April « 2019 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for April, 2019

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Avengers, Trek, Batman and Beyonce

April 30th, 2019 | 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

Homecoming (Film, US, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, 2019) Beyoncé performs at Coachella 2018, backed up by a drum line, marching band, chorus, orchestra, and dancers all from historically black colleges. The audacity of remixing her catalog for brass-and-drum band aside, this spectacular concert film incorporates everything from “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to hip-hop to funk in an extravaganza of African-American culture. Add in snippets of Bey’s insane work ethic and inspirational quotes and it’s hard to imagine what to call the result if not a Pinnacle. –KH

The Avengers: Endgame (Film, US, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, 2019) The Avengers, et al. (Robert Downey, Jr., et al.) seek to reverse Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) destruction of half the life in the universe. Longer than Infinity War but less draggy, the Russos’ second half lands most of 21 movies surprisingly well, while finding genuine character moments for their stars. We don’t really get a great fight scene, but the Russos edit this CGI battle more effectively. In the end, the whole achievement is Recommended for MCU fans — which, don’t kid yourselves, we all are. –KH

Bugsy Malone (Film, US/UK, Alan Parker, 1976) Suave boxing promoter (Scott Baio) romances an aspiring singer (Florence Garland) as a Prohibition gang war rages around him. Gangster homage with an all-kid case changes its nature depending on the viewer’s age. If you first see it as a kid, it’s a beguiling fantasy of kid empowerment. Coming to it as an adult, I see the weirdest, most disorienting entry in the 70s revisionist nostalgia cycle.—RDL

La Chienne (Film, France, Jean Renoir, 1931) Staid clerk (Michel Simon) falls for a grisette (Janie Marèse), whose pimp boyfriend (Georges Flamant) encourages her to bleed him dry and pass his paintings off as hers. Mordant, naturalistic drama depicts love as a relationship between exploiter and mark, finding surprising sympathy for characters who are all objectively terrible in one way or another. Learn everything about the difference between France and America by comparing and contrasting with Fritz Lang’s faithful yet very different 1945 remake Scarlet Street.—RDL

Flexie!: All the Same and All Different (Film, Canada, Gary Burns and Donna Brunsdale, 2015) Documentary taps collectors, friends and family to explore the enigmatic allure of paintings by Saskatchewan’s Levine “Flexie” Flexhaug. His pieces, whipped up before patrons’ eyes at a rural gas station, vary a constrained set of stock elements, occupying a blurry boundary between kitsch and folk art.—RDL

Good

Poison People (Fiction, William Haggard, 1977) A coincidental death involves retired Colonel Russell of the Security Executive in a rich MP’s vendetta against an Indian heroin ring. Russell plays a slightly larger part in the plot, but Haggard has clearly hit diminishing returns. Probably only Okay for people not already fond of the series. –KH

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 (Television, US, CBS, Alex Kurtzman, 2019) Mysterious space signals and a search for Spock plunge Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery crew, now captained by the charismatic Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) into a timey-wimey battle against a genocidal AI. After an inaugural season that withheld the Trekliness, year two reverses course at warp speed to deliver fan service galore, while breaking the record for most McGuffins in a single plotline. Mount’s breakout take on Pike elevates the energetic but muddled results from Okay status.—RDL

Straight Outta Compton (Film, US, F. Gary Gray, 2015) Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson) found N.W.A. in Compton and rise to fame, but the system (Paul Giamatti) forces them apart. Gray’s energetic, stylish direction works hard to overcome the rote biopic plot and increasingly hamfisted script. The music, of course, is a standout, especially the concert scenes. –KH

Okay

Visa to Limbo (Fiction, William Haggard, 1978) Surely Colonel Russell is out of foreign dignitaries by now, but no — his upstairs neighbor the Sheik of Alidra leaves London and his mistress. When Russell pursues the latter to Israel he traverses a plot involving the former. A somewhat clever conspiracy (to which Russell remains entirely incidental) is this book’s only real selling point. –KH

Not Recommended

Gotham Season 5 (Television, US, FOX, Bruno Heller, 2019) With the city cut off from the outside world and descending into chaos, heroes and villains team up when it really counts. The bill for mounting a Batman series without Batman in it comes enervatingly due in this final season. Instead of spending twelve episodes somehow doing Year One with a teenage Batman, the show spins its plates as usual, then tacks on an anticlimactic pilot for a show that will never air.—RDL

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Episode 341: Trouser Leg of the Mythos

April 26th, 2019 | Robin

We lit the fires of the Gaming Hut the old-fashioned way before answering a question from Patreon backer Jason Thompson on interesting players in low-tech settings.

