself at him. Finely observed naturalistic drama gives two HK megastars a rare chance to turn in restrained performances.—RDL
Remember My Name (Film, US, Alan Rudolph, 1978) Impulsive, vengeful ex-con (Geraldine Chaplin) stalks a self-centered construction worker (Anthony Perkins) who has concealed details of his past from his concerned wife (Berry Berenson.) Treats subject matter foundational to the later erotic thriller cycle as the basis for an offbeat dysfunctional character study with a distanced west coast vibe.—RDL
The Vegetarian (Fiction, Han Kang, 2007) To the embarrassment of her proudly mediocre husband and angry shock of her family, a woman attempts to stave off her brutal nightmares by going vegan. Literary body horror in which the gulf between external expectation and concealed selfhood devours the characters from the inside out.—RDL
Venus (Film, Spain, Jaume Balagueró, 2022) Club dancer Lucia (Ester Expósito) steals a big drug stash and hides out with her sister (Ángela Cremonte) in a cursed apartment building. Allegedly a “dirty, modern” adaptation of “Dreams in the Witch House,” it’s actually a superbly paced genre-switcher that puts modern crime beats behind a horror melody to great effect. Expósito carries the film with her acting, switching between suspicion, kindness, and desperation as the film does likewise.—KH
Weapons (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2025) The simultaneous, overnight disappearance of 17 third-graders from a class of 18 sets a number of characters in motion, among them their teacher (Julia Garner) and one kid’s father (Josh Brolin). Over and above Cregger’s assured overlapping-narrative script, his collaboration with cinematographer Larkin Seiple and editor Joe Murphy provide a consummately creepy feel even in seemingly normal moments. Finally, a huge relief to see a horror film that would rather be scary than write an op-ed about trauma.—KH
Good
Legend (Director’s Cut) (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 1985) When his love the Princess Lili (Mia Sara) accidentally lets goblins kill a unicorn, forest boy Jack (Tom Cruise) must rescue her and the land from the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry). Adding 25 minutes to the theatrical release, this version sadly doesn’t do much more than extend and deepen a film that doesn’t really ever decide what it wants to do. (It does restore Jerry Goldsmith’s original score, though.) Classic fairy tale, pastoral fantasy, and music video aesthetics likewise tussle for dominance although Scott makes them all look great.—KH
Okay
The Singing Thief (Film, HK, Chang Cheh, 1969) When a mysterious foe starts copying his old M.O., a Raffles-style romantic jewel purloiner turned nightclub singer (Jimmy Lin Chong) matches wits with a wealthy diamond owner (Lily Ho) deputized to bring him in. Swingin’ 60s musical comedy action thriller throbs with omnidirectional bisexual lust. Also, brutal, well-staged martial fight sequences that feel like they belong in a different movie.—RDL
Incomplete
Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny (Film, Japan, ) When the Zhao army attacks Qin, ambitious warrior Shin accepts General Ohki’s commission to lead a 100-man strike force. Forty minutes of story, and an hour twenty of exposition lead to a non-ending.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Fantastic Four, Weapons, Nobody 2
August 19th, 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
The Case of the Crumpled Knave (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1939) Card-collecting chemist Humphrey Garnett is found dead by cyanide with a crumpled jack of diamonds in his hand. Surely rookie private eye Fergus O’Breen can solve the case! Boucher, a long-time critic of the mystery novel, turns his hand to an “Ellery Queen” style murder with great felicity and ingenuity, although O’Breen belongs to a more flamboyant detective tradition than modern readers (or Ellery Queen) prefer.—KH
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Film, US, Matt Shakman, 2025) Global heroes the Fantastic Four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Eben Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn) face the destruction of their mid-60s Earth by Galactus (Ralph Ineson). Although suffering from a dearth of superheroics during the long, pipe-laying first act, the movie comes alive once the threat of Galactus appears. A super-fight set in daylight featuring live action and models instead of entirely empty CGI murk, character development, and humor that (mostly) comes from the circumstances instead of the script make this a surprising Good Marvel movie; the zippy Michael Giacchino score and loving retro production design by Kasra Farahani elevate it to Recommended.—KH
