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 the madness he claims to disdain; and both Simon and Mark talk to Cillian Murphy about his Oscar-nominated turn as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s eponymous biopic.  

Mark gives his thoughts on ‘American Fiction’, along with reviewing Jonathan Glazer’s historical drama ‘The Zone of Interest’, which follows the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp; and ‘Argylle’, a star-studded spy action-comedy about a reclusive author who writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate only to find that the plots of her books are starting to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organisation.  

A very glitzy week for you! 

Time Codes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are also ad-free!): 

08:15 The Zone of Interest review 

22:13 Box Office Top 10 

31:29 Jeffrey Wright interview 

45:47 American Fiction review 

53:41 Laughter Lift 

55:44 Cillian Murphy interview 

01:07:52 Argylle review 

You can contact the show by emailing [email protected] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo  

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