In the Cinema Hut we revisit the subject of the rewatch, looking at films that change or defy expectations on subsequent viewings.

Then Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone else, as we both chat with Chaosium’s Lynne Hardy about line development and the upcoming Call of Cthulhu projects on her docket.

Finally, at the behest of backer Andrea Colletta, we pop into the parlor of the Consulting Occultist to whip up the new sorcerous discipline of etymomancy.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ Gloom gets chillier and killier as Gloom of Thrones breaches the wall and rampages across Kickstarter until April 29th. Doom! Wilderness travel! More doom! At least in Gloom version you know you’ll get an ending!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, The Fall of Delta Green, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

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Tags: Cinema hut, Consulting Occultist, eliptony, etymomancy, Gaming hut, Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, low-tech settings, Lynne Hardy, rewatching

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Witch Well Actuallys and the Ip Man Cinematic Universe

April 23rd, 2019 | Robin

Amazing Grace (Film, US, Sydney Pollack and Alan Elliott, 2019) Film of Aretha Franklin’s live recording of her best-selling gospel album in an LA Baptist church in 1972. Abandoned by Pollack and re-synched and re-cut by Elliott, the footage comes together now as a tribute to the community of sacred music as much as it does a showcase for Aretha’s phenomenal gift. –KH

The Boxer’s Omen (Film, HK, Kuei Chi-Hung, 1983) Seeking vengeance against the kickboxer who paralyzed his brother in the ring, a Hong Kong gangster goes to Thailand, discovering his true calling as a monk defending the desiccated, talkative remains of a Buddhist abbot from a local sorcerer. Big(gish) budget Shaw Brothers entry into the east Asian black magic horror sub-genre pelts the viewer with a gobsmacking array of uneasily related elements. Kickboxing! Gross-outs galore! Location shoots in Thailand and Nepal! Gratuitous nudity! Disgusting yet adorable creature puppets! Unexpected flashes of spiritual beauty!—RDL

Dance, Girl, Dance (Film, US, Dorothy Arzner, 1940) Earnest aspiring dancer (Maureen O’Hara) is swept along as her calculating sexpot pal (Lucille Ball) rises to burlesque stardom. Light melodrama gets a generation ahead of the feminist curve by taking on the then pervasive good girl/bad girl dichotomy from a woman’s perspective.—RDL

Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (Film, HK/China, Yuen Woo-ping, 2019) Despite his renunciation of Wing Chun, a shopkeeper (Max Zhang) is drawn into 1960s gangland turf battles, whose figures include a legitimacy-seeking triad boss (Michelle Yeoh) and a well-connected chef (Dave Bautista.) The Ip Man Cinematic Universe kicks off with a lavishly mounted period melodrama advanced by bravura fight sequences.—RDL

Murder by Contract (Film, US, Irving Lerner, 1958) Self-actualized hitman (Vince Edwards) comes to L.A. to kill a witness in an upcoming trial, driving his local minders (Philip Pine, Herschel Bernardi) up the wall with his eccentricities. Crime drama with a wry, minimalistic style, including a mordant guitar score, that distinctly prefigures Jarmusch.—RDL

The Scorpion’s Tail (Fiction, William Haggard, 1975) On vacation in Spain and retired from the Security Executive, Colonel Russell happens on mysterious Soviet doings on an island. Haggard leans into the retired Russell as unmoved catalyst-witness to events with a hint of mysticism; the result satisfies more than most of these late Haggards. –KH

The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present (Nonfiction, Ronald Hutton, 2017) Examination of the converging belief systems that led to the European witch hunting spree applies updated historical and anthropological scholarship to the question of why it ran rampant in certain jurisdictions and remained muted in others. Stock up on well actuallys as this comprehensive treatment shows that many traditions, when not outright invented by back-projecting academics, appear later and are more geographically constrained than one might assume.—RDL

