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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 Big Time Gambling Boss (Film, Japan, K\u00f4saku Yamashita, 1968) After turning down the leadership of his adopted clan, an honorable 30s yakuza tries to mediate between his bullheaded preferred candidate and the expediently chosen winner. Classically constructed tale of a gangland spiral from order into chaos.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n C\u00e9c\u00e9<\/a> (Fiction, Emmelie Proph\u00e8te, 2020) In a gang-ruled Haitian slum, a young woman maintains her independence by parlaying her Facebook likes into an influencer gig. Unsparing social realism for the social media era.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (Television, US, Disney+, Dario Scardapane, 2026) Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) spur a popular revolt against tyrannical NYC mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio). Satisfyingly wraps a two-season arc that remembers what worked about the original show, even though making Kingpin a regular creates a stasis between protagonist and antagonist.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n I am Baseball<\/a> (Film, Japan, Takashi Ono, 2023) Young widow (Mitsuki Moriyama) is bullied into a maniacal baseball coach\u2019s (Takehiko Fujita) scheme to mold her into the ultimate amateur player. Deeply strange satire of inspirational sports movies hybridizes the Brechtian alienation techniques of the 60s Japanese New Wave with the timeless comedy of guys getting smacked in the nuts.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n The Nolan Variations<\/a> (Nonfiction, Tom Shone, 2020) Based on lengthy interviews and discussions with Nolan, this examination of the director\u2019s influences, touchstones, and approaches runs from Nolan\u2019s London\/Chicago upbringing through Following (1998) to Tenet (2020). Not a production history in any sense, more of a creation history, providing interesting insights into the most bankable great director (or greatest bankable director) of our times.\u2014KH<\/p>\n Operation Mincemeat<\/a> (Film, UK, John Madden, 2021) Seconded to MI5, a Lt Commander with family problems (Colin Firth) and socially maladroit Flight Lt (Matthew Macfadyen) team with the young widow they both pine for (Kelly Macdonald) to draw German attention from the planned Sicily landing by floating a corpse with fake documents onto the Spanish coast. An invented love triangle adds dramatic beats to a clearly told, stiff upper lip tick-tock of history\u2019s greatest disinformation op.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Warp Marine Corps: The Complete Series<\/a> (Fiction, C.J. Carella, 2015\u20132020) After aliens kill half of humanity, America expands into a hostile and occupied Galaxy. What begins as the Boxer Rebellion in space becomes a Humanity Fuck Yeah saga which takes a turn for the supernatural (paranatural?) horror genre long about Book Three. That book is such a delightful takedown of the Roddenberry \u201csuperior aliens judge humanity\u201d trope that I forgive former RPG designer Carella his genre sloshing (which reminds me weirdly of Warren Ellis\u2019 SF\/horror) in the next two books. If you enjoy HFY, military sci-fi, and misusing the term tachyon as much as I do, this pentalogy is Recommended.\u2014KH<\/p>\nRecommended<\/h2>\n
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