{"id":2135,"date":"2020-04-21T13:41:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T13:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2020-04-21T13:41:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T13:41:26","slug":"ken-and-robin-consume-media-gallic-noir-and-two-films-named-johnny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/ken-and-robin-consume-media-gallic-noir-and-two-films-named-johnny\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken and Robin Consume Media: Gallic Noir and Two Films Named Johnny"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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<\/a>. 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\u2019ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.<\/i> <\/p>\n

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Recommended<\/h2>\n

Quai des Orf\u00e8vres<\/a> (Film, France, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) Jealous husband of stumbles onto the freshly-murdered body of a lecherous producer who had designs on his wife, an ambitious music hall singer. Noir elements give way to the distinctly Gallic rhythms of the policier, with rich evocations of the life of the vaudeville house and the interrogation room.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Good<\/h2>\n

Echo in the Canyon<\/a> (Film, Andrew Slater, 2018) Jakob Dylan assembles a team of current musicians for a tribute album and concert paying homage to the mid-sixties L.A. music explosion, interviewing key figures of the Laurel Canyon scene including Michelle Phillips, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Brian Wilson.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Johnny O\u2019Clock (Film, US, Robert Rossen, 1947) Targeted as a suspect in a crooked cop\u2019s disappearance, a hardboiled casino manager (Dick Powell) falls for the sister of a secondary victim (Evelyn Keyes.) I wouldn\u2019t call this noirish crime drama memorable, except maybe for its winning frenemy relationship between Powell and Lee J. Cobb as a dogged police inspector.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Okay<\/h2>\n

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll <\/a>(Film, UK, Mat Whitecross, 2010) Dogged by his childhood treatment as an institutionalized polio survivor, chaos-making rocker Ian Dury (Andy Serkis) rises to unlikely pop punk stardom. If I might be permitted a Thing I Always Say, this biopic wraps a strong performance in an unfocused script, because real lives don\u2019t have throughlines.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Not Recommended<\/h2>\n

Blind Alley<\/a> (Film, US, Charles Vidor, 1939) When an escaped gangster (Chester Morris) kills a guest during a hostage-taking in his country home, a stentorian professor (Ralph Bellamy) decides to break him with the power of psychoanalysis. No better case study exists of Hollywood\u2019s flirtation with extremely literal Freudianism.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Johnny Eager<\/a> (Film, US, Mervyn LeRoy, 1941) Racketeer with a flair for elaborate ruses (Robert Taylor) leverages a young student (Lana Turner) who loves him against her district attorney father (Edward Arnold.) Overwritten crime drama wants the audience to wait for a charming but remorseless heel\u2014or as we would say today, a psychopath\u2014to be redeemed by love. Which is not how any of that works.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ll talk about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-2135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audiofree","tag-ken-and-robin-consume-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}