Good

The Burglar (Film, US, Paul Wendkos, 1956) Tensions ratchet as a crew of jewelry thieves, led by a gutsy safecracker (Dan Duryea) and including his smoldering quasi-sister (Jayne Mansfield) wait out the aftermath of a big score. Sometimes overwrought acting, and an age gap between Duryea and Mansfield that misses the point of their relationship, mar an otherwise taut and atmospheric noir crime thriller. The pathos of her performance shows how underused she was in her usual roles as a cartoonier Marilyn substitute. Screenplay by David Goodis, based on his novel.—RDL

Happy Death Day (Film, US, Christopher Landon, 2017) Bitchy student Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself repeatedly reliving her birthday when someone in a baby mask murders her on it. This amiable blend of Groundhog Day and Scream doesn’t do anything very original, but it doesn’t do anything very wrong either. Bear McCreary’s score adds fun. –KH

The Last Laugh (Film, US, Fearne Pearlstein, 2016) Can you joke about the Holocaust? Should you? A collection of comedians (mostly Jewish) and Holocaust survivors weigh in on the lines between and around comedy and tragedy. The doc doesn’t pick a side, and even Mel Brooks seems a little scandalized at times. A shrug isn’t a very satisfying answer, but it may be the best one. –KH

The Lineup (Film, US, Don Siegel, 1958) San Francisco cops trace a reckless heroin smuggling ring that has hired psychotic gunman Dancer (Eli Wallach) to recover dope-ridden items from innocent travelers. Enjoying the tense direction, evocative location shooting, and cast of hardboiled mugs requires the viewer to set aside the implausibility of the antagonists’ scheme.—RDL

The Old Masters (Fiction, William Haggard, 1973) An attempted assassination of Tito (called “Milo” in the book) on the literal doorstep of retired head of the Security Executive Colonel Russell throws him into a showdown over a mining concession in Yugoslavia. While the plot and motives remain strong (including one uncharacteristic first-rate gunfight) sadly Russell remains almost an inert spectator. –KH

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Episode 340: Jar Cats

April 19th, 2019 | Robin

In another imperious edition of That Thing I Always Say, Robin says, “Envision this in play.”

Ask Ken and Robin finds Patreon backer Kevin Roy seeking the scoop on remote control inventor John Hays Hammond Jr.

Backer Martijn Waegemakers meets us in the Mythology Hut to ponder the diminishing returns of Robin Hood adaptations.

Backer Dan O’Hanlon summons Ken’s Time Machine to peer into the reality where ecstasy replaced LSD as the iconic sixties drug.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

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Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, envisioning play, Hammond Castle, John Hays Hammond Jr, Ken's Time Machine, LSD, Massachusetts, MDMA, Mythology Hut, Robin Hood, That Thing I Always Say, these tags will attract so much spam

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Martial Arts Murders, Occult Balloonists, and Crucial Supermarket Reforms

April 16th, 2019 | Robin

Balloonists, Alchemists, and Astrologers of the Nineteenth Century: The Tale of George and Margaret Graham (Nonfiction, Daniel Harms, 2019) This slim book contains pretty much all that is known about the Grahams, a wild tale of self- and regular delusion. Harms doesn’t really site their weirdness in context, which is kind of more fun. –KH

Her Smell (Film, US, Alex Ross Perry, 2019) Fading rocker (Elizabeth Moss) rides a wave of cocaine and megalomania to an epic flame-out. Rock ‘n’ roll drama amped up by stylized dialogue, roving handheld camera, strong performances from a great cast and a score that bubbles with unease. With Eric Stoltz, Virginia Madsen, Dan Stevens and Cara Delevingne.—RDL Seen at TIFF ‘18; now in theatrical release.

