Mark Kermode
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Mark Kermode (born 1963) is a British film critic who regularly writes for Sight and Sound magazine and The Observer newspaper. He is also a critic on other branches of the arts for the BBC2 programme Newsnight Review, and frequently appears on The Culture Show and BBC News 24.
Popularly, he is best known for reviewing and debating the new movie releases each Friday afternoon on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio Five Live show. While he gives many favourable critiques, it is his scathing 'rants' that are most memorable, among them his scornful assessment of notorious 2004 Brit flick Sex Lives of the Potato Men and the 2005 Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown. Kermode's vivacious reviews have gained him a dedicated following, and the show has gained a wide following internationally, now that BBC Radio is available online. The Five Live show is also available as a podcast.
He is a visiting fellow at Southampton University, having studied his Ph.D at Manchester University in horror fiction. This, together with his former contributions to Fangoria, make him somewhat of a horror film expert, in particular on his favourite film The Exorcist. He is considered one of the world's leading authorities on that film, having written multiple editions of BFI Modern Classics: The Exorcist and contributed to many other publications and documentaries about it. Other cult films in his Top Ten list (published in 2002 [link]) include Brazil, The Devils, and Don't Look Now.
His appreciation of genre cinema is not always in line with popular taste: he has a personal dislike for both and the Star Wars films. Other pet hates include the actor Julian Sands, "pretty-boys" Orlando Bloom (referred to unapologetically by Kermode as "Orloomo Bland") and Hayden Christensen; documentary-makers Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore; and directors George Lucas and John Boorman
His empathasis of genre cinema has meant he often expresses a liking for films panned by other critics, such as Basic Instinct 2 or Lassie because they follow genre expectations.
He received early television exposure playing bass guitar in the house band on Danny Baker's BBC1 chat show. His musical tastes include a passion for the girl group Bananarama and for the 70s pop group the Rubettes.
He sports a 50s-style quiff hairstyle and is a pesco-vegetarian and church-goer, who has some cynicism about Darwin's theory of evolution.
He is married to Professor Linda Ruth Williams who lectures on film at Southampton universtity and has written the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema.
He is often mistaken for Frank Kermode and Mark Lamarr.
External links
- [Kermode Film Page]
- [IMDb: Mark Kermode]
- [Reviews archive @ Rotten Tomatoes]
- [Kermode's self written biography page at the University of Southampton]
- [Podcast, download or stream Kermode's weekly reviews on Radio Five Live]
- [Kermode Uncut – An archive of articles written for the Film Four website]
- [Livejournal Mark Kermode Appreciation Society]
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