Kermode & Mayo’s Take

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Three more big screen big hitters are getting the Take treatment this week. First up, the British boarding school answer to Booksmart, Extra Geography, which follows the offbeat romantic quest of two Oxbridge hopefuls with an unlikely love interest. Next up, Verity: an Anne Hathaway led horror with a dash of the erotic thriller. And last but not least, we’ll get the Good Doctors’ verdict on Tom Cruise’s latest and quite possibly maddest movie yet, Digger.

Our special guest is Oscar-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin, who chats to Simon about his new film The Social Reckoning, out next week. In this companion piece to The Social Network, he revisits the theme of social media with a focus on The Facebook Files, the expose on the link between facebook’s algorithm and political radicalisation in the run up to the Capitol Riots of 2021. It’s a meaty conversation with one of our greatest living screenwriters, not to be missed.

Plus the box office top 10, and top tips from your correspondence about how to beat bladder-bursting movie runtimes and more in another top-drawer Take.

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

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Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes: 

00:09:38 Extra Geography review 

00:17:07 Box office top ten 

00:29:07 Aaron Sorkin interview 

00:46:31 Verity review 

00:55:14 Laughter Lift 

01:00:21 Digger review 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

George MacKay is our special guest this week, and he’s in full dashing Austenian gentleman mode to tell Simon all about Sense and Sensibility. He plays Edward Ferrars, the handsome and thoroughly upstanding chap who catches the eye of Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Elinor Dashwood. He talks about bringing this Austen classic up to date, three decades on from Ang Lee’s classic screen version starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant.

Mark reviews the film, plus another three big movies hitting cinema screens this week. There’s Heart of the Beast, a survival thriller starring Brad Pitt as an ex-special forces soldier living on society’s inhospitable margins alongside his ex-service dog. Plus we’ll finally get Mark’s verdict on Her Private Hell, the latest neon-soaked feature from recent Take guest Nicolas Winding Refn. Last but certainly not least, Boorman and the Devil - a documentary about the making of the colossally unsuccessful sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic. Surely this one is Kermode catnip.

Plus the weekly joy (and/or pain) of the Laughter Lift, and of your consistently excellent correspondence. Keep it coming!

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:10:15 Her Private Hell review

00:19:29 Box Office Top Ten

00:31:46 George McKay interview

00:47:24 Sense and Sensibility review

00:56:40 Laughter Lift

00:59:20 Boorman and the Devil review

01:08:29 Heart of the Beast review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Legendary French actress Juliette Binoche is our special guest this week. She’ll be talking to Simon about her new film Queen at Sea, a hard-hitting drama examining the tensions and taboos of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s. Plus we’ll hear a little about her dance documentary directorial debut In-I in Motion - which is also released in the UK this week. She even challenges Simon to get on the dancefloor…now that we would like to see…

Mark reviews Queen at Sea, as well as three more big screen releases - it is, as they say, a packed show. We’ll get his verdicts on Resident Evil - an adaptation of the hugely popular videogame from Weapons director Zach Cregger - as well as dark classroom satire Bad Apples, starring Saoirse Ronan, and the latest Aardman animated treat, Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Plus an uncharacteristically quite-funny Laughter Lift (which we really did need this week…), and all your excellent correspondence. Keep it coming please!

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:09:51 Resident Evil review

00:20:20 Box Office Top Ten

00:31:52 Juliette Binoche interview

00:48:02 Queen at Sea review

01:00:04 Laughter Lift

01:03:12 Bad Apples review

01:12:38 Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo   

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. 

On this week's Take, Simon and Mark are back in the booth and diving into a packed slate of new releases. From the spellbinding return of Practical Magic 2 to the vertigo-inducing thrills of Fall 2, they weigh up the latest sequels hoping to recapture cinematic lightning in a bottle. There's also a look at the tense wartime-weather-system drama Pressure and jazz biopic Everybody Digs Bill Evans, exploring the life and legacy of one of the genre’s most influential musicians and featuring last week’s guest Bill Pullman.  

Plus, director Nicolas Winding Refn joins Simon for a conversation about coming back from the dead (for real), and Her Private Hell—his first film in a decade, out on September 25th. Keep your eyes peeled for Mark’s review then too.  

Along the way there's the usual mix of film news, recommendations, correspondence, and of course the Laughter Lift. Time to settle in, press play, and enjoy another trip to the cinema with Mark and Simon.  

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.     

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts   

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected] 

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! 

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!  

Here’s the link for tickets: 

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo  

Timecodes: 

00:00:00 Introduction

00:13:23 Pressure review 

00:23:25 Box Office Top Ten 

00:35:21 Nicholas Winding Refn interview 

00:49:01 Everybody Digs Bill Evans 

00:59:05 Laughter Lift 

01:01:31 Fall 2 

01:12:01 Practical Magic 2 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

This week’s special guest is Hollywood stalwart Bill Pullman, who across the decades has starred in Independence Day, Spaceballs, David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Sleepless in Seattle and many more. This time we see him in Everybody Digs Bill Evans, where he plays the father of the titular jazz legend. He chats to Simon about father-son stories, jazz, and how working in black and white changes his acting.

Mark will review Everybody Digs Bill Evans next week, and in the meantime we’ve got a packed show with four big screen releases up for the Good Doctors’ judgement. We’ve got Late Fame, a New York set indie about an aging former poet (Willem Dafoe), who is surprised to find his work reappraised by a group of young bohemians. Then there’s Leviticus, an Australian conversion therapy horror from the producers of The Babadook and Talk To Me, and Supernature, a love letter to nature documentary shot entirely on Super 8. And finally, following our interview with director Michael Sarnoski last week, the wait is over for Mark’s verdict on The Death of Robin Hood.

All that plus an especially groan-inducing Laughter Lift, and all your top correspondence, including some great What’s On bulletins this week.

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Film Suffolk: linktr.ee/ouatis

Ikea Knightley https://iwittr.com/wiki/page/Ikea_Knightley

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:09:06 Late Fame review

00:18:15 Box Office Top Ten

00:30:20 Bill Pullman interview

00:44:54 Supernature review

00:53:25 Laughter Lift

00:55:16 Leviticus review

01:02:36 The Death of Robin Hood review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Three more of the week’s big screen offerings reviewed by the Good Doctors on the Take. First up, The Dog Stars—Ridley Scott’s latest post-apocalyptic survival thriller offering starring Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin. Then there’s the new drama from our favourite multicoloured Spanish maximalist Pedro Almodóvar, Bitter Christmas, and even more outrageously, Gregg Araki’s kinky comedy I Want Your Sex, starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman.

Plus our guest this week is Michael Sarnoski, director of Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One, and now The Death of Robin Hood, Out next week, it shows us a darker side of the folk legend, following Hugh Jackman’s grizzled Robin Hood in later life as he reckons with the legacy of years of violence. No men in tights here, sorry. Michael chats to Simon and Mark about reimagining this famous take and directing Huge Action through some serious Northern Irish mud.

Laugther Lift too as usual, plus the best of your excellent correspondence, including some great What’s On info and another entry into our new technophobic feature A, I Don’t Like That. Enjoy!

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:12:11 The Dog Stars review

00:21:41 Box Office Top Ten

00:30:35 Michael Sarnoski interview

00:45:08 Bitter Christmas review

00:53:37 Laughter Lift

01:01:28 I Want Your Sex review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Our special guest this week is Johnny Flynn, who stars in & Sons—A dysfunctional family drama with a twist. His character Richard is one of three long suffering sons to Billy Nighy’s A.N. Dyer, a mega-successful novelist turned alcoholic recluse and personal disaster zone. Johnny chats to Simon about the movie, its unusual filmmaking process, and working alongside Nighy, Imelda Staunton, George McKay and Noah Jupe as part of its all-star ensemble cast. Plus we hear a little about his upcoming performances as Paul Simon in South-African-set drama The Road Home, as a beleaguered sheriff in western A Prayer For The Dying, as Dostoevsky in The Idiots, and as Lucuis Malfoy (i.e. Jason Isaacs) in Harry Potter. I do wish someone would give this lad a bit of work, he must be desperate for something to get his teeth into…

Mark reviews & Sons, as well as two more of the week’s most exciting titles. First up, Coyote vs Acme, a live action animation hybrid that sees Looney Tunes’ murderous canine Wile E. Coyote return to the screen in a meta legal drama with the suppliers of his ever-malfunctioning gadgets. Plus, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (one film not two), a meta-slasher starring Gillian Anderson in which a film director becomes obsessed with casting her ‘final girl’ in a classic horror sequel. The most Mark film evz? We’ll find out.

