09/02/24 Box Office Top Ten – Kermode and Mayo’s Take

#MarkKermode #SimonMayo #FilmReviews

Mark and Simon run through this week’s box office top 10…

To hear more, follow Kermode and Mayo’s Take wherever you get your podcasts: https://listen.sonymusic-podcasts.link/TFTF28194?sid=kermodeandmayo.com

Box office top 10 yes at 40 days of heaven so this is the the reissue of uh of the Terrence Malik film which introduced The World To The Genius of Linda mans who’s very sadly no longer with us but went on to do brilliant work in Wanderers and and out of the blue

Great to see Days of Heaven back on a big screen just but just the astonishing screen presence of Linda mans is and hats off to Terrence Malik for having the the gumption to cast her in that role and she’s she’s just brilliant into the 10 um in the UK American Fiction

It’s number eight in America uh this is from Louise Shaw in Chesterfield long-term list a first time emailer but felt compelled to write after a secret screening of American fiction the way these secret screenings work at our local world of city is that a few people uh always leave when the

Film’s title appears on the certification screen because they’ve quotes never heard of it then a few people leave around 50 minutes in because it’s quotes not for them not for this film everyone stayed which I feel is tantamount to the warmth originality and good humor that the film

Oozed from the outset every character even those unseen was believable in their backstory interaction with others and crucial in moving the story forwards every actor had an effortless on-screen presence which made the dialogue flow as if it were instinctive rather than scripted and there were laughs audible laughs being unashamedly out loud which

Created the perfect shed cinemar experience which is surely high on the list of reasons why Cinema exists well done to all involved in American fiction I’m sure this will be in my top five films of the year keep up the good work you’re my main motivation for driving to

Work on Fridays which is kind of scary really because that implies if we weren’t doing this you just stay would just stay a home and have a pajama day or something like that but anyway um I presented the critic Circle the London critics Circle film Awards on um uh

Sunday night and Jeffrey Wright got the Dillis Powell award and he did and he was which was presented to him by called Jeff actually um because obviously the direct of the film and obviously you did the Jeffrey wght interview after we had done the review anyway Jeffrey Wright

Did the most brilliant speech about Dillis poell about whom he hadn’t known anything until he won the Dillis poell award and it was that thing when you’re standing on stage with somebody who really knows how to do a speech and it was like okay in fact in the interview

Which as we’ve mentioned a number of times was included in the show last week so you did your review without having heard the Jeffrey right interview but it turns out that the stuff that he is most proud of is the stuff that you weren’t sure about all the family stuff and I’ve

Watched it a second time and I do think it it does integrate really well yes I I it may be that I’ve called this wrong I will go back and watch it again and another friend of mine who I respect very much said said exactly the same

Thing um but anyway so uh number 10 here number eight in the states is American fiction number nine is the holdovers which I loved I mean I was having a discussion with uh somebody about Celluloid and um and we were saying when when you can make the holdovers look as

Convincingly Celluloid as it is maybe maybe there’s a time to stop you know you okay well fair enough poor things is it number eight number 10 in the states AB absolutely love it thought it was just great uh really really really enjoying and I’m I’m really delighted that J kin Fedrick has been

Nominated for an Oscar for best score because I think that score is wonderful woner at seven and number four in the states so that’s number that’s his ninth week in the charts it has been a runaway success and I I absolutely hands up I would not have predicted that it would

Have done that well anyone but you is it six yeah would have seen it over the weekend but I was presenting the London critic Circle film Awards so had other things on number five is the zone of Interest so this was another big winner at uh those Awards um it is a really

Powerful film and actually I think it’s the more I think about it and I have thought about it a lot now and realize how much it has stayed with me and at the awards um the guy did the sound and so mik leevy was there and Johnny Burns

Was were there and they composers well Mev is a composer and Johnny Burns does this the sound and of course they they what they’ve said is that the sound and the composition are very much so they were um I spoke to both of them and it

Was I do think that the sound is is a huge part of the film That You Don’t See sorry you ever no no this is quite interesting Adam grman from Vancouver British Columbia yes thank you both for the long and very thoughtful discussion on Jonathan Glazer’s holy unique film

The Zone of Interest I had a chance to see Glazer’s latest at the wonderful Fifth Avenue Cinema in my home city of Vancouver British Columbia with my good friend Jesse I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like it before and isn’t that what the best cinemar does it took hours

For the knot in my stomach to ease and for me to work the constant mechanical hum of the soundscape out of my head days later I was still thinking of that inventive shocking and moving final scene of HSE who if you didn’t hear it last week he’s the commant of

Aitz looking down the corridor and what he sees or perhaps doesn’t see I also wanted to share something with you about the particular scenes you spent a few minutes on of the young girl and the apples yes like you I was also a little unclear about what Glazer was trying to

Represent with these scenes and the DraStic shift in the way they’re filmed reading an interview with Glazer in the guardian was incredibly enlightening in the article glaz had talked about how difficult this film was to make given the subject matter and Viewpoint and how close he was to walking away from it

That’s why these sections of the young girl were so important to him while the use of the thermal imaging camera makes them feel like scenes from a ghostly horror movie they are the opposite they are the rare moments of Hope and light amid the black night yes while HSE is

Reading bedtime fairy tales to his children the real fairy tale is happening outside Glazer based this on a true story which is incredible and I hadn’t heard this story before he met a 90-year-old woman called Alexandria who worked for the Polish resistance at just the age of

12 she told Glazer how she would cycle to aitz and place apples in the Earth for the starving prisoners to find while doing their hard labor the following day this same woman the prisoners come and work in the garden of the of the house this same woman lived in the house the

Zone of Interest was shot in and it was her bike and dress they used for the young actor in the movie describes these scenes as that small Act of resistance the simple almost holy Act of leaving food I was looking for the light somewhere and I found it in her sadly

Alexandria died just a few weeks after she and Glazer spoke an incredible story which once I read it made those scenes feel essential well thanks again for having such a rich and insightful discussion on this important film um more than ever down with the narcis but

That is interesting I feel as I want to go and watch it again no absolutely knowing that that’s where he found the light can I just say two things um just relation in relation to the sound so as I said mevy I love their work and I I

Think uh I think that the the score they did was brilliant even though it’s used very sparingly um Johnny burn the sound designer known for get this the zone of Interest poor things nope Under the Skin you go okay kind of knows knows what he’s doing um Donna says I went to see

Zone of Interest earlier this evening at the impossibly well priced world of city in Northampton $6.99 a ticket on average as the young attendant scanned my phone to admit me to the screen she said breezily enjoy the film I thanked her knowing full well that I wasn’t

Expecting to enjoy the film given its content I was prepared for a difficult couple of hours but knew this would be an important and given the worrying right-wing Trends and trajectories emerging pertinent watch what I wasