Ken and Robin Consume Media: Nosferatu, Wallace & Gromit, and Anglo-Saxon Monsters

January 7th, 2025 | 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

Nosferatu (Film, US, Robert Eggers, 2024) Obsessed with fey dreamer Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) lures her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) to Transylvania to convey him to her home of Wisborg. Remake of Murnau’s 1922 Pinnacle enriches it with reference to Stoker’s novel, Browning’s film, and The Exorcist among other influences, while presenting the Gothic world on its own terms as only Eggers can. Robin Carolan’s unnerving score, Jarin Blaschke’s perfectly lit darkness, and the actors’ total commitment are only the high points of the best Nosferatu in a century.—KH

Recommended

Basilisks and Beowulf: Monsters in the Anglo-Saxon World (Nonfiction, Tim Flight, 2021) Literary analysis of Old English texts illuminates role monsters such as dragons, demons, wolves, Grendel, and whales played in the Anglo-Saxon mind as diabolical boundary guardians.—RDL

History of the Occult (Film, Argentina/Mexico, Christian Ponce, 2020) As a canceled investigative news program ticks down its last broadcast in 1987, its producers (Nadia Lozano, Augustín Recondo, Ivan Ezquerré) desperately try to uncover the piece of evidence that will unlock a black-magic conspiracy at the heart of the Argentine establishment. Superb reality horror justifies the formal experimentation, which veers from retro noir to discontinuous narrative to … —KH

Uprising (Film, South Korea, Kim Sang-man, 2024) The bond between a defiant slave who learns fighting moves with eidetic memory (Gang Dong-wan) and the feckless young noble he trains (Park Jeong-Min) turns to deadly enmity against the backdrop of the 16th century Japanese invasion of Korea. Violent period action epic pulls off all the turns of its complicated, story-packed narrative structure. Old Boy’s Park Chan-wook produced and contributed to the screenplay.—RDL

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Film, UK, Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham, 2025) Inveterate inventor Wallace (Ben Whitehead) neglects the misgivings of loyal pooch Gromit to create an overeager robot garden gnome (Reese Shearsmith), creating an opportunity for imprisoned nemesis Feathers McGraw. Brilliantly and lovingly sustains the energy of the original “Wrong Trousers” short, with an all-time great animation performance of cinema’s foremost deadpan penguin arch-villain. Whitehead’s recreates the late Peter Sallis’ vocal role as Wallace with astonishing fidelity.—RDL

Good

Drive-Away Dolls (Film, US, Ethan Coen, 2024) Hyper-verbal Jamie (Margaret Qualley) invites herself on her uptight friend Marian’s (Geraldine Viswanathan) road trip to Tallahassee, which unfortunately involves a car sought by a criminal Chief (Colman Domingo). Fun and funny lesbian hangout movie lacks Joel Coen’s mordancy and touch of horror, which doesn’t make it bad, but does make it kind of interchangeable (Qualley’s delightful performance notwithstanding) with every good 90s road trip sex-comedy movie.—KH

Room 999 (Film, France, Lubna Playoust, 2023) In a followup to a film with the same format made by Wim Wenders in 1988, directors attending Cannes, including Wenders, Cronenberg, Denis and Luhrmann, tell a camera in a hotel room whether they think the language of cinema is dying. The question of this thought-provoking snack for deep-dive auteur cinema fans mostly acts as a synecdoche for “are you an optimist or a pessimist?”—RDL

Safe Conduct (Film, France, Bertrand Tavernier, 2002) In occupied Paris, womanizing screenwriter Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydès) resists recruitment efforts by a German-run studio; meanwhile, intense assistant director Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) works for them while committing acts of sabotage for the Resistance. The wartime setting of this indulgently paced intimate epic intensifies the stakes of Tavernier’s  core concern, how one lives life with dignity in difficult circumstances.—RDL

Okay

My Old Ass (Film, Canada, Megan Park, 2024) To mark her last summer on the family cranberry farm, a college-bound queer teen (Maisy Stella) meets, via mushroom trip, her older self (Aubrey Plaza), who warns her to steer clear of charming doofus Chad (Percy Hynes White.) Bolts magic realism and Aubrey Plaza onto an eager-to-please coming of age yarn.—RDL

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Heretic, The Beekeeper, and 80s Polish SF Satire

December 17th, 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 Ark Before Noah (Nonfiction, Irving Finkel, 2014) After a snappy 101 on cuneiform tablets, the author, a noted British Museum curator, examines versions of the Babylonian flood myth later adapted into the Biblical story. Potentially dense material elucidated with self-deprecating wit and sweeping certitude.—RDL

