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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 The Case of the Seven of Calvary<\/a> (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1937) A Swiss peace ambassador stabbed on a Berkeley street, the enigmatic \u201cSeven of Calvary\u201d 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\u2019s first novel isn\u2019t his best mystery, but it\u2019s well worth reading.\u2014KH<\/p>\n Green Fish<\/a> (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\u2019 inescapable brokenness.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n July Rhapsody<\/a> (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.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n 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.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n 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.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Venus (Film, Spain, Jaume Balaguer\u00f3, 2022) Club dancer Lucia (Ester Exp\u00f3sito) steals a big drug stash and hides out with her sister (\u00c1ngela Cremonte) in a cursed apartment building. Allegedly a \u201cdirty, modern\u201d adaptation of \u201cDreams in the Witch House,\u201d it\u2019s actually a superbly paced genre-switcher that puts modern crime beats behind a horror melody to great effect. Exp\u00f3sito carries the film with her acting, switching between suspicion, kindness, and desperation as the film does likewise.\u2014KH<\/p>\n 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\u2019s father (Josh Brolin). Over and above Cregger\u2019s 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.\u2014KH<\/p>\nRecommended<\/h2>\n
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