Mark Kermode
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Hypnotic (2023) |
At times I was reminded of the 2015 thriller Solace, in which Anthony Hopkins helped the FBI by functioning as a sort of psychic satnav. Somehow, this is even sillier. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Little Mermaid (2023) |
It’s functionally good-natured rehash fare, bogged down by some watery CG and a few uncomfortable dips into “uncanny valley”, yet buoyed up by Bailey’s winning titular performance. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2023
|
|
|
|
Beau Is Afraid (2023) |
There’s more than enough absurdist madness here to delight, infuriate and exasperate in equal measure. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 21, 2023
|
|
|
|
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) |
A dazzling collage of interviews, dramatisations, snappily chosen film and TV clips, family footage and narrated biography... - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Return to Seoul (2022) |
Confirms both Chou and Park as major talents to watch, in whatever field. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 08, 2023
|
|
|
|
Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) |
Does an impressive job of reminding us how much generations of rock stars, from Tom Jones to Mick Jagger, Elton John and Prince, have owed to Little Richard, and how radical his presence was in a world not yet ready to pay for his talent. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Apr 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
One Fine Morning (2022) |
Hansen-Løve hits a career high note, delivering a quietly thoughtful and ultimately life-affirming portrait of the strange interaction between loss and rebirth. It’s a miraculous balancing act that pretty much took my breath away. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Apr 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Godland (2022) |
[Leaves] the viewer with a sense of being engulfed by a landscape in which cultures collide – the incarnate and the infinite forever butting heads, neither willing to concede hard-won ground. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2023
|
|
|
|
Law of Tehran (2019) |
Combines the vérité grit of The French Connection with the physical slapstick of Buster Keaton. Really. It’s a deliberately bewildering cocktail of brutal tragedy and gallows farce that runs throughout this very arresting feature. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Apr 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
Infinity Pool (2023) |
It may not be for everyone, but I dived deep into Infinity Pool – twice – and enjoyed the hell out of the experience. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rye Lane (2023) |
Will leave you with a smile on your face, a spring in your step and (hopefully) a renewed confidence in next-wave British film-making. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
Champions (2023) |
What makes Champions a treat is the deftness with which Mark Rizzo’s script sidesteps sentimentality in favour of something more raucously truthful... - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
Close (2022) |
Builds upon the promise of 2018’s Girl, confirming Dhont as a deft and empathetic chronicler of the tumultuous anguish and ecstasy of adolescence. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Mar 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) |
A joyous juxtaposition of quotidian, vérité-style dialogue and fancifully inventive visuals that hits a tragicomic sweet spot. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Feb 19, 2023
|
|
|
|
Women Talking (2022) |
A tale that is at once timely and timeless. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Feb 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
EO (2022) |
What is clear is that this donkey’s-eye view of the world sees mankind in all its madness; the laughter and the cruelty; the kindness and the killing (it’s not just animals who suffer sudden death); the love and the hatred intertwined. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Feb 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Fabelmans (2022) |
Possibly the most lavishly mounted home movie ever made. Appropriately enough, that is its great strength and its fatal weakness. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jan 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Babylon (2022) |
Subtle it is not. Nor is it good. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jan 23, 2023
|
|
|
|
Enys Men (2022) |
I’ve seen the film three times so far, and I can’t wait to dive into it and be swept away again. Bravo! - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jan 16, 2023
|
|
|
|
Till (2022) |
Chukwu asks us to look beyond individual legal outcomes and see the bigger picture – to take strength from tragedy and find hope even in despair. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jan 08, 2023
|
|
|
|
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
Astonishing! Enthralling! Exciting! Immersive! None of these words could sensibly be applied to the three-and-a-quarter-hour Wet Smurfahontas stodgeathon that is Avatar: The Way of Water. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Dec 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Silent Twins (2022) |
Perhaps it’s entirely appropriate that a film about an impenetrable pair should itself prove somewhat impenetrable. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Dec 12, 2022
|
|
|
|
Tori and Lokita (2022) |
Schils and Mbundu keep the film’s feet firmly on the ground, delivering a hefty emotional punch built in equal measure on empathy, admiration and anguish. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Dec 04, 2022
|
|
|
|
Aftersun (2022) |
Wells knows exactly what she’s doing, and her storytelling is as precise as it is piercing. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Nov 20, 2022
|
|
|
|
No Bears (2022) |