Duckweed (Film, China, Han Han, 2017) Comatose after an accident caused by his beef with his father (Eddie Peng), a race car driver (Chao Deng) travels back in time to the months before his birth, meeting the mother he never knew (Zanilia Zhao) and a sweeter version of his dad. A light touch quietly elevates this dramedy of camaraderie and melancholy.—RDL

Ga-Ga: Glory to the Heroes (Film, Poland, Piotr Szulkin, 1985) Penal space program sends dissident to a planet of authoritarian sleazeballs, where he is expected to commit a spectacular crime justifying his scheduled human sacrifice. Scathing allegorical satire with Gilliamesque production design.—RDL

Heretic (Film, US, Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, 2024) LDS missionaries, one (Chloe East) bubbly, the other (Sophie Thatcher) reserved, step into the parlor of a hyper-verbal eccentric (Hugh Grant), who has prepared for their arrival with traps both theological and physical. Claustrophobic debate horror in which Grant, playing a character from his current villain phase who thinks he’s as charming as Grant in his leading man days, pounces on every morsel of the script, with East and Thatcher responding in kind.—RDL

Panique (Film, France, Julien Duvivier, 1946) Slick criminal (Paul Bernard) and his devoted, newly sprung girlfriend (Viviane Romance) scheme to pin a murder on an unpopular neighbor (Michel Simon.) Simon’s poignant performance as an unloved outsider anchors this dark tale of the dangers of community, based on a Georges Simenon novel.—RDL

Red Dog (Film, US, Casey Pinkston, 2019) Nashville songwriter interviews his mom, a freewheeling raconteur, and her erstwhile running buddies about their time as strippers, bouncers and hangers-on at Oklahoma’s notorious Red Dog Saloon in the oil-rich, hard-drugging 1980s. Warm-hearted documentary portrait of a wild scene that could have killed a lot more of its participants than it did.—RDL

Good

The Beekeeper (Film, US, David Ayer, 2024) When connected cyberscammers impoverish his only friend, beekeeper Adam Clay (Jason Statham) sets out to protect the hive by arson and mayhem. Raffi Simonian’s insane opening titles write a check no movie could cash, but Ayer and Statham try their best, producing some of the finest action tableaux of the century. Sadly the FBI B-plot is content to run the numbers from a much less bee-obsessed (and therefore worse) movie.—KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: New Neal Stephenson, An Aptly Named Action Movie, and a Classic M. R. James Adaptation

December 10th, 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

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (Film, US, Tyler Taormina, 2024) In the long-gone days of the late flip phone era, an extended Italian American clan gathers for a raucous holiday celebration. Observational ensemble drama evokes the loving chaos of family events and a nostalgia unstuck in time. Producer Michael Cera appears in a small role as a befuddled policeman.—RDL

Destroy All Neighbors (Film, US, Josh Forbes, 2024) Put-upon sound engineer (Jonah Ray) spirals into hallucination and murder when the EDM beats jackhammering from the apartment of his grotesque weirdo new neighbor (Alex Winter) interfere with the creation of his prog rock masterpiece. Witty, amiable gore comedy shambles to the beat of its own oddball drummer.—RDL

Kill (Film, India, Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, 2023) Commando (Lakshya) boards a train seeking to elope with his sweetheart (Tanya Maniktala) only to wind up fighting his way through an entire bandit clan. Though this aptly named revenge actioner leverages the limitations of confined space fight choreography, its chief innovation is to show the emotional impact of the death toll on the villains as well as the heroes.—RDL

Polostan (Fiction, Neal Stephenson, 2024) Russian-American Communist cowgirl Aurora (aka Dawn Rae) returns to the Soviet Union to assist the Revolution as a spy. Told in overlapping flashbacks from 1919 to 1933, running through the Bonus Army March and the Century of Progress World’s Fair among other things, this first volume of a trilogy is a peak Stephenson blend of background crunch and driven characters.—KH

Support the Girls (Film, US, Andrew Bujalski, 2018) On a bad day in an Austin Hooters-style restaurant, accumulating crises test the unrewarded competence of beleaguered manager Lisa (Regina Hall.) Observational workplace ensemble drama finds a transcendent nobility in the neverending struggle against everyday bullshit.—RDL

Whistle and I’ll Come To You (Television, UK, Jonathan Miller, 1968) Fusty academic (Michael Hordern) staying in a Suffolk hotel digs up an old whistle that tests his disbelief in the supernatural. Assigning himself the daunting task of rendering M. R. James prose cinematic, Miller zeroes in on the very English auditory realm of non- and sub-verbal utterances and mumblings. First aired as part of the Omnibus anthology series, this paved the way for the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series, the early installments of which North Americans can now find on Shudder.—RDL

