Ken and Robin Consume Media: Agatha All Along, Kinds of Kindness, and Deep Carnival Lore
November 19th, 2024 | 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.
Ken was on the road this week.
Recommended
Floyd Norman: an Animated Life (Film, US, Erik Sharkey, 2016) Documentary profiles Floyd Norman, Disney’s first Black animator, whose career spans working with Walt himself on the Jungle Book to Pixar and the present day, with detours along the way into documenting the Watts riots and drawing the accursed Scooby Doo. Inspiring portrait of an unassuming mensch and mentor who channels his anger into cartoons and comes out on top in the end.—RDL
It All Starts Today (Film, France, Bertrand Tavernier, 1999) Empathic director of a primary school (Philippe Torreton) in an economically devastated former mining region torches his relationship with the bureaucracy seeking social support for his young students. Thanks to committed performances and deft pacing, this is social realism without the boring bits.—RDL
Kinds of Kindness (Film, US, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024) A submissive employee resists a life-endangering request from his dom boss; a neurotic cop decides that his wife rescued from a shipwreck has been replaced by an impostor; devotees of a water purity sex cult hunt for their prophesied savior. Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Hong Chao take multiple roles in an anthology of cruel tales, two of them arthouse horror, that play like Cornell Woolrich rewritten by Luis Buñuel.—RDL
Good
Carnie King: The Story of Patty Conklin and Conklin Shows (Nonfiction, John Thurston, 2024) Biography/business history about a German American who adopted an Irish identity and rose from mark-fleecing small time carnie to CEO of a multimillion dollar company and feted pillar of the Toronto establishment. The smell of corn dogs, cotton candy and lost cultural detail wafts through a research-packed account of particular resonance to anyone who remembers getting a discounted pass to the Canadian National Exhibition with their year-end report card.—RDL
Hollywood Signs (Film, US, Bill Fishman, 2021) Documentary comprehensively covers the autograph collecting hobby, from cultural history to the efforts of a ragtag band of enthusiasts to bag precious George Perez signatures, casting the celebrity convention scene in an affirming light.—RDL
Okay
Agatha All Along (Television, US, Disney+, Jac Schaeffer, 2024) Teen sorcery prodigy of mysterious origin (Joe Locke) frees Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) from an illusionary existence to drag a wary coven into the questing space known as the Witches’ Road. In the now endemic Marvel pattern, strong on showcasing the charm of its performers and weak on story architecture.—RDL
The Duke (Film, UK, Roger Michell, 2020) To the horror of his anxious wife (Helen Mirren), an opinionated Newcastle autodidact (Jim Broadbent) confesses to stealing Goya’s Duke of Wellington portrait from the National Gallery, in a bid to publicize his campaign against TV licensing fees. Comic underdog vs the establishment docudramedy, based on a 1961 case, gives Broadbent and Mirren room to shine, despite pat psychology and overdone cheerleading for the hero.—RDL
Episode 625: You’ve Got a Dark Level
November 15th, 2024 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we imagine an F20 world where powerful undead don’t just drain levels, they sell them to the highest bidder.
The Archaeology Hut checks out the latest tests on the Well-Man, a body found at Norway’s Sverresborg Castle who matches an account from an 800 year old Norse saga.
Finally Ken’s Bookshelf chronicles our resident bibliophile’s genteel efforts to separate Powell’s Books in Portland from its wares. Making a special cameo appearance, it’s the Princeton University Press sale.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Emilia Perez, Rebel Ridge, and Argentine Reality Horror
November 12th, 2024 | 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.
Ken is on the road this week.
