Ken and Robin Consume Media: Folk Music Horror, Indonesian Theological Terror, and the Walter Ghost Mysteries

October 15th, 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

All You Need is Death (Film, Ireland, Paul Duane, 2023) Ethnomusicologists on the make (Simone Collins, Charlie Maher) team with a more established rival (Catherine Siggins) to pry a sinister pre-Irish ballad from the last singer who knows it (Olwen Fouéré.) With its motif of a work of art that warps minds and physical reality, this eerie, disjunctive folk horror may ring bells with devotees of Chambers’ King in Yellow cycle.—RDL

The Bishop’s Bedroom (Fiction, Piero Chiara, 1976) In the Italian-Swiss Lake District after the war, a young idle yacht owner becomes a fixture in the villa of a grasping fellow veteran, his disapproving wife, and her stifled younger sister. Literary murder tale in the Highsmith vein, told with a wry forgiveness for human weakness.—RDL

Grave Torture (Film, Indonesia, Joko Anwar, 2024) Determined nurse (Faradina Mufti) whose parents were killed by a bomber obsessed with the Islamic doctrine that the bodies of dead unbelievers are horrifically tortured goes to extreme lengths to debunk it. Patient theological slow burn followed by shocking spiral into terror.—RDL

Good

His Three Daughters (Film, US, Azazel Jacobs, 2024) Tensions come to a head for three sisters, confrontational Katie (Carrie Coon), mediating new mom Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) and self-medicating Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) as they keep watch over their dying father. Indie drama stylizes its dialogue and performance style as it explores family reconciliation through grief, a wish fulfillment fantasy as alluring as anything involving Jedi or superheroes.—RDL

The Walter Ghost Mysteries (Fiction, Vincent Starrett, 1929-1932) In three novels, dilettante Walter Ghost reluctantly investigates murders. Murder on “B” Deck features a more Holmesian arbitrary revelation; the other two attempt to play fair. Light and airy, but Chicago connection aside there’s not much to distinguish them from the run of the Golden Age mill.—KH

The Widening Stain (Fiction, Morris Bishop, 1942) Library cataloguer Gilda Gorham investigates the mysterious death of a Romance Languages professor in the stacks, interspersed with limericks from her suitor, a Dramatic Arts professor. The witty and well-drawn academic background (Bishop was a professor at Cornell, who published under a pseudonym) rather upstage a somewhat misfired mystery.—KH

Okay

What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (Film, Italy, Massimo Dallamano, 1974) Methodical prosecutor (Giovanna Ralli) and hard-charging cop (Claudio Cassinelli) trace a young girl’s murder to an underage sex trafficking ring protected by a leather-clad hatchet killer. Giallo-adjacent poliziotteschi plays like a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode with extreme gore effects. Like many treatments of this subject matter before and since, the film is blatantly horny for the thing it is morally outraged about.—RDL

Not Recommended

Lisa Frankenstein (Film, US, Zelda Williams, 2024) Traumatized transfer student (Kathryn Newton) bonds with the reanimated corpse of a 19th century pianist (Cole Sprouse.) Diablo Cody’s 80s-set teen horror comedy script makes some interesting choices but is ill-served by listless direction in which key moments are oddly omitted.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: H. P. Lovecraft Film Fest Highlights, Plus Extreme Taipei Zombies, Classic Giallo, and E. A. Poe, Investigator

October 9th, 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

All the Colors of the Dark (Film, Italy, Sergio Martini, 1972) When neither pharmaceuticals or psychoanalysis help a glamorous housewife (Edwige Fenech) with visions of a knife-wielding stalker, she allows a lonely new neighbor to induct her into an orgiastic ceremonial magic cult. Reality horror sexploitation giallo that clearly exerted an influence on Eyes Wide Shut. Consider this added to the Reality Horror 101 list from episode 614.—RDL

Civil War (Film, US, Alex Garland, 2024) Veteran war photographer (Kirsten Dunst) reluctantly mentors an eager rookie (Cailee Spaeny) on the harrowing drive from New York to Washington in the closing days of a catastrophic internal conflict. Not an extrapolation of how armed struggle would break out in America, but an alarmingly realized nightmare of what it would feel like, using a quest structure as its backbone.—RDL