A piercingly self-aware portrait of an artist who is not afraid to depict himself and his craft as aloof or insular. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Nov 13, 2022
|
|
|
|
Living (2022) |
Addresses weighty matters of life and death with a winning simplicity that is hard to resist. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Nov 06, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Wonder (2022) |
Few will remain unmoved by this intriguingly adventurous and thought-provoking drama. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 30, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
Swings between the hilarious, the horrifying and the heartbreaking in magnificent fashion. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Emily (2022) |
O’Connor clearly isn’t afraid of rattling cages when approaching sacred texts. There’s something refreshingly untethered about the gusto with which she reimagines Emily... - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 17, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Lost King (2022) |
Whatever its inconsistencies, The Lost King is an underdog story that proves a perfect vehicle for Hawkins’s reliably winning screen presence. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2022
|
|
|
|
Flux Gourmet (2022) |
Strickland devotees will find plenty to chew on as the film makes its strange path through the digestive canals of their twisted imaginations. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2022
|
|
|
|
Belle (2021) |
I thought it was kind of sumptuous. I really enjoyed it and loved the characterization. - Kermode & Mayo's Film Review
Read More
| Posted Sep 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
Blonde (2022) |
At its heart this is a... fever dream of childhood trauma haunting adult life, replete with skin-crawlingly cruel visions of inquisitorial torture, brutal ordeals and hellish infernos – more Nightmare on Elm Street than My Week With Marilyn. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
|
|
|
Moonage Daydream (2022) |
From disposable glam-pop culture to timeless matters of life and death via a kaleidoscopic montage of music, mime, painting, acting, animation and dance, all filtered through a cosmic wardrobe of ever-changing clothes, hair and teeth. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Sep 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Crimes of the Future (2022) |
For all its nostalgic pleasures and sardonic nods, this remains a footnote to the main body of Cronenberg’s work – a playful step back rather than an evolutionary leap forward. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Sep 11, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Forgiven (2021) |
Beneath the garishly brittle portrait of ghastly westerners lording it up in Morocco, there’s a low-key, brooding quality to this accomplished if somewhat inert screen adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 bestseller. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Sep 04, 2022
|
|
|
|
Nope (2022) |
A better movie to argue about than to watch. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Aug 15, 2022
|
|
|
|
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) |
The jokes, the catch-phrases, just incredibly tired... - Kermode & Mayo's Film Review
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2022
|
|
|
|
Hit the Road (2021) |
It’s that blend of heartbreak and joy, profundity and absurdity that is the key to this enchanting movie’s magical spell. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 31, 2022
|
|
|
|
She Will (2021) |
Marries the spiralling, self-reflexive narrative of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House with echoes of the off-kilter visual sensibility of the 1962 cult oddity Carnival of Souls. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 24, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Good Boss (2021) |
An impressively slick and slimy performance from Javier Bardem is the standout selling point for this serviceable if (perhaps appropriately?) workaday satire on corporate corruption and alienated capitalism. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Brian and Charles (2022) |
The result has homemade charm to spare, proving delightfully ridiculous but also poignant. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 10, 2022
|
|
|
|
Nitram (2021) |
[A] quietly harrowing drama... - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jul 04, 2022
|
|
|
|
Elvis (2022) |
Of the actors who have previously tried to bottle Elvis’s lightning-like magic, none has come close to the physical, emotional, electrical energy that throbs through Austin Butler’s titular performance here. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 27, 2022
|
|
|
|
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) |
Manages to keep one foot firmly on the floor of enjoyably progressive entertainment even as it dances around a peculiarly British minefield in which anxiety and openness about intimacy collide. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 20, 2022
|
|
|
|
Jurassic World Dominion (2022) |
Ho hum. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 12, 2022
|
|
|
|
Men (2022) |
A playfully twisted affair – not quite as profound as it seems to think, perhaps, but boasting enough squishy metaphorical slime to ensure that its musings upon textbook male characteristics are rarely dull, and sometimes deliciously disgusting. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted Jun 05, 2022
|
|
|
|
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
An eye-popping blockbuster that, for all its daft macho contrivances, still manages to take your breath away, dammit. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
Benediction (2021) |
In Sassoon’s story, Davies finds a narrative that cuts right to the heart of several of his personal preoccupations. - Observer (UK)
Read More
| Posted May 22, 2022
|
|
|
|
Moonfall (2022) |
It's like someone went 'Alexa write a really, really bad science fiction script'. - Kermode & Mayo's Film Review
Read More
| Posted May 20, 2022
|