Good

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Film, US, Guy Ritchie, 2024) Desperate to break the U-boats’ stranglehold on Britain, M (Cary Elwes) recruits maverick Major March-Philipps (Henry Cavill) and his team to scuttle the Nazi supply ship in neutral Fernando Po. Rousing action film never quite manages to hold or maintain tension (never Ritchie’s strong suit, Wrath of Man notwithstanding) but looks great throughout (Ed Wild shoots in a lively supersaturated 70s palette) and zips along through a two-hour run time.—KH

Okay

Abigail (Film, US, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2024) Professional heisters (Dan Stevens, Melissa Barrera, et al.) snatch a little girl for ransom and take her to an old mansion chosen by their client’s cut-out (Giancarlo Esposito) but things aren’t as they seem. The first surprise (she’s a vampire!) is revealed in the trailer and the poster; the film takes too long to get to the second, and really could use a third one to pick up the slack. I enjoyed Stevens and Barrera, and am a sucker for the premise, but this is a high Okay at best.—KH

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Gladiator II, Only Murders, and a Paean to Tackiness

November 26th, 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

Flipside (Film, US, Christopher Wilca, 2023) Gen X documentarian whose career has sidetracked into a lucrative, family-supporting gig directing commercials assembles footage from incomplete projects about a moldering hometown record store, a blocked writer, Ira Glass’ midlife crisis dance show, and dying jazz photographer Herman Leonard into a profound and challenging meditation on the tangled relationship between creative ambition and personal happiness.—RDL

Hansan: Rising Dragon (Film, South Korea, Kim Han-Min, 2022) Having struck a surprise blow against the invading Japanese navy with a new, terrifying ramming vessel, cool-headed Admiral Yi (Park Hae-Il) presses to turn back their assault. Tactics, espionage and internal maneuvering precede a thrilling second half of naval warfare in a huge production with a sprawling cast. If you’re wondering why Choi-Min Sik has been replaced by a much younger actor, this is a prequel, not a sequel, to 2014’s The Admiral: Roaring Currents. The character is again recast in the trilogy’s final installment, 2023’s Noryang: Deadly Sea.—RDL

A Murder at the End of the World (Television, US, Hulu, Brit Marling & Zal Batmanglij, 2023) Reclusive billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) invites true-crime writer Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) and eight other guests to his isolated Icelandic hotel for an earth-saving summit, but someone murders activist artist Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson), also Darby’s ex. An immense amount of hugger-mugger surrounds this straightforward classic mystery plot; Corrin’s superbly natural acting successfully grounds both the genre and cyber-wow elements.—KH

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 (Television, US, Hulu, Steve Martin & John Hoffman, 2024) When someone shoots Sazz (Jane Lynch), Charles Haden-Savage’s (Steve Martin) stuntwoman, the podcasting trio lurches into action, complicated by the movie being made from Season 1 of their show. Although a good raft of B-listers try their best to keep the “movie madness” subplot raucous, Melissa McCarthy absolutely steals the season as Charles’ sister. The mystery is also surprisingly good, and interestingly misdirected.—KH

Repast (Film, Japan, Mikio Naruse, 1951) The surprise extended stay of her work-worn husband’s (Ken Uehara) flighty niece (Yukiko Shimazaki) prompts a disappointed woman (Setsuko Hara) to reconsider the state of her marriage. Subtly observed domestic drama finds the tensions beneath the surface of everyday life.—RDL

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have To Offer (Nonfiction, Rax King, 2021) Memoiristic essays juxtapose the author’s past headlong pursuit of sex and love with disregarded works of popular culture ranging from Sex and the City and the Josie and the Pussycats movie to Creed and The Sims. Emotional depth and rueful insight concealed by a thin veneer of superficiality.—RDL

Good

All the Moons (Film, Spain, Igor Legarreta, 2021) A vampire girl (Haizea Carneros) separated from her undead protector (Itziar Ituño) in the 19th century Basque region attempts to live among humans. In its effort to remain beautiful and tasteful this Basque-language gothic drama also winds up keeping its distance from the situation and characters:—RDL

Gladiator II (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 2024) After the Roman general Acacius (Pedro Pascal) captures his Numidian city, enslaved gladiator Hanno (Paul Mescal) vows revenge. Denzel Washington’s scheming courtier Macrinus tries to make this movie more than just “Gladiator but with two evil emperors,” and his scenes pop with brio. Sadly nobody thought to make him the A-plot instead of retelling the first film, and the comparison does Mescal no favors. Roman history buffs be warned: this movie does not end with Elagabalus taking power.—KH

Not Recommended

Footprints on the Moon (Film, Italy, Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) Seeking an explanation for three days of missing time, a tense translator (Florinda Balkan) travels to an off-season resort town. A compelling vibe, bolstered by Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography can’t overcome this existential mystery’s weak, circular clue structure and disappointingly obvious conclusion.—RDL