Kung Fu Jungle (Film, HK, Benny Chan, 2014) When a self-trained fighter starts killing his way through Hong Kong’s top kung fu practitioners, an imprisoned former police martial arts instructor (Donnie Yen) offers to assist, in exchange for temporary freedom. Mixture of cop procedural and martial arts actioner gives action director Yen the framework to stage a variety of themed fights, ending with a thrilling final duel on a busy freeway. AKA Kung Fu Killer. —RDL

So Dark the Night (Film, US, Joseph H. Lewis, 1946) Avuncular Paris detective (Steven Garay) stays in the countryside, leading him to a charming local girl (MIcheline Cheirel) and, eventually, murder. Oddball mix of elements with a bifurcated structure: mild Gallophilic comedy-romance, then a plunge into melancholy nightmare.—RDL

Supermarket Woman (Film, Japan, Juzo Itami, 1996) Irrepressible widow (Nobuko Miyamoto) determines to rescue the failing food mart of a hangdog grade school chum (Masahiko Tusugawa.) Peppy comedy returns to the food and underdog entrepreneurialism themes of his classic Tampopo, sprinkling in the reform and anti-corruption concerns of his later work.—RDL

Good

The Antagonists (Fiction, William Haggard, 1964) An ailing Yugoslavian radar scientist draws attacks from all sides, with Colonel Russell of the Security Executive in the middle. Good on the motives for the characters, but a trifle overdrawn in places. –KH

The Flying Sorcerer (Nonfiction, Francis X. King, 1992) Driven by a citation in Harms (q.v.) I sought out this (very) brief inquest into the ballooning career of the obscure author of The Magus, Francis Barrett. Written for the specialist, it makes very little attempt to connect Barrett’s magic to his aeronautics; even briefer examinations of Barrett’s disciple John Parkins and the alchemist J.P. Kellerman round out the booklet. –KH

Girls of the Sun (France, Eva Husson) Traumatized war correspondent (Emanuelle Bercot) covers an all-woman unit of Yazidi partisans as they fight alongside the Peshmerga to liberate a city held by their former ISIS captors. The standout set-piece of this ripped-from-the-headlines feminist war movie is the gripping extended flashback depicting the escape of the protagonist from her captors.—RDL Seen at TIFF ‘18; now in theatrical release.

My Name Is Julia Ross (Film, US, Joseph H. Lewis, 1945) Wealthy matron (Mae Whitty) and her knife-obsessed son (George Macready) target a job applicant (Nina Foch), drugging her and whisking her to a cliffside Cornwall manor, hoping to brainwash her into posing as his missing wife. The brisk telling of this contemporary gothic and villainous brio of Macready and Whitty distract from the fundamentally absurd premise.—RDL

Nightfall (Film, US, Jacques Tourneur, 1956) Pursued by a dogged insurance investigator (James Gregory) and two bank robbers (Brian Keith, Rudy Bond) who think he has their loot, a fugitive illustrator (Aldo Ray) strikes up sparks with a down-on-her-luck model (Anne Bancroft.) Clipped, fifties hardboiled acting juices up this compact noir thriller, based on a David Goodis novel.—RDL

Rainy Dog (Film, Japan, Takashi Miike, 1998) Discarded yakuza (Show Aikawa) in rainy Taipei plies his trade for a local gang leader while half-heartedly looking after a supposed son his mother has abandoned to him. Miike mostly colors inside the lines for this melancholy crime drama, part of the thematically linked Black Society trilogy.—RDL

Too Many Enemies (Fiction, William Haggard, 1971) Retired head of the Security Executive Charles Russell finds himself embroiled in an Arab pressure plot against an MP. Having foolishly retired his main character, Haggard begins stretching his plots to include him, mitigating one of his great strengths. –KH

Okay

You Might Be the Killer (Film, US, Brett Simmons, 2018) On the run from a slasher killer, camp counselor Sam (Fran Kranz) calls up trope-aware pal Chuck (Alyson Hannigan), who helps him understand the significance of the creepy wooden mask he’s been carrying around with him. The joke of the Sam Sykes/Chuck Wendig tweetfest this adapts was inherent to its format; translated to the screen it becomes yet another unfunny horror spoof. Alyson Hannigan is, I gotta say, spot-on casting for Chuck Wendig.—RDL

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Episode 339: A Lot of Bathories

April 12th, 2019 | Robin

Last week you heard us from Carcosa Con in Poland. This time we’re back and ready to share out experience of the show and the local RPG scene in the Gaming Hut.

Then, in Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, we chat with one of our estimable hosts, Daria Pilarczyk. As project manager of Black Monk Games she has much knowledge to drop on the life of a game company that licenses and translates such titles as Munchkin and Call of Cthulhu.