All that plus the Laughter Lift, the return of Simon after Sanjeev’s super subbing last week, and of course your witty, erudite and delightful correspondence. Keep the postbag full please gang!

You can find out more about Medi Cinema and donate here: https://www.medicinema.org.uk

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

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:06:25 Coyote vs Acme Review

00:14:25 Box Office Top Ten

00:26:58 Johnny Flynn interview

00:42:43 & Sons review

00:59:09 Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

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

Supersub Sanjeev is sitting in for Simon on this week’s Take, and he and Mark will be bringing you three brand spanking new reviews of the coming cinematic attractions. The End of Oak Street has got dinosaurs, mysterious teleportation, and… kids with bows and arrows - which is the most unbelievable of those things, according to Sanjeev. But is this 80s-set adventure pleasantly Spielbergian, or just prehistoric? Then there’s Tony, the Anthony Bourdain origin story starring Dominic Sessa as the young rockstar chef to be. It might have Mark salivating - or maybe it’s just an odd mixture of ingredients…

And finally we have Lady, starring this week’s special guest, Sian Clifford. In this madcap comedy the BAFTA-winning Fleabag actress plays a self-obsessed aristocrat who looks in the mirror for so long that she starts to see herself disappearing. She talks to Sanjeev about the role and why she hates being on camera as an actor.

All that plus the Laughter Lift - this week at least delivered by an actual comedian - the box office top 10, and of course your top correspondence.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:10:13 The End of Oak Street review

00:22:52 Box Office Top Ten

00:36:57 Sian Clifford interview

00:51:02 Lady review

01:03:28 Laughter Lift

01:07:25 Tony review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Mark Kermode assesses Eli Roth’s gory horror Ice Cream Man, about an ice-cream van whose treats turn kids into homicidal monsters. He also reviews French drama Love Me Tender, starring Vicky Krieps as a mother whose divorce and sexuality trigger a brutal custody battle. Staying abroad, Mark then covers The Summer Book, a Tove Jansson adaptation set on a Finnish island, featuring a standout turn from Glenn Close as a grandmother helping a grieving child and her withdrawn father.

And Simon Mayo chats to Taika Waititi on adapting the New Zealand novel Wild Pork and Watercress into the much-loved Hunt for the Wilderpeople as it returns in a 10th anniversary 4K release.

Plus, the Box Office Top Ten jumps back in time to 1976. As does the Laughter Lift for that matter….

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

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:11:52 Ice Cream Man review

00:21:32 Box Office Top Ten (1976)

00:33:37 Taika Waititi Interview

00:47:23 Love Me Tender review

00:55:01 Laughter Lift

00:59:52 The Summer Book review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo

Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show - a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time.

Spider-Man is swinging back onto cinema screens this weekend in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland’s masked web slinger is anonymous once again, his identity having been wiped from the memories of his fellow New Yorkers - including those once closest to him. Mark reviews this latest Marvel blockbuster, alongside a homegrown British indie that’s generating some serious buzz: Ish. Recalling Kes, The 400 Blows and the Apu trilogy, it’s a vivid coming-of-age debut you won’t want to miss.

Also coming soon on digital is Our Hero Balthazar, a dark satire tackling gun violence and internet culture, starring Asa Butterfield - who is our special guest this week. He plays Solomon, a gun-obsessed would-be school shooter, online-trolling from the Texas trailer he shares with his granny. The film centres around Solomon’s uneasy friendship with Balthazar, a New York rich kid who craves the social cachet of preventing a shooting by befriending its potential perpetrator. Asa joins Mark and Simon to unpack this transformational performance.

Plus the Laughter Lift, more on our inevitable technological overlords in new mini-feature ‘AI Don’t Like That’, and of course lots of top correspondence from you. Cheers!

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

Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the link for tickets:

https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo

What’s On info:

https://www.deliveryafterdark.com/

https://theatreship.co.uk/#tickets

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

To advertise on this show contact: [email protected]

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:08:29 Ish review

00:16:27 Box Office Top Ten

00:31:22 Asa Butterfield interview

00:46:51 Our Hero, Balthazar review

00:57:48 Laughter Lift

00:59:26 AI don't like that

01:03:32 Spider-Man: Brand New Day review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices