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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 Asteroid City (Film, US, Wes Anderson, 2023) In a movie within a live TV recreation of a play, a numbed war photographer (Jason Schwartzman) takes his kids to a science fair award presentation in a crater-side desert motel. The discombobulations of the post-pandemic era permeate Anderson\u2019s most direct, yet paradoxically most layered, examination of artifice as a containment vessel for overwhelming emotion, from the thunderbolt of first love to the shoals of grief.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Magic Mike\u2019s Last Dance<\/a> (Film, US, Steven Soderbergh, 2023) A down-on-his-luck Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) agrees to assist a rich imminent divorcee (Salma Hayek) in a revenge scheme to transform a staid period play into a male stripper extravaganza. Cheekily proceeding as if they have heard of but not seen their original film, the director and screenwriter genre-shift it into a backstage musical, and vehicle for Soderbergh\u2019s offbeat cool.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n M3gan <\/a>(Film, US, Gerard Johnstone, 2023) Tightly wound toy designer (Allison Williams) bonds with her newly adopted, orphaned niece by bringing her into the development of her latest project, an AI-driven robot doll. Topical Frankenstein riff plugs into the satirical spirit of 90s SF cinema and outputs a new horror icon.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Zigeunerweisen <\/a>(Film, Japan, Seijun Suzuki, 1980) Id meets superego in Taisho-era Japan, as a pall of haunted weirdness hangs over the friendship and loves of a repressed academic (Kisako Makishi) and a brusque nonconformist (Yosho Harada.) Placidly surreal ghost story perched on the threshold between wakefulness and dream.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh (Film, US, Marilyn Ann Moss, 2014) Documentary profile of the charming roughneck whose prodigious filmography includes such classics as White Heat<\/a>, High Sierra<\/a>, and The Roaring Twenties<\/a>, anchored by extensive voiceover drawn from the subject\u2019s autobiography.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Who Saw Her Die?<\/a> (Film, Italy, Aldo Lado, 1972) When his daughter becomes the latest victim of an obsessed killer, sculptor Franco Serpieri (George Lazenby) investigates corrupt Venetian society. Moodier, with a fogbound noir feel, and far less lurid than other giallo, this almost seems like an inspiration for Nicolas Roeg\u2019s 1973 Pinnacle Don\u2019t Look Now.<\/a> Ennio Morricone\u2019s literal killer theme is another standout element. \u2014KH<\/p>\nThe Pinnacle<\/h2>\n
Recommended<\/h2>\n
Good<\/h2>\n
Okay<\/h2>\n