Kermode & Mayo’s Take

With the 2024 Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, the most trusted voices in film Mark and Simon are here to guide you through the 10 films in the running for Best Picture.   Featuring highlights from interviews with directors Greta Gerwig, Celine Song and Jonathan Glazer, and actors Cillian Murphy (an exclusive unheard part of his chat with the pair), Emma Stone, and Jeffrey Wright. Plus Mark’...

This week, acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve and renowned composer Hans Zimmer join Simon for a chat about their hotly-anticipated project, ‘Dune: Part Two’ - the next chapter in their adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi saga.  Mark also gives his take on the film, as well as reviewing ‘Four Daughters’, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary, which mixes fact and fiction to...

This week, director Jonathan Glazer talks to Simon about his Bafta award-winning and Oscar-nominated historical drama ‘The Zone of Interest, which follows the commandant of Auschwitz and his wife, as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a house next to the camp. Meanwhile, Mark gives his take on an array of new releases, including ‘Perfect Days’, Wim Wenders’ latest offering, whic...

Happy Valentine’s! Sit back and enjoy our latest episode – a gift to all film lovers. This week, director Michael Winterbottom talks to Simon about his new biographical thriller ‘Shoshana’, which follows the tragic real life love story between Shoshana Borochov and Tom Wilkin, set against the British Mandate in Palestine. Mark will be reviewing ‘Shoshana’ next week, but, in the meantime, gives his...

This week, Steve McQueen and his wife, historian, filmmaker and producer Bianca Stigter, are in the studio to chat with Simon about ‘Occupied City’, their four-hour documentary about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam from 1940-45, which is based on Stigter’s book on the subject. Mark gives his thoughts on the film, along with reviewing ‘Your Fat Friend’, a documentary that charts the rise of writer...

It’s a bumper week for (lauded) guests! Simon chats to Jeffrey Wright about his Oscar-nominated role in ‘American Fiction’, which tells the story of a Black novelist, frustrated with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes, who uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, only to find himself at the heart of hypocrisy and t...

This week, Simon sits down for a thoughtful and moving chat with director Andrew Haigh about his new Bafta-nominated drama ‘All of Us Strangers’, which sees Andrew Scott play a lonely screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home, where his parents appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died 30 years ago. Mark also gives his take on the film, as well reviewing ‘Baghead’, a horror i...

This week, the one and only Daniel Kaluuya is in the studio and ready to chat with Mark and Simon about his dystopian directorial debut – co-directed with his longtime friend and collaborator Kibwe Tavares - ‘The Kitchen’, which sees a funeral-service worker looking for a way out of the chaotic housing block of the title.   Mark also offers up his critical perspective on the film, as well as revie...

OK, now we are really back! Mark and Simon are firmly back in their seats and ready to shepherd you through a new year in cinema. This week, Simon sits down with Emma Stone and Ramy Youssef to discuss their roles in Yorgos Lanthimos’ wild new science fantasy black comedy ‘Poor Things’, which tells the story of a young woman in Victorian London, who, after being crudely resurrected by a scientist f...

We’re back! Well kind of. This week, Robbie Collin and Rhianna Dhillon are filling in for Mark and Simon, who are still recovering from their completely raucous New Year celebrations. Rhianna chats to director James Hawes about his new war drama ‘One Life’, which sees both Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn star as humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who is known for his role in rescuing Jewish children d...

This week sees Mark review ‘Raging Grace’, a social issue drama-come-gothic horror about a Filipino single mother working in a sinister British family mansion; ‘Priscilla’, Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir about her complicated relationship with music icon Elvis Presley; and ‘Scala!!!’, a documentary telling the riotous story of the famed London cinema, which inspired...

It’s Christmas! This week, Simon chats to Zack Snyder about his new space opera ‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’, which sees an ex-soldier search for allies to help defend her home when it is threatened by the cruel ruling Imperium. Mark gives his take on the film, as well as reviewing ‘The Boy and the Heron’, the long-awaited and apparently final film from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyaza...