Dream Eater (Film, Canada, Alex Lee Williams, Jay Drakulic, & Mallory Drumm, 2024) Documentarian Mallory (Mallory Drumm) and her douchebag boyfriend Alex (Alex Lee Williams) rent a remote house to celebrate his birthday, but his troubling sleepwalking habits only get worse. Wisely breaking its found-footage conceit when need be, this supernatural possession flick plays all the hits with enough dedication and original spice (such as a weird whistle on the score that slowly becomes diegetic) to stay riveting to the end.—KH

The Man With a Cloak (Film, US, Fletcher Markle, 1951) In 1848 New York, an earnest Parisian (Leslie Caron), who hopes her fiancée’s rich grandfather (Louis Calhern) will fund the cause of the Republic, suspects that his household retinue, led by a stern ex-actress (Barbara Stanwyck) is trying to kill him, prompting her new friend, a a skint, bibulous poet who calls himself Dupin (Joseph Cotten) to apply his powers of ratiocination. A top notch cast and literate script make this John Dickson Carr adaptation my new favorite in the “Edgar Allan Poe investigates” sub-sub-genre.—RDL

The Sadness (Film, Taiwan, Rob Jabbaz, 2021) Young couple (Regina Lei, Berant Zhu) tries to find each other as an outbreak of smart, verbal, gleefully sadistic zombies rips through Taipei. Extremely harsh and violent survival horror in the shadow of COVID and Taiwan’s existential security peril. When the horror streaming platform Shudder adds an extra level of content warnings, you’d best believe them. —RDL

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire (Film, US, Stuart Ortiz, 2024) Superbly executed faux-documentary purports to tell the story of two San Bernardino cops (Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple) hunting a ritualistic serial killer. Almost too well-done to be a Netflix true crime doc, Ortiz’ film serves up mutilation horror aplenty while slow-burn cosmicism mounts subtly in the background.—KH

Good

The Complex Forms (Film, Italy, Fabio D’Orta, 2023) A down-and-out cook (David White) accepts 10,000 euro to wait in a mysterious villa to be possessed by alien beings. Black-and-white art-film sententiousness makes the movie’s 74 minutes seem a rather long run for a short slide. Some arresting visuals and what might have been a high concept given different editing choices mean it’s not forgettable even if it’s not Recommended.—KH

Cynara (Film, US, King Vidor, 1932) As he readies for self-exile in South Africa, a staid barrister (Ronald Colman) finally recounts to his wife (Kay Francis) the full details of the affair with a shopgirl (Phyllis Barry) that led to his public disgrace. Domestic drama takes a clear-eyed look at the soon-to-be forbidden subject of adultery, with Colman occasionally faltering when forced out of his understated comfort zone.—RDL

The Daemon (Film, USA, Matt Devino & David Michael Yohe, 2024) After his father’s suicide, Tom (Tyler Q. Rosen) retreats to his family lake cabin, followed unwisely by his wife and in-laws. Some good monster effects, and believable characters, compensate somewhat for a pretty routine story. You’ll never believe this, but trauma is the real monster.—KH

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox (Film, US, Stimson Snead, 2024) Self-hating scientist/smartass Tim Travers (Samuel Dunning) uses a time machine to kill his one-minute-younger self, repeatedly. Expanded from its 2022 short version (which was very funny) with more jokes which sometimes land, and a few big name guest stars driving subplots of varying effectiveness.—KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Megalopolis, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Substance

October 1st, 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

Heat Lightning (Film, US, Mervyn LeRoy, 1934) The arrival of her fugitive ex (Preston Foster) disturbs the settled life of the proprietor of a desert service station (Aline MacMahon.) Sweltering crime melodrama, unusually snappy for a stage adaptation of its era, gives MacMahon a rare chance to anchor a film.—RDL

King of Kings: Chasing Edward Jones (Film, US/France, Harriet Marin Jones, 2022) French documentarian pieces together the life story of her seldom-discussed grandfather, who turns out to have been the king of Chicago numbers rackets from 1930 to 1946. As good as a talking-head doc can get, with clever animation and as much location shooting as HMJ can manage; the talking heads also include a wide range of Chicago accents and Quincy Jones (no relation), which is nice. My personal interest was more in the rackets; HMJ’s more in her grandfather’s story in American racial context.—KH

Kingdom 2: Far and Away (Film, Japan, Shinsuke Sato, 2022) Pursuing his goal of future generalship, Shin (Kento Yamakazi) takes his superhuman martial arts prowess to the decisive battle between the Qin and the Wei, forming a tentative alliance with an equally puissant but standoffish vengeance-seeker (Nana Seino.) Part two of this manga adaptation ups the ante into a thrilling, clearly explicated, full-blown war movie.—RDL

Still the Water (Film, Japan, Naomi Kawase, 2014) On the idyllic island of Amami Ōshima, a teen mourning her shaman mother’s approaching death wins a declaration of love from her withdrawn sweetheart, but struggles to break through his emotional barriers. Beautiful observational drama underpinned by a quiet attention to place and community.—RDL

The Substance (Film, France/UK, Coralie Fargeat, 2024) When fading star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is fired from her workout show, she starts using a substance that grows a younger, hotter self (Margaret Qualley) from her back. It also has some bad effects. Stanislas Reydellet’s production design and Raffertie’s score follow writer-director Fargeat’s lead in never just doing when you can overdo, but it’s Moore’s unflinching performance that keeps this Jekyll & Hyde morality play upright.—KH

Good

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Film, US, Tim Burton, 2024) Accompanied by her disaffected daughter (Jenna Ortega) and manipulative boyfriend/manager (Justin Theroux), TV ghost hunter Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) returns to the home where an ebullient trickster demon (Michael Keaton) once plotted to marry her.  Burton movies rise or fall on the coherence and momentum their screenplays impose on him; this containment unit for goth kookiness is made from a satisfying ratio of new to recycled material.—RDL

Okay

Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan (Film, France, Martin Bourboulon, 2023) Dashing young provincial (François Civil) arrives in Paris to join the King’s Musketeers, winning a spot among his heroes Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï), and Aramis (Romain Duris), and a central role in deadly royal intrigue. Dour retelling less interested in swashing buckles than in placing Dumas’ novel in historical context.—RDL

Fascinatingly Terrible

Megalopolis (Film, US, Francis Ford Coppola, 2024) Visionary architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) tries to build a new city from the miracle metal Megalon despite opposition from mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), whose daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) falls for Cesar. We explained this film to ourselves, sort of, as an adaptation of a multivolume manga based on The Fountainhead. Driver and much of the stacked cast thespiate in all directions, many of them compelling if not convincing, and there are moments of pure kino throughout. Reading too much into its “fascism but make it couture” message is probably a mistake, but so was spending your winery fortune making a hero out of Psychic Robert Moses.—KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Substance, Dali’s Tarot, Evil, and The Twelve

September 24th, 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

Dalí. Tarot. (Tarot, Salvador Dalí, 1984; Nonfiction, Johannes Feibig, 2019) An oversized deck packed in a velveteen slipcase with a full guide to each card in the accompanying guidebook, this is a Tarot for showing off first and using second or never. Fortunately, Dali’s interpretations of the cards (generally involving collages from bits of older paintings) are worth showing off: the best images truly unlock something personal in the archetype, and even the laziest ones (Dali was forced to finish the deck by a lawsuit) show a playful irony absent from most decks (and from the po-faced guidebook). The book tries its best to source the collages and talk Jungian bafflegab, which is really all you want from it, and the whole production almost justifies its hefty pricetag.—KH

Evil Season 1 (Television, US, CBS, Robert and Michelle King, 2019) Forensic psychologist with four young girls and a badass dark side (Katja Herbers) teams with empathetic, psilocybin-ingesting priest in training (Mike Colter) and sardonic techie (Aasif Mandvi) to evaluate potential possession cases for New York’s Catholic diocese. Brings exorcism horror to the occult investigation procedural with puckish humor and a cunningly interwoven case-of-the-week and continuity elements.—RDL

Ponniyin Selvan Part 2 (Film, India, Mani Ratnam, 2023) Swashbuckling princeling (Vikram) races to stop a complex conspiracy to assassinate the Chola emperor and his warrior sons. Though a couple of its many plot threads could have been more neatly tied off, the conclusion of this stunning-looking action adventure historical epic thoroughly blockbusts all the same.—RDL

The Substance (Film, France/UK, Coralie Fargeat, 2024) When her crass producer (Dennis Quaid) decides to replace her, a celebrity fitness instructor (Demi Moore) undergoes a weird science treatment that horribly replicates a younger counterpart (Margaret Qualley.) High focus photography and moist sound design fuse into a tactile filmgoing experience in a gleefully unsubtle Kubrickian body horror satire portraying beauty standards as a social force prompting women to make war on themselves.—RDL