The Pinnacle
History of the Occult (Film, Argentina, Cristian Ponce, 2020) In late 80s Argentina a TV news panel host and his sequestered inner circle of producers attempt to crack a witchcraft conspiracy reaching into the highest levels of government, live on air. Brilliantly uses minimalistic resources and real-time pacing to process the darkness of the Argentine dictatorship through the weird horror genre—with bonus hints of Lovecraft’s mythos.—RDL
Recommended
Clifford (Film, US, Paul Flaherty, 1994) To prove his interest in children to his trusting fiancee (Mary Steenburgen), a tightly wound transit architect (Charles Grodin) agrees to look after his ten-year-old nephew Clifford (Martin Short), who turns out to be an unhinged force of Machiavellian destruction. Directed by its longtime head writer and spotlighting Martin Short at his Martin Shortiest, this is the purest translation of SCTV’s mix of absurdity and darkness to the big screen, which explains why it was met with utter bafflement on its release yet has now entered the cult comedy pantheon.—RDL
The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History (Nonfiction, Joel Warner, 2023) The life of writer and inveterate sex criminal the Marquis de Sade is interwoven with the ownership history of the manuscript for 120 Days of Sodom, from its composition in the Bastille to its key role in a gigantic investment implosion. Parallel narratives explicate bibliomania and the ever-evolving intellectual romanticization of a figure you do not in fact have to hand it to.—RDL
Emilia Perez (Film, France, Jacques Audiard, 2024) Frustrated attorney (Zoe Saldana) assists a cartel kingpin (Karla Sofía Gascón) who plans to stage a fake death after sex reassignment surgery, leaving passionate wife Jessica (Selena Gomez) in the dark. Committed performances and a fresh approach to its unusual mix of elements keep this musical crime melodrama ablaze.—RDL
Rebel Ridge (Film, US, Jeremy Saulnier, 2024) Small town cops confiscate cash needed by a former Marine martial arts instructor (Aaron Pierre) to bail out his cousin, prompting him to investigate the corruption of a spiteful police chief (Don Johnson.) Pierre establishes his star power and Saulnier shows a preternatural ability to increase tension by letting scenes breathe in a slow burn thriller with an explosive action finish.—RDL
Swing Kids (Film, South Korea, Kang Hyoung-chul, 2018) In an American-run POW camp segregated between violently opposed Communist and pro-Western factions, a Black tap-dancing sergeant (Jared Grimes) follows orders to train a performance troupe for a propaganda event, requiring an intense Northern captive (Kim Min-jae) to choose between art and political loyalty. Wartime drama puts the optimism of the musical on a collision course with historical trauma.—RDL
Good
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Film, UK, Sam Fell & Jeffrey Newitt, 2023) Impeded by her boastful husband (Zachary Levi), a hero-turned-protective mom (Thandiwe Newton) tries to keep their bold daughter (Bella Ramsey) safely in their free chicken community, only to have her launch an investigation into a Huxleyian factory farm. Expends considerable thought and craftsmanship on sequelizing an original that doesn’t reward recapitulation.—RDL
Episode 624: Impractical at Most Gaming Tables
November 8th, 2024 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Mark Waterhouse asks what could possibly go wrong if we let players perform their own in-world divinations.
At the behest of estimable backer Martin Rundkvist the Tradecraft Hut investigates the heroic career of Polish-born WWII British operative Krystyna Skarbek.
Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features our talk with actual player extraordinaire Lindsey Brown, as heard on The Nature of My Game podcast.
Finally Ken’s Time Machine looks for chrono-spanners it might throw into the horror show that was the postwar repatriation of Koreans from Japan to North Korea.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.
Back from the grave until they suppress it again, the Dracula Dossier PDF deal has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Grab it until November 13th, when it will once more retreat to its dusty crypt.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Oddity, Woman of the Hour, and Alan Moore’s Magic 101
November 5th, 2024 | 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 Abandoned (Film, Taiwan, Ying-Ting Tseng, 2022) Aided by a tentative rookie (Chloe Xiang) and a victim’s impulsive boyfriend (Ethan Juan), a grief-stricken cop (Ning Chang) investigates the slayings of foreign workers who have fled their visa requirements. Tense serial killer policier paints Taipei’s underbelly as a place of dread and fleeting beauty.—RDL
Bed of Roses (Film, US, Gregory La Cava, 1933) Cynical ex-con (Constance Bennett) reels in a stuffy, rich publisher (John Halliday) but pines for a down-to-earth barge captain (Joel McCrea.) Economically told wisecracking Pre Code romantic drama.—RDL
Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution (Nonfiction, Jonathan B. Losos, 2017) Lizard-wrangling biologist shows how DNA analysis and experimental studies have established convergent evolution, the tendency of species to arrive at similar solutions to the same environmental challenges, not as a quirky occurrence but as the baseline. Illuminating throughout, including the section where you discover that everything you thought you knew about the Burgess Shale has now been upended.—RDL
The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic (Nonfiction & Comics, Alan Moore & Steve Moore & divers hands, 2024) A big and beautiful introduction to (and defense of) the magical arts, comprising among other things précis of the Kabbalah and Tarot, magical geographies and summonables, 50 “Lives of the Great Enchanters” in comics form, and several “rainy day activities” sections that provide beginning magical instruction. Really most comparable to other wide-ranging introductions to the field such as Richard Cavendish’s Black Arts (also Recommended) but also valuable to (and fun for) the scholar or fan of Alan Moore.—KH
Oddity (Film, Ireland, Damian McCarthy, 2024) Blind psychic proprietor of a curio shop specializing in cursed items (Carolyn Bracken) shows up unannounced at the home of her dead sister’s doctor husband (Gwilym Lee), intent on identifying her killer. Weird tale of revenge and the supernatural filled with unexpected turns and shot with exacting control.—RDL
Wingwomen (Film, France, Mélanie Laurent, 2023) Longtime high-end heist partners, collected Carole (Mélanie Laurent) and vulnerable Alex (Adèle Exarchopoulos) agree to steal a painting for their increasingly unhinged boss (Isabelle Adjani.) Glamorous hangout movie with inventive action set pieces celebrates the bonds of female friendship.—RDL
Woman of the Hour (Film, US, Anna Kendrick, 2024) Struggling actress (Anna Kendrick) reluctantly agrees to appear as a contestant on The Dating Game, unaware that one of her prospective dates (Daniel Zovatto) is an active serial killer. Judiciously understated true crime drama uses a chronologically fragmented structure to depict the ambient menace fostered by predatory men and its confining effect on women.—RDL
Okay
Anora (Film, US, Sean Baker, 2024) Smitten stripper (Mikey Madison) marries rich man-child (Mark Eidelshtein) scrambling the minions of his Russian oligarch parents into dismayed action. Unnecessary scenes and repetitive story beats weigh down this realist romantic farce, Madison’s star-making performance notwithstanding.—RDL
Episode 623: Bored Lumberjacks
November 1st, 2024 | Robin
The Gaming Hut looks at the most despised medieval occupations and wonders what would happen if you actually wanted to reflect this in your F20 world.
The History Hut covers a very strange fashion fracas, the 1922 New York City straw hat riots.
In the Mythos Hut we dial up the scare factor on the humblest Lovecraftian creature, the zoog.
Finally the Eliptony Hut combs the forest for Wisconsin’s oddball cryptid, the hodag.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.