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You (Nonfiction, Neko Case, 2025) Singer-songwriter Case recounts her process of self-assembly, necessitated by a childhood of abject neglect that includes at least one plot twist straight out of a film noir. Acutely written rock autobiography serves up another reminder that many of the arts figures we admire have spent much of their lives hanging on by their teeth and fingernails.—RDL
Nine Times Nine (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1940) Writer Matt Duncan has just landed the job of assistant to anti-fraud crusader Wolfe Harrigan when Harrigan is shot in a locked room by a man in the yellow robe of LA cult leader Ahasver—who admits that his astral double committed the murder. Boucher tries to out-impossible John Dickson Carr, including a bravura sequence in which LAPD detective Terence Marshall goes through Carr’s classic “Locked Room Lecture” to try and solve the case; the actual solution falls to Sister Ursula, a nun friend of the Harrigan family. The LA occult scene also gets a lively portrait in this terrific mystery.—KH
Nobody 2 (Film, US, Timo Tjahjanto, 2025) Formerly retired hitman Hutch Mansell’s (Bob Odenkirk) waterpark vacation with his wife (Connie Nielsen) and family hits a snag when fate once again confronts him with goons who don’t know not to mess with him. A sequel script that knows how much and how little to extend the original lends action maestro Tjahjanto a solid launchpad for his Hollywood debut.—RDL
Sadie Thompson (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1928) Stuck on a South Seas island, a woman with a past (Gloria Swanson) romances a handsome sergeant (Walsh) but finds herself in the sights of a hypocritically pious reformer (Lionel Barrymore.) The broad strokes of the silent era fuel Walsh’s fire as he expresses his sympathy for the underdog and hatred of petty tyrants. First of several adaptations of Somerset Maugham’s story “Rain.”.—RDL
Weapons (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2025) A spiraling teacher (Julia Garner) and rage-driven parent (Josh Brolin) separately seek 17 primary school kids who simultaneously ran from their homes in the middle of the night. A perspective-hopping, fragmented structure keeps the audience off-balance and primed for creepy scares.—RDL
Good
Timestalker (Film, UK, Alice Lowe, 2024) Life gets no easier across successive reincarnations for a self-absorbed woman (Lowe) fatally attracted to a handsome but gorm-deficient man (Jacob Anderson) and entangled with an abusive partner (Nick Frost.) Barbed era-spanning comedy of obsessive, unrewarding love.—RDL
Ire-Inspiring
The Last Showgirl (Film, US, Gia Coppola, 2024) When the long-running Vegas show she dances in announces its imminent cancellation, a veteran showgirl (Pamela Anderson) heads for a crack-up, exacerbated by her disapproving daughter (Billie Lourd) and mournful ex-flame (Dave Bautista.) Poignant performances from Anderson and Bautista, and Coppola’s grasp of mood make the script’s unremitting cruelty toward its characters all the more gear-grinding.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: KPop Demon Hunters, The Gorge, and Anglo-Saxons vs Vikings
August 12th, 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
The Devil’s Eye (Film, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman, 1960) The devil (Stig Järrel), his eye inflamed by the existence of a young woman (Bibi Andersson) about to marry as a virgin, sends the damned souls of Don Juan (Jarl Kulle) and his servant (Sture Lagerwall) back to Earth to effect the necessary seduction. Chiefly through Kulle’’s silently ravaged affect, Bergman uses the ostensible elements of a comedic fantasy for an exploration of suffering as acute as any in his filmography.—RDL
The Gorge (Film, US, Scott Derrickson, 2025) Traumatized snipers, one west bloc (Miles Teller), the other east bloc (Anya Taylor-Joy) fall in love from opposite sides of the monster-filled secret canyon they’ve been stationed to guard. The stars turn up all the sizzling charisma a technothriller romance creature feature needs, and then some.—RDL
KPop Demon Hunters (Film, US, Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans, 2025) A demon-fighting superstar trio’s battle against a boy band from the underworld threatens to reveal the lead singer’s dark secret. US-made, Korean-set animated supernatural action musical that folds anime visual tropes into 3D is a kicky triumph of cultural diffusion.—RDL
The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire (Nonfiction, Tore Skeie, 2018) Violent 11th century kings Æthelred, Olaf Haraldsson, and Cnut battle for silver and territory in England and Scandinavia. Stirring, uncluttered narrative history depicts medieval warfare as a busIness model.—RDL