This week sees Mark and Simon chat to director, writer and producer Taika Waititi and American Samoan footballer Jaiyah Saelua about ‘Next Goal Wins’, a sports comedy-drama based on the documentary of the same name, which chronicles the national team of American Samoa as they try to recover from the indignity of the worst loss in international football history and attempt to qualify for the 2014 F...

Simon sits down with director and screenwriter Paul King and screenwriter Simon Farnaby to discuss their new Timothée Chalamet-starring Christmas blockbuster, ‘Wonka’, which is a prequel to the Roald Dahl children’s classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Mark gives his take on the film, along with reviewing ‘Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain’, the Saturday Night Live trio’...

It’s another bumper week for guests: Simon and Mark chat to their fave “gorgeous George” Mackay about his new psychosexual noir ‘Femme’, which sees a man who is targeted in a horrific homophobic attack seek revenge on one of his attackers, played by Mackay. They also say hello to Jason Isaacs, who is here in the studio to chew the fat and discuss his turn as Hollywood legend Cary Grant in the ITV...

Strap in for a bumper week of interviews: Simon sits down for an entertaining chat with Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby to discuss their turns in Ridley Scott’s new epic, ‘Napoleon’, which looks at the military commander’s origins and ruthless climb to emperor through the prism of his volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine; and both Simon and Mark talk to Jodie Whittake...

Simon meets director Todd Haynes to discuss his thorny, new offering ‘May December’, which stars the powerhouse duo of Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, and tells the story of a seemingly perfect married couple’s marriage buckling under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their notorious tabloid romance twenty years prior. Mark also weighs in on the film, along w...

Simon sits down with actor-writer-director Emerald Fennell to discuss her new, star-studded, class-skewering, psychological thriller ‘Saltburn’, which sees an Oxford scholarship student drawn into the world of a charming aristocrat when he invites him to his family’s sprawling country estate.   Mark reviews ‘The Automat’, a Mel Brooks-fronted documentary centered on the vending machine popularised...

This week, Simon sits down with the brilliant and always-interesting Gabriel Byrne for a philosophical chat about his turn as the legendary Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in ‘Dance First’, James Marsh’s experimental biographical drama. Their conversation is so good, there’s more of it in Take 2! Mark also gives his thoughts on the film, as well as reviewing ‘How To Have Sex’, cinematographer-turn...

This week, certified film royalty is in the studio! Mark and Simon sit down with Martin Scorsese’s legendary film editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who is here to discuss restoring her late husband director Michael Powell’s equally legendary body of work as part of the iconic filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger. She also talks about her own work with Scorsese. A must listen! Mark reviews the restorati...

Tristan Redman is a journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage bedroom – weirder than normal. When, years later, he discovers subsequent occupants of his family home were haunted by the ghost of a faceless woman, he’s curious. Because by a strange coincidence, it just so happens that the house Tristan grew up in is right next door to a murder scene - where h...

Simon may be back in the studio, but this week Mark steps into the interviewer’s chair. He sits down with legendary documentarian Errol Morris to discuss his new film about the storied life and career of the equally legendary spy novelist, John le Carré. Mark also gives his take on ‘Foe’, a psychological sci-fi starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a married couple conscripted into an off-plan...

This week, Mark hosts the show alongside Take fave Ben Bailey-Smith. Ben sits down with one of Hollywood’s finest actresses Laura Linney to discuss her sentimental comedy-drama ‘The Miracle Club’, which follows a group of Dublin women in 1960’s Ireland as they embark on a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Lourdes. Mark offers his own thoughts on the film, while also giving his take on ‘Blackberry’,...

This week, Simon sits down with director Gareth Edwards to talk about his new AI-centred sci-fi action thriller epic, ‘The Creator’. Mark reviewed this last week. Other films Mark gives his takes on include ‘The Exorcist: Believer’, the sixth instalment of the horror franchise, which sees Hollywood icon Ellen Burstyn reprise her role from the original film; ‘The Burial’, a Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee...

This week’s episode sees Simon interview director Craig Gillespie, to discuss his film 'Dumb Money’, which is based on the true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop(!) into the world's hottest company. Mark reviewed this in full last week. Other films Mark reviews include ‘The Creator’ - set against the backdrop of a war between humans and...