We stuck around for a few days after the show to explore Wroclaw and Krakow. Travel Advisory finds us delving into a medieval salt mine and checking out a castle that has now fully recovered from a Renaissance-era alchemy accident.

In the spirit of our trip we conclude with the History Hut, profiling veteran commander of multiple revolutions Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

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Tags: CarcosaCon, Daria Pilarczyk, Gaming hut, History Hut, Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Krakow, Poland, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Travel Advisory

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Into the Poirot-Verse

April 9th, 2019 | Robin

The Pinnacle

High Life (Film, France, Claire Denis, 2019) Death row inmates, including a monkish resister (Robert Pattinson) and a controlling scientist (Juliette Binoche) take a one-way spaceship journey beyond the solar system to send astronavigational and reproductive data back to Earth. Hypnotic and distressing, horrible and beautiful vision of hijacked fecundity.—RDL Seen at TIFF, now in US theatrical release.

Jorge Luis Borges (Critical Lives) (Nonfiction, Jason Wilson, 2006) Concise biography of the iconic Argentine fantasist teases out the connections between the short stories and the experiences of their author. Even before becoming fully blind in 1955, Borges led a circumscribed existence, so a short bio like this is the way to reckon with the life behind the work.—RDL

Lucha Mexico (Film, US, Alex Hammon &, Ian Markiewicz, 2016) Documentary profiles the stars of the various Mexican wrestling circuits, many of them second generation performers, as bruised and battered heroes of and for the working class. Goes behind the expected layer of outlandish stagecraft to find the poignant reality outside the ring.—RDL

Swan Song (Fiction, Edmund Crispin, 1947) The death of odious opera star Edwin Shorthouse looks like suicide by hanging — but detective don Gervase Fen solves the locked room mystery with his customary élan, though with less of Crispin’s customary riotous humor. Here, Crispin seems to care a bit more about his side characters’ emotional lives (and about his musical setting), deepening the book nicely. –KH

Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe (Nonfiction, Adam Zamoyski, 2008) Fast-paced, stylish history of the 1920 Russo-Polish War and its climactic “Miracle on the Vistula” that saved peace and democracy in Eastern Europe for two decades. Zamoyski concentrates on the military maneuvers, sidelining the political dimension — a bit of a shame, given how readable Zamoyski can be on such topics. –KH

Good

The Highwaymen (Film, US, John Lee Hancock, 2019) Texas Rangers Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson) come out of retirement in 1934 to hunt down the killers Bonnie and Clyde. Old Costner is great in any rifle-toting squinting role, and once Harrelson shows up to rescue the script from serial cliche this Western/policier finds a rhythm, but “more historically accurate than Arthur Penn” is not in itself a reason to make a movie. –KH

Machete Maidens Unleashed! (Film, Australia, Mark Hartley, 2010) With equal parts rue and perverse pride, interviewees recount the wild period in the early 70s when Roger Corman and others took advantage of ultra-cheap conditions to make a string of boundary-trampling exploitation flicks in the Philippines. Documentary covers an understandably unheralded movie scene rife with paradox, from the films’ misogynistic feminism to a reliance on revolutionary themes made with the eager assistance of the Marcos dictatorship.—RDL

Murder on the Orient Express (Film, US/UK, Sidney Lumet, 1974) Detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) solves the murder of American thug Ratchet (Richard Widmark) on the titular train. Paul Dehn’s script highlights Christie’s mystery, and Lumet deepens characterization in the all-star cast, with excellent performances from (among others) Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, and Vanessa Redgrave. Finney, however, plays Poirot with a hunched posture and nasal Belgian accent that never seem remotely natural. –KH

Shazam! (Film, US, David F. Sandberg, 2019) Orphan Billy Batson (Asher Angel) gains the power of the titular wizard (Djimon Hounsou) and becomes [Captain Marvel] (Zachary Levi). The strength of the film lies in its amiable nature and in the strong casting of Batson and his sidekick Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer); these carry it over a drawn-out origin story and through a too-long final showdown. –KH