Good
Portrait in Black (Film, US, Michael Gordon, 1960) Neglected socialite Sheila (Lana Turner) conspires to murder her cat-loving husband with his doctor (Anthony Quinn) but complications ensue. Undistinguished semi-noir thriller surprises with great San Francisco location shots, and tries to pull off “everyone in the household has a secret” storytelling to mixed effect. The stacked cast also includes Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Richard Basehart, Anna May Wong, and Ray Walston all emoting up a storm.—KH
The Reluctant Adventures of Martin Jerrold Trilogy (Fiction, Edwin Thomas, 2004-2006) Barely competent poltroon Jerrold (a Royal Navy lieutenant) gets thrust into Napoleonic adventures—clearing his name in a smuggler murder in Dover, hunting an escaped French prisoner, and stopping the Aaron Burr conspiracy—against his will, and resolving them likewise. Sub-Flashman novels begin readable and slowly come into their own with the third book, but that’s all there was.—KH
Summer of 69 (Film, US, Jillian Bell, 2025) When the guy of her dreams becomes available, an adorably nerdy high school senior (Sam Morelos) hires a brusque but kindly stripper (Chloe Fineman) to teach her his reputedly favorite sex move. Female buddy comedy puts a sweetly affirming spin on a raunchy premise.—RDL
Okay
Aenigma (Film, Italy/Yugoslavia, Lucio Fulci, 1987) Comatose victim of a cruel prank (Milijana Zirojevic) possesses an incoming college student (Lara Lamberti) to act as a vector for lethal, hallucinatory psychic attacks on her tormentors. Fulci’s surreal disregard for mimetic realism provides some interest within a repetitive structure.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Naked Gun, Murderbot, Dead Talents Society, Riddle of Fire
August 5th, 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
Dead Talents Society (Film, Taiwan, John Hsu, 2024) Self-effacing ghost (Gingle Wang) joins the entourage of a fading urban legend (Sandrine Pinna) in hopes of earning the haunting license she needs to continue her spectral existence. Supernatural found family comedy spoofs reality TV and the attention economy.—RDL
Hero (Film, China, Shaohong Li, Joan Chen, Sylvia Chang, 2022) During the terrifying early weeks of COVID, a Wuhan nurse (Xun Zhou) butts heads with her oppressively self-sacrificing mother-in-law (Xu Di), a student visiting her Beijing family (Miyi Huang) worries about her infected fiancé, and a Hong Kong photojournalist (Sammi Cheng) confronts her estranged husband. With greater unity of tone and theme than the typical anthology film, this trio of female-centred domestic dramas builds a time capsule for a period the world is hellbent on forgetting.—RDL
Murderbot Season 1 (Television, US, Apple+, Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, 2025) A security robot who has secretly deactivated his anti-autonomy features in order to watch his favorite streaming television (Alexander Skarsgard) grudgingly assists a party of naive scientists (, David Dastmalchian, et al) surveying an unexpectedly dangerous planet. Self-aware, satirical SF envisions an enshittified future while also working as a successful version of the kind of show it’s poking fun at. Based on the first of a book series by Martha Wells.—RDL
Riddle of Fire (Film, US, Weston Razooli, 2023) Equipped with dirt bikes and paintball guns, a trio of preteen hellions quest for a speckled egg needed for a blueberry pie recipe, battling a poacher gang led by a witch (Lio Tipton.) Blissfully kooky contemporary fantasy comedy wrings laughs from its young protagonists’ singleminded delinquency.—RDL
World’s End (Fiction, Upton Sinclair, 1940) Ingratiating, art-loving teen from a family of munitions manufacturers becomes a witness to history and the bafflement’s of love as WWI sweeps across Europe. Witty, epically observant and influential in its nesting of recent public figures in a fictional narrative.—RDL
Good
The Naked Gun (Film, US, Akiva Schaffer, 2025) Taken off the case but still drawn into it, violent knucklehead cop (Liam Neeson) romances a murdered coder’s sister (Pamela Anderson) and matches half-wits with a sinister tech mogul (Danny Huston.) Spends more time than it needs to on the mechanics of its spoof technothriiler plot, but Neeson makes sense as a successor to Leslie Nielsen, and it’s refreshing to see a jokes-first comedy these days.—RDL
Sadko (Film, USSR, Aleksandr Ptushko, 1956) Lantern-jawed bard confounds the merchants of Novgorod by recruiting a doughty crew to sail to parts unknown questing for the bird of happiness. Impressive, chaotic set pieces and the coolest, creepiest phoenix committed to celluloid stand out in a fitfully paced fantasy adventure.—RDL
Ken was at Gen Con this week.
Ken and Robin Consume Media: I Know What You Did Last Summer, My Mom Jayne, and the Best Killer Dog Movie to Watch on an Airplane
July 29th, 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
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (Film, US, George Pal, 1964) Greedy land speculator Stark (Arthur O’Connell) holds the town of Abalone, Arizona in a death grip until the mysterious Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) arrives with his Circus of wonders and oddities (all also Tony Randall). The great Charles Beaumont manages to adapt the barely-plotted (but highly Recommended) Charles Finney novel by adding the stock Western plot and a love story featuring Barbara Eden. William Tuttle’s makeup effects are stunningly good for the period, and (along with excellent performances by Randall and Eden) allow the strangely whimsical nature of this Taoist circus fable to come through. [CW: Yes Tony Randall is in yellowface, and yes it’s pretty jarring. Does it make it better that his Dr. Lao actually speaks perfect English, but uses stereotypical “coolie speak” to let fools fool themselves more thoroughly?]—KH
By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him (Film, Japan, Tai Katō, 1966) The surprise identity of an accident victim prompts a disillusioned doctor to recall his reluctant role in defending a ramshackle market from Korean gangsters during the violent postwar years. Blood soaked melodrama envisions gang warfare as a continuation of WWII.—RDL
Love Lies (Film, HK, Miu-Kei Ho, 2024) Police interviews with a widowed obstetrician (Sandra Ng) and a smooth-talking young man (Michael Tin Fu Cheung) suspected of ensnaring her in a dating app fraud scheme reveal an unexpected relationship. Romantic drama with a side dish of crime procedural provides a charming star vehicle for Ng.—RDL
Madame de Sevigne (Film, France, Isabelle Brocard, 2024) After rescuing her from scandal by marrying her off to a cash-strapped noble, a 17th century countess (Karin Viard) obsessed with her daughter (Ana Girardot) expects her to abandon her husband and return to life with her. Miniature-scaled literary biopic paints a portrait of incorrigible fixation.—RDL
My Mom, Jayne (Film, US, Mariska Hargitay, 2025) Actor Hargitay interviews family members in her attempt to understand her mother Jayne Mansfield, who died before her memories begin and whose exaggerated sex bomb persona has always troubled her. Affecting and illuminating autobiographical documentary weighs the price of family secrets and compromises made in pursuit of fame.—RDL
Good
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Film, US, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, 2025) Five former high-school besties (Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, et al.) negligently cause a fatal car crash and cover it up, but a year later find themselves stalked by a slicker-wearing killer. I remember the 1997 version being somewhat snappier and sharper, but Cline (and returning final girl Jennifer Love Hewitt) provide more depth to their characters than the previous bunch. A soft reboot that doesn’t offer any real surprises, though it annoyingly head-fakes and then soft-pedals the economic stratification that has hit even fictional towns over the last 30 years.—KH
Messiah of Evil (Film, US, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, 1974) Drawn to the beachside town of Point Dune by her father’s strange behavior, Arletty (Marianna Hill) falls in with occultist-playboy Thom (Michael Greer) and gets menaced by a cult of undead or something. How much of the incoherent, slow-moving action is down to missing scenes and low budgets, and how much is intentionally dream-like atmosphere is probably unknowable. The eerie happenings gain power and authenticity by their very inexplicability and incompleteness, and the movie theater scene is one of the best horror scenes ever filmed, so there you go.—KH
Project Silence (Film, South Korea, Kim Tae-gon, 2023) Unscrupulous aide to the security minister (Lee Sun-kyun) attempts to take charge when he, his daughter, and other survivors of a vehicle pile-up on a foggy bridge are attacked by escaped bioengineered attack dogs created by the military. Creature feature built on a disaster movie framework with a layer of distinctively Korean political cynicism loses tension due to inadequate animation of its killer canines. However if you see it offered on a seatback entertainment system, it does hit that sweet spot between watchability and too good to watch on a plane.—RDL
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Superman, Eddington, Severance, Cloud
July 22nd, 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.
The Pinnacle
Severance Season 2 (Television, US, Apple+, Dan Erickson, 2025) Seeking his supposedly dead wife, outie Mark (Adam Scott) attempts to communicate with his innie; the co-workers make a discovery about Helly (Britt Lower). Defies the sophomore slump of high-concept serialized TV with brilliant integration of SF thriller plot points and sublimely acted emotional beats.—RDL
Recommended
Cloud (Film, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2025) Malign forces close in on a shady online reseller (Masaki Suda.) Slow burn paranoia thriller escalates through several tones and genres, resulting in the rare film that warrants comparison to both Franz Kafka and Budd Boetticher.—RDL
The Stone Flower (Film, USSR, Aleksandr Ptushko, 1946) Young Urals malachite carver (Vladimir Druzhnikov) forsakes his devoted fiancé (Yekaterina Derevshchikova) for the supernatural Mistress of the Copper Mountain (Tamara Makarova), hoping to gaze upon her stone flower and gain ultimate inspiration. Hard-edged Russian fairy tale with spectacular moving sets and a theme of artistic obsession aimed at an adult sensibility.—RDL
Superman (Film, US, James Gunn, 2025) Aided by Daily Planet colleagues, including new girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Superman (David Corenswet) fights back against Lex Luthor’s (Nicholas Hoult) campaign to discredit and destroy him. Neither Gunn’s sense for the character’s intrinsic idealism or his sincere embrace of a kooky, overstuffed comic book universe would mean much without his grasp of kinetic action and story momentum.—RDL
Superman (Film, US, James Gunn, 2025) Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) mounts a multi-pronged assault on Superman (David Corenswet), whose friends (including an insanely lovable CGI dog, if somehow you missed the words “James Gunn” at the front) help him survive and win. In earnest conversation with best-of-Iron-Age DC and with Richard Donner’s 1978 Pinnacle, Gunn charts a new-old Superman by sticking the fights, the story, and the character. Not every swing is a hit, but it’s one of Gunn’s best at-bats overall.—KH
Sylvia and the Ghost (Film, France, Claude Autant-Lara, 1946) To cheer up his beloved teen daughter (Odette Joyeux) after selling the family painting of a dashing noble her fancies revolve around, a cash-strapped baron (Pierre Larquey) hires a motley trio to pose as his ghost at her coming-out party, not realizing that the actual phantom (Jacques Tati) has also manifested. This spectral farce would be utterly charming even without periodic appearances by its ghostly spaniel.—RDL
The Tales of Hoffmann (Film, UK, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1951) Believing himself jilted by his love, the poet Hoffmann (Richard Rounseville) regales the bar with fantastic tales of his three previous lost loves (Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina, and Ann Ayars). Vertiginously and lushly filmed English-language performance of the Offenbach operetta, an artifact of a time when you could just have a filmed opera as a major cinema release, and when our ecology of the fantastic still supported automatons, reflection-stealing magicians, and singing statues. A magnificent spectacle that must be seen (and heard) to be believed.—KH
Terrified (Film, Argentina, Demián Rugna, 2017) A former pathologist (Norberto Gonzalo), a parapsychologist (Elvira Onetto) and a ghost-breaker (George L. Lewis) team up with a police detective (Maximiliano Ghione) to investigate overlapping haunts in a suburban Buenos Aires neighborhood. Rugna loves to play with perspective, such that no two sightings (or two parts of the same sighting) quite align, adding even more uncertainty to the horror mix. The last act in particular is just unrelenting, perfectly calibrated terror.—KH
Good
Eddington (Film, US, Ari Aster, 2025) In May 2020, asthmatic sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is driven to confront and challenge Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), the connected technoliberal mayor of Eddington, New Mexico. I was much more invested in the first half of the film, a tooth-grindingly painful (and well-aimed) satire of the various insanities of 2020, than I was in the whipsaw-shift into an entirely different (and flatter and much less interesting though also less painful) movie. (The satire does return a bit, at the end.) In the final analysis, the superlative score by Bobby Krlic and Daniel Pemberton, and the compelling cinematography by Darius Khondji, eke it over the Good line.—KH
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
