Ken and Robin Consume Media: Power Fantasy, Sci-Fi Tarot and the Count of Monte Cristo
February 18th, 2025 | Robin
Recommended
The Count of Monte Cristo (Film, France, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, 2024) On the verge of marriage above his station to Mercedes de Moncerf (Anaïs Demoustier), sailor Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney) is betrayed by her jealous cousin and imprisoned in the Chateau d’If black site. Lushly filmed and produced swashbuckler strips down Dumas’ Pinnacle ur-revenge thriller to a mere three hours, staying mostly true to the original while softening some blows for modern audiences.—KH
Crime of Passion (Film, US, Gerd Oswald, 1956) After giving up her career to marry a homicide detective (Sterling Hayden), an erstwhile star reporter (Barbara Stanwyck) succumbs to Machiavellian mania to advance his career. Proto-feminist mix of cop and domestic noir follows the spiral of its flawed protagonist with acerbic abandon.—RDL
Kim’s Video (Film, US, David Redmon & Ashley Sabin, 2023) Documentarian examining the legacy of legendary, defunct NYC video store stumbles across the strange destination of its legality-skirting archive. Tongue-in-cheek celebration of cinephilia moves from investigation to active intervention in its storyline.—RDL
Power Fantasy Vol. 1: The Superpowers (Comics, Image, Kieron Gillen & Caspar Wijngaard, 2025) Beginning with the Trinity detonation, people started getting powers. Six of them have the power to destroy the planet. None of those six really get along. Gillen’s ongoing wrangling with what Watchmen did to the art form has produced a compelling comic that takes some big swings in terms of narrative consequences and risks to audience sympathy; Wijngaard’s art provides clarity of narrative with valuable emotional color contrast.—KH
Sci-Fi Tarot (Tarot, Todd Alcott, 2024) Not the slam dunk of his Pulp Tarot, but closer to that in its homage-collage tendencies than to his Horror Tarot, this tarot casts the traditional suits as glowing rods, ray guns, capsules, and very saucer-like pentacles. Inspirations come from all over SF art, with the strongest DNA from the 1930s to the 1970s. Visually thrilling and in one case (Death) literally breathtaking.—KH
So You Think You Can Be Prime Minister (Nonfiction, Ian Martin, 2024) Jaundiced satire of recent UK politics couched as a how-to manual for the shallow and ambitious, with quizzes and flow charts. Perfect Father’s Day or birthday reading for sarcastic dads who follow the news, from a key writer for The Thick of It and Veep.—RDL
Timecrimes (Film, Spain, Nacho Vigalondo, 2007) Fleeing an attack from a mysterious bandaged figure, an obdurate everyman (Karra Elejalde) jumps into a time machine, which takes him just far enough into the past to unleash a cascade of twisting consequences. Black comic twist on time travel tropes driven by the protagonist’s headlong insistence on the wrongest available decisions.—RDL
Good
Baba Yaga (Film, Italy, Corrado Farina, 1973) Milan fashion photographer resists the advances of a witchy rich lady. Style-obsessed adaptation of Guido Crepax’s erotica comic Valentina with reality horror theme plays like a giallo where the black-gloved killer never shows up. CW: incidental 70s leftist Euro-racism.—RDL
Heartbreak Motel (Film, Indonesia, Angga Dwimas Sasongko, 2024) Traumatized movie star (Laura Basuki) married to insecure, undermining husband (Reza Rahadian) is somehow connected to mousy hotel maid pursued by hunky financier (Chicco Jerikho.) Showbiz melodrama with noirish undertones and fragmented puzzle structure shifts back to convention for its resolution.—RDL