Okay

Murder on the Orient Express (Film, US, Kenneth Branagh, 2017) Detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) solves the murder of American thug Ratchet (Johnny Depp) on the titular train. Branagh spends far more time on 65mm tracking shots and bombastic action sequences than establishing the mystery or even directing his all-star cast, who mostly fall back on their favored tics instead; Michelle Pfeiffer runs away with the story, such as it is. Branagh’s Poirot has OCD rather than merely being a fussbudget, but Branagh does intermittently channel the detective’s supreme arrogance. –KH

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Episode 338: Live From CarcosaCon

April 5th, 2019 | Robin

Recorded in front of a live audience, this episode emanates from the 14th century confines of Czocha Castle, on Lake Lesnia, in southwestern Poland, courtesy of our lovely hosts at CarcosaCon.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: As Louise Brooks finds clues, a secret struggle to control feng shui sites rages

April 2nd, 2019 | Robin

Buried for Pleasure (Fiction, Edmund Crispin, 1948) Adrift after editing Langland’s poetry, detective don Gervase Fen decides on a whim to run for Parliament. But his would-be constituency suffers not just from murders, but escaped lunatics, frustrated love, and obsessive pub renovations, leaving Crispin ample scope for his Wodehousian comic instincts. In this one, the side plots outshine the murder, but Fen makes as good a straight man as he does a sleuth. –KH

Fengshui (Film, South Korea, Park Hee-kon, 2018?) Righteous geomancer aasists a callow king boxed in by his chief minister, who has gained a lock on the nation’s qi power by installing his ancestors in auspicious graves. Court intrigue drama tells a secret history of Korea as a fight over places of special power. –RDL

Louise Brooks: Detective (Comics, Rick Geary, 2015) Geary turns his crime-seeking eye to a fictional mystery involving washed-up actress Louise Brooks in 1942 Wichita. The actual mystery is a fine short, but Geary’s real strength as always is his strong line art and his subtle ability to evoke milieu. –KH

Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Nonfiction, Bill Bryson, 2007) Part of the short-form “Eminent Lives” series, Bryson’s mini-biography of the world’s greatest playwright happily brings speculation about the Swan of Avon back to the thin grounds of fact, while serving as a fine primer on Shakespeare’s life and work. A good-humored, but resolutely skeptical, roundup of the “anti-Stratfordian” theorists puts the perfect coda on an evening’s read. –KH

Young Törless (Film, Germany, Volker Schlöndorff, 1966) Prim new boarding school student becomes a complicit observer to the abuse of a classmate. Subtle realism and a sense of place give breathing room to this moral tale, based on a 1906 novel but suffused with consciousness of the Holocaust.—RDL

Good

Who Is Dracula’s Father? (Nonfiction, John Sutherland, 2017) Sutherland teases out some inconsistencies and mysteries in Bram Stoker’s masterpiece novel, but never drills very deep into any of them. Still, a handy resource for Dracula Dossier players or Directors. –KH

Okay

Us (Film, US, Jordan Peele, 2019) On a visit to their summer home, a prosperous black family meets their monstrous doppelgangers. What begins as a superbly uncanny “underclass horror” film suddenly lurches tonally into fightemups and narratively into incoherence. Lupita Nyong’o is wonderful in both roles in every moment, but without a meaningful throughline, even she can’t save the film from its, er, monstrous doppelganger. –KH

Venom (Film, US, Ruben Fleischer, 2018) Maverick reporter (Tom Hardy) screws up his relationship with his lawyer fiancée (Michelle Williams) while investigating her science mogul client (Riz Ahmed) but gets a shot at redemption through his merger with a murderous alien parasite. Tongue-in-cheek CGI fest plays with the werewolf motif and intermittently achieves dumb fun.—RDL

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Archive for April, 2019

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Avengers, Trek, Batman and Beyonce

The Pinnacle

Recommended

Good

Okay

Not Recommended

Episode 341: Trouser Leg of the Mythos

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Witch Well Actuallys and the Ip Man Cinematic Universe

Recommended

Good

Episode 340: Jar Cats

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Martial Arts Murders, Occult Balloonists, and Crucial Supermarket Reforms

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 339: A Lot of Bathories

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Into the Poirot-Verse

The Pinnacle

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 338: Live From CarcosaCon

Ken and Robin Consume Media: As Louise Brooks finds clues, a secret struggle to control feng shui sites rages

Recommended

Good

Okay

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