That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Rumours, MadS, Exhuma, and the Terrrri-ffying Slowness of Baseball
October 29th, 2024 | 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
Eephus (Film, US, Carson Lund, 2024) Two weekend baseball amateur teams meet some time around 1990 for the final game on their condemned baseball field in this disarming combination of hangout film and slow cinema. The film, as Lund has said, moves at the rhythm of baseball, not the rhythm of film narrative, gradually amping up the small-ball absurdity amidst the slowly, regretfully deflating camaraderie.—KH
Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) To uncover the source of a curse on a wealthy Korean-American family, shaman Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) enlists down-at-heels geomancer Kim (Choi Min-sik) to examine the feng shui of the Worst Grave in Korea. Effortlessly grounded, beautifully structured story escalates through two horror stories in a row as the grave keeps giving up more horrible secrets. I loved every minute of this movie.—KH
MadS (Film, France, David Moreau, 2024) Teen hunk high on an unprovenanced drug has a roadside encounter with a distressed, injured medical experiment escapee, leading him and his girlfriends into an evening of increasingly apocalyptic terror. Composed as a single breathtaking tracking shot and revealing its horror sub-genre deep in the film, this high-energy mood piece features an astonishing physical performance from Laurie Pavy as one of the victims/monsters.—RDL
My Dear Killer (Film, Italy, Tonino Valerii, 1972) Determined police inspector (George Hilton) connects a case of decapitation by excavator to a cold case involving the kidnapping and murder of a young girl and her father. Solidly constructed mix of investigation and menace clearly exemplifies the giallo formula.—RDL
Rumours (Film, Canada/Germany, Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson, 2024) Hapless world leaders at the G7 summit face increasingly surreal challenges from mysterious isolation in the woods to reanimated bog-bodies to a giant brain. Only the middle of the movie offers melodramatic joy to the Maddin connoisseur, and one can wonder whether a film condemning the inanition and fecklessness of world leaders shouldn’t offer a direction by contrast, but strong character work by the seven core actors (plus Alicia Vikander as an EU official caught up in events) keeps the film endlessly diverting.—KH
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Film, US, Ivan Dixon, 1973) Recruited as a token, Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook) goes from being the first Black CIA agent to the leader of a revolutionary armed movement on the South Side of Chicago. Energetically paced with strong performances, it suffers somewhat from a budget (and possibly a vision) too small to properly indict the CIA’s blowback-prone methods while also engaging in Black Power agitprop. Freeman’s story winds up suffering the most, but Cook fascinates as the deliberately umoved mover.—KH
Tokyo Noir (Nonfiction, Jake Adelstein, 2024) Journalist reviews his investigative exploits in Japan from the publication of Tokyo Vice to the present day. Cases range from looking into corporate yakuza ties for corporate investors to exposing corruption and negligence at TEPCO, the nuclear utility responsible for the Fukushima meltdown.—RDL
Good
Grabbers (Film, Ireland, Jon Wright, 2012) An alcoholic local cop and an eager straight-arrow on temporary assignment struggle to protect an island village from tentacled alien beasties who won’t attack drunk victims. Amusing comedic creature feature might be called Tremors with added hops.—RDL
Murder in Peking (Fiction, Vincent Starrett, 1937) American dilettante Hope Johnson investigates the murder of a beautiful Danish antiquities expert during a house-party held for Western expatriates and tourists in a Peking temple. Starrett based the novel on his own experiences (sans murder) in Peking as an expat in 1936, so the local color is very good if not remotely suited to modern sensibilities. The murder mystery mostly plays fair, but is never very compelling.—KH
The Stone Tape (Television, UK, BBC, Peter Sasdy, 1972) When an electronics firm converts a derelict Victorian manor into an experimental facility, a computer intelligence expert (Jane Asher) experiences a ghost phenomenon that the team’s heedless leader (Michael Bryant) sees as an opportunity for an acoustic experiment. Writer Nigel Kneale snappily captures a cut throat corporate environment but settles for a pro forma ghost story conclusion.—RDL
Okay
Abigail (Film, US, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2024) Criminal team including perceptive infiltrator (Melissa Barrera) and scowling leader (Dan Stevens) kidnap a young girl and stash her at a weird house, only to discover that she’s a centuries-old vampire who has selected them as prey. More time studying Alien and Carpenter’s The Thing might have helped the screenwriters construct the sorts of suspenseful obstacles the “trapped in an enclosed space with a monster” template requires.—RDL
Episode 622: In the Interest of Asking a Question
October 25th, 2024 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we discuss the challenge of revised edition design. When you encounter an element you wouldn’t build into a new system, how do you decide whether to replace it, or to respect the legacy and leave it in?
The Horror Hut gets reflective as beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for a terrifying look at mirrors.
A new spinoff podcast threatens to break out when Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features a chat with board gam designer Quinn Brander, designer of Rebuilding Seattle and the upcoming Rebuilding Chicago.
