Mark Kermode
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Mark Kermode (born Mark Fairey [1] in 1963) is an English film critic who regularly writes for Sight and Sound magazine and The Observer newspaper. He is most famous for reviewing films on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio Five Live show on Friday afternoons, and is also the resident movie critic for The Culture Show. He is also a critic on other branches of the arts for the BBC2 programme Newsnight Review, and appears occasionally on BBC News 24.
He is currently ranked Number 10 in the Screen Directory's top ten critics of all time. [2]
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[edit] Career
He reviews and debates new movie releases each Friday afternoon on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio Five Live show, described by listeners as "Wittertainment at its most wittertaining."[citation needed] 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, the 2005 Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown, The Holiday, Santa Clause 3 ("the cinematic equivalent of tertiary syphilis") and the 2006 Keenen Ivory Wayans film, Little Man, which he described in his Five Live review as "genuinely evil". 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 and as a podcast.
His appreciation of genre cinema is not always in line with popular taste: he has a personal dislike for both Pirates of the Caribbean films and the Star Wars films. Other pet hates include the actor Julian Sands, "pretty-boys" Orlando Bloom (referred to unapologetically by Kermode as "Borlando Gloom" or "Orloondo Bland") and Hayden Christensen; directors George Lucas and John Boorman; and documentary-maker Michael Moore. On his Five Live segment, he has defended himself against the accusation that he is deliberately contrarian in his opinions.
His emphasis on genre cinema has also meant he often expresses a liking for films panned by other critics, such as Basic Instinct 2 or Lassie because they follow genre expectations.
Kermode plays slap bass in blues/rockabilly/bluegrass band The Dodge Brothers.
[edit] Horror specialisation
He is a visiting fellow at Southampton University, having gained a Ph.D. at Manchester University in horror fiction. This, together with his former contributions to Fangoria, makes him something 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 two editions of BFI Modern Classics: The Exorcist and contributed to many other publications and documentaries about it. Other cult films in his 2002 Top Ten list include Brazil, The Devils and Don't Look Now.[3]
[edit] Background
He attended Haberdashers' Aske's School in Elstree, a few years ahead of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Kermode is notable for always dressing in black, a homage to two of his heroes, music legend Johnny Cash and South African golfer Gary Player. He is married to Professor Linda Ruth Williams who lectures on film at the University of Southampton and has written the book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema. He is a lapsed Methodist, and although his current religious affiliation is uncertain, controversy arose in 2006 when Simon Mayo alluded to Kermode's links with Scientology in the course of a Radio 5 Live transmission. Kermode famously sports a 50s-style quiff hairstyle and is a pesco-vegetarian, justifying this by stating that "fish deserve to die for failing to evolve out of the oceans".
[edit] References
- ^ Matthew Norman (2005-02-07). Matthew Norman's Media Diary. The Independent. Retrieved on February 9, 2007.
- ^ top ten listings. The Screen Directory. Retrieved on February 28, 2007.
- ^ How the directors and critics voted. Sight & Sound. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
[edit] 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
- The Dodge Brothers
- The Dodge Brothers on MySpace