The Twelve: The Complete Series (Comics, J. Michael Straczynski & Chris Weston, 2008-2012) Twelve random third-tier superheroes succumb to a Nazi suspended-animation booby trap in 1945 Berlin only to wake up in 2008 as curiosities. Straczynski tries with some success to get inside the head of the Twelve and their diverse responses to their condition, while plotting a good old-fashioned superhero mystery story around their group. Weston’s clean, unfussy art perfectly complements JMS’ post-Watchmen narrative.—KH

Good

Dangerous Crossing (Film, US, Joseph M. Newman, 1953) When a woman’s (Jeanne Crain) new husband goes suddenly missing after their embarkation on a transatlantic honeymoon cruise, the ship’s doctor (Michael Rennie) doesn’t entirely buy his colleagues’ assumption that she is delusional or pulling a scam. Shipbound psychological film noir rooted more than most in 50s sexual politics, based on a  John Dickson Carr story.—RDL

The Princess Warrior (Film, Mongolia, S. Baasanjargal & Shuudertsetseg Baatarsuren, 2021) Determined Mongol princess Khutulun (Tsedoo Munkhbat) defies patriarchal expectations to recover the Golden Sutras, symbols of her family’s legitimacy, from the treacherous forces of the Yuan Empire. Ambitious martial arts historical epic from an emerging national cinema, with ninjas. Aka Princess Khutulun.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: More from Noir City Chicago and an Artisanal Counterfeiter

September 18th, 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.

The Pinnacle

Le Trou (Film, France, Jacques Becker, 1960) New cellmate Claude (Marc Michel) falls in with a quartet of prisoners with a plan to escape La Santé Prison. From Hawksian hangout to real-time tension, this absolute masterpiece draws the viewer into the prison world and the escape plan of competent, experienced Roland (real-life prison breaker Roland Barbat, playing himself with DeNiro-esque power). Becker’s eye for detail pays off in gritty realism that also triumphs as archetypal drama.—KH

Recommended

A Gun For Sale (Fiction, Graham Greene, 1936) Hairlipped hit man Raven kills a Czech cabinet minister, bringing Europe to the brink of war—but his only concern is that his employer stiffed him with hot banknotes. Far more cruel (in every dimension) than the (also-Recommended) 1942 film adaptation, this shows Greene’s contempt for all of British society more clearly than most of his work. But his mastery of plot and tension keep the “entertainment” going despite your suspicion that the girl and the detective on Raven’s trail barely exist even to themselves. [CW: Not-very-veiled antisemitism.]—KH

Inferno (Film, US, Roy Ward Baker, 1953) Dodgy prospector Duncan (William Lundergan) and millionaire’s wife Geraldine (Rhonda Fleming) leave millionaire Donald Carson (Robert Ryan) to die in the Nevada desert, but Carson doesn’t cooperate. Insanely overperforming B-picture blends gripping survival drama with daylight color noir, punctuated by actually good use of 3-D establishing the vast depths and dangerous cliffsides of the desert landscape.—KH

The Last Counterfeiter: The Story of Fake Money, Real Art, and Forging the Impossible $100 Bill (Nonfiction, Jason Kersten, 2009/2024) Family ties bring strength and downfall for Art Williams Jr., a scion of Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood who with painstaking craftsmanship devises a way to fake the supposedly uncrackable 1996 US New Note. Grippingly told true crime yarn of hubris and temptation, with the Secret Service in the role of avenging deity.—RDL

Good

Black Tuesday (Film, US, Hugo Fregonese, 1954) Gang boss “King” Canelli (Edward G. Robinson) breaks out of Death Row, bringing along fellow inmate Manning (Peter Graves) to get his hidden loot. It’s great fun to watch Robinson sneer and brutalize, and the procedural elements tick along nicely, but the film stifles somewhat in its police standoff third act.—KH

Okay

Man in the Dark (Film, US, Lew Landers, 1953) Payroll robber Steve Rawley (Edmond O’Brien) is paroled to a surgeon who removes his criminal tendencies, along with his memory of where he hid the loot. When his old gang breaks him out of the hospital, that last bit becomes a problem. Columbia “won” the race to exhibit a 3-D feature with this amiable clunker, featuring lots of scalpels and cigars and spiders and why not a rollercoaster zooming into the audience’s faces, and very little in the way of cleverness or production value.—KH