Finally the Consulting Occultist surveys the works of early astrologer Gan De, who catalogued the stars during China’s Warring States period.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.
That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Shadow Strays, Rumours, and Neorealist Folk Horror
October 22nd, 2024 | 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.
Ken was on the road this week.
Recommended
Il Demonio (Film, Italy, Brunello Rondi, 1963) In rural southern Italy, an unbalanced young woman (Dalia Lavi) outrages her village by casting a spell on the burly farmer (Frank Wolff) she yearns for, triggering an exorcism attempt. Neorealist horror casts an ethnographic eye on rites and workings ranging from the religious, to folk-religious to forbidden witchcraft.—RDL
I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition (Nonfiction, Lucy Sante, 2024) Acclaimed nonfiction writer recounts the circumstances of her recent, late-in-life embrace of her trans identity and a previous life spent resolutely suppressing it. A personal narrative of punishing internal confusion told with admirable clarity.—RDL
Rumours (Film, Canada, Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson,, 2024) At a G7 summit to discuss an unspecified world crisis, leaders including the amorous German chancellor (Cate Blanchett) and dreamy, melancholy Canadian PM (Roy Dupuis) find themselves suddenly isolated and beset by self-pleasuring bog corpses and a giant brain. SF/fantasy satire, surreal by the standard of any other filmmaker but a swerve toward normal for Maddin, plants a flag as the defining political film of the Biden era.—RDL
The Shadow Strays (Film, Indonesia, Timo Tjahjanto, 2024) While recuperating on a mission for a ruthless league of assassins, a highly trained teen killer (Aurora Ribero) takes it upon herself to protect a neighbor kid trying to save his mom from a perverse drug gang. Unremitting ultra-hard actioner is Tjahjanto’s best film, and the best Indonesian martial arts film since The Raid.—RDL
Good
Bird Box (Film, US, Susanne Bier, 2019) Pregnant, standoffish painter (Sandra Bullock) struggles to survive when an invasion of spectral, suicide-causing entities collapses civilization. Somber post-apocalyptic horror crosses motifs from A Quiet Place and The Crazies, leaning on Bullock’s built-in audience rapport to maintain sympathy for a hardened, withholding protagonist.—RDL
The Fifth Cord (Film, Italy, Luigi Bazzoni, 1971) Volatile drunk journalist (Franco Nero) investigates a bewildering series of thrill killer attacks and murders, all of them somehow connected to him. Compellingly composed giallo, shot by Vittorio Storaro and scored by Ennio Morricone, challenges our sympathy for the protagonist, but leaves that thematic thread dangling.—RDL
Vampire Circus (Film, UK, Robert Young, 1972) Fifteen years after staking their local vampire count (Robert Tayman), villagers react with passive bafflement to a visit from a weird circus. Entry from Hammer’s sexy era favors images and atmosphere over story logic.—RDL
Okay
The Adventurers (Film, China, Stephen Fung, 2017) Pursued by a dogged police inspector (Jean Reno) and aided by a charming infiltrator (Shu Qi) and wet-behind-the-ears techie (Yo Yang), an international jewel thief (Andy Lau) pursues one last job in hopes of smoking out the betrayer who sent him to prison. Glossy, generic big-budget heist flick. Not to be confused with 1995’s The Adventurers starring Andy Lau.—RDL
Episode 621: Also I Would Like to Own Smaland
October 18th, 2024 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut beloved backer Ryan McClelland argues that the Sailor is a fine Occupation that ought to be in Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition (now on Backerkit) and urges us to rebut him by listing even more such Occupations.
With the 1930s still in mind, the Crime Blotter pulls the dossier on the Barker-Karpis bank robbery and kidnapping gang.
Ripped from the Headlines covers a recent incident of rogue mountain sheep cloning in Montana.
Finally, in Ken’s Time Machine, our hero ponders intervention in the Kalmar Crusade.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.
That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
