Mark Kermode

well there might be some, but it would be a bit Alan Partridge to work out who...

x-post

He's a tramp
They adore him
And I only hope
He'll stay that way

He's a tramp
He's a scoundrel
He's a rounder
He's a cad

He's a tramp
But I love him
Yes, and even I
Have got it pretty bad

You can never tell
When he'll show up
He gives you
Plenty of trouble
I
guess he's just a
No 'count pup
But I wish that he
Were double

He's a tramp
He's a rover
And there's nothing
More to say

If he's a tramp
He's a good one
And I wish that I
Could travel his way

Kermode is not his 'real' name, and he went to school w/ David Baddiel. Most ppl I know who know him say he's v. nice.

Yeah his religiosity was a surprise too.

If anyone can get his New Statesman "best of 2003" piece on the internet, print it here: the man has lousy taste.

On the other hand, he's better than Ph*ll*p Kerr.

Hahaha!

The reason he won't have seen the Simpsons before is that he doesn't have a tv, or at least he didn't until recently.

He has been mentioning the fact that he goes to church for ages on Mayo's show.

'Mark Kermode is not his real name. He changed it after he left school. His real name is Mark Fairey.'

Then again, someone else there says 'his real name is Mark Shitehouse'.

He is certainly not Frank Kermode's son.

Oh, I feel your pain!

Kermode is a Manx name, and MK certainly mentions going to the Isle of Man a lot, so I think it's his real name. No idea if he's related to Frank.

I would like it if he'd not mention the Exorcist. Just once, you know.

What Chuck says vis a vis his skiffle band leader on the Baker TV show is correct. He was a regular on the Radio 5 morning edition as film critic, so much so he got a spin-off afternoon show before R5 went tits up. Don't care who he is related to, his quiff must annoy critics sitting behind him.

http://www.dogbomb.co.uk/board/arc/topic/4817.html

seems like another one of those alt-universe ILXs!

yes and what pete said

I missed the Oscar podcast because I was on holiday and would quite like to hear it. Does anyone still have it and feel like ysiing it or something?

http://download.yousendit.com/7D61C33261BBFFD4

Excellent. Thanks James.

his real name is Mark Fairey.

I don't think he's a very good film reviewer at all, but listening is a ritual.

I quite like it when he fills in as film critic for the Observer, if only because he's a lot better than Phillip "give the whole fucking plot away, why don't you" French.

Happy birthday Mark Kermode! A bouncing 45 today!

I guess Kermode and Lamarr will be fighting over the last skiffle box set in the shop.

it's funny this whole 'is he frank's son' business. i don't think he is anymore, but he *is* manx, i'm pretty sure (like frank and me), and his real name, acccording to wiki (fairey) is also kind of manx-y.

definitely a revolutionary communist though.

(xpost) Kermode can distract Lamarr by pointing across the room and saying "hey, isn't that a rare King Tubby 12" over there?"

dear Mark Kermode, shit being "dark and edgy" does not equal shit being good. kthxbye

they're both bad but the thread-kid is definitely MUCH worse

MK aka MF is married to a critic who is quite interesting not least bcz her work is very knottily BDSM-adjacent which ALWAYS LEAVES ME WONDERING WHAT LEATHERBOY KERMODE etc

kermode the flog

in the S&S office we used to make speculative jokes abt why one or the other's copy was late, jokes involving fisting, i'm sorry this is just the historical facts from a vanished and lamentable time

I loved tsof:ao even when I thought he was being a wally (which was sometimes)

i think i got attacked for hating, hating cousins in tsof in the relevant thread

The speculation of fisting: age-old I mean, that wasn’t an xpost

I think Cousins is a good close reader but a bad theorist, whereas Mr Fairey is just bad all over

I just think he has a nice voice

kermode the flog

You guys... I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand him. Brought a tear to my eye it has. Cannot think of a critic who gets more wrong.

I read most or all of one of mk’s books in a pub once, speaking of masochism

what does he say in the first place to get wrong, i ask

here is the thread, i am surprisingly pro MC (given me) and chairman alph says his voice is "lovely": Mark Cousins' The History of film: An Odyssey

I was just about to mention that Kermode's wife is a much more interesting critic on some of the same 'edgy' material, but thought it would be a kind of reverse sexism, or something.

The defense of Kermode is that he often promotes good/interesting films to 'mainstream' audiences - much more than Barry Norman etc ever did. I imagine that, like Peter Bradshaw, he is well liked by arthouse film distributors and cinemas.

His BFI book on The Exorcist is a decent piece of film history/research (less so as a piece of critical thinking); some of the commentary tracks he has conducted - on The Wicker Man and The Devils - are pretty proficient. You don't work for the BBC for 25 years without learning some basic interviewing/moderating skills.

His radio show w/ Mayo is horrendous.

here is the thread, i am surprisingly pro MC (given me) and chairman alph says his voice is "lovely": Mark Cousins' The History of film: An Odyssey

― mark s, Thursday, 26 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

In my defence I am a foreigner who still finds some charm in the accents from this rainy fascist island.

careful now

😬

much of the detail of me on the other thread is bcz i was alone finally closing up my mum and dad's house after dad died (mum died some years before) and had a lot of time on my hands in the evening and was often QUITE DRUNK as is very evident at one point (ie i say so out loud)

i think i got drunk enough to go liveblog THIN RED LINE on one of morbs's malick threads not devoted to thin red line and he got cross with me

I wonder now if the idea for MUBI basically came about because of that series. It certainly seemed to open up the space for these films outside your arthouse cinema (I have my struggles with MUBI/watching really demanding film outside of the cinema but I am also very glad it exists)

a friend said "with MUBI in the lockdown i can now watch all these new films by up and coming directors!" and inside (ie not to them) i was like "DO I HAVE TO??!!"

but obviously i have all kinds of problems

In my defence I am a foreigner who still finds some charm in the accents from this rainy fascist island.

Come now, is Ireland really that bad?

id tell ye more often how great it is but honestly, twould feel like rubbing noses in it given where most of ye live

I like his YouTube film reviews with Simon Mayo. Not super insightful but he at least digs into the themes a bit. Simon is a good foil for him.

Come now, is Ireland really that bad?

― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Says he was born in Belfast *runs into minefield*

Boris' bridge is looking more unlikely by the hour.

a friend said "with MUBI in the lockdown i can now watch all these new films by up and coming directors!" and inside (ie not to them) i was like "DO I HAVE TO??!!"

but obviously i have all kinds of problems

― mark s, Thursday, 26 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

You've watched quite a lot of MUBI in your time though (films that are not by up and coming directors but still)

im old and i mostly watch old stuff

"His radio show w/ Mayo is horrendous."

this is something that cannot be overstated enough, it's a fucking horrid experience before you even know Leatherboy Commode has a completely fabricated name and is probably part of the Christian dogging movement. I have good memories of Barry Normie reviewing Highlander and Big Trouble in Little China even though he was a complete prick! Whenever I hear this cunt talking I'm ready to launch the fucking radio.

Imagine if Keir Starmer reviewed films on the tadio

still inseparable from this classic vid for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTf_lo1zuqc

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Facebook just suggested I might want to read Mark Kermode's piece in the Observer about working from home.

Facebook was wrong.

I have good memories of Barry Normie reviewing Highlander and Big Trouble in Little China

― calzino, Friday, March 27, 2020 1:15 AM

Curious about this.

The person who made that video seems to be mostly upset about Kermode promoting Cannibal Holocaust, for ethical reasons.

Only really a few things I dislike

- His rants are tiresome. I don't know why he bothers expending so much time and energy on bad films. He's hardly alone in this but I'd imagine you get this out of your system early on?
- He gives thumbs up to way too much blockbuster fluff and crowdpleasers.
- He used his Kermode Uncut videos for not enough interesting stuff. Why are his BFI streaming choices so much better? Why didn't he talk about films like that all the time? Did BBC have to approve all the topics?
- He has a very low hit rate when he's trying to be funny.

Things I like

- Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he might have done more than anyone to promote Ken Russell in the past few decades. Certainly one of his most visible cheerleaders.
- His BFI choices are generally good.
- Last year he did a summation of the year's releases and it was surprisingly wide ranging, ton of stuff from all over the world.

Although I would prefer Robbie Collin or someone else, I'm a bit puzzled by the extent of peoples hatred for him. Never thought he was particularly high on the nonsense film analysis scale.

I don't think BBC or any other major channel would have a critic who had completely sensible opinions about shitty blockbusters.

And, magnificently, we managed to piss off the Daily Mail critic (the one who said I watch too many films) AGAIN! Huzzah! Job done! pic.twitter.com/luK2P2Inqp

— Mark Kermode (@KermodeMovie) April 3, 2020

pic.twitter.com/luK2P2Inqp

whatevs

https://twitter.com/KermodeMovie/status/1245971466514059264/photo/1

this absolute wrongness?

oh its posted now and I've fucked it as well! Lol what an absolutely stupid challop

it's as bad as saying Jeff Koons was better than Warhol, just utter wrongness. Oldman is a useless twat as well, apart from in Prick Up Your Ears!

tbf Kermode's being saying, "Actually I don't own a TV", since before it became fashionable for other twats to say it.

inasmuch as they're comparable (not very) most films are better than most TV shows but in a fight between the Daily Mail and Mark Kermode the only winner is the person who didn't see this little spat in the first place

I think Oldman's excessive vanity and egomania are what marks him out as a mediocre (dare I say overrated - no it's banned on ilx!) hack actor, as personified in that shift as Churchill a few years back. Never seen such a risible pile of plop in my life that serious film critics were actually being quite polite about. OMG it was a fucking joke.

You think that literally every actor is overrated calz!

The vast majority of them are.

Has the fact that Kermode is a convert to Anglicanism been mentioned?

some actors are brilliant, even in average stuff like Alec Guinness for example. But Gary Oldman more often than not is the main reason lots of movies are bad imo

there were suggestions of god-bothering tendencies upthread, didn't know the details. figures he'd be into the worst branch of Christianity.

i'm usually with Hitch as far as actors are concerned.

yep Hitch was right, there should be a maximum wage for these fuckers and they should be thrown off the set if they come with attitude and ego and should be treated like shit!

they should be on apprenticeship wages when they are shit, not easy money for just turning up!

i dislike the whole premise of the series, him demystifying cinema, spilling the secrets. the magic is part of why i watch films, i don't want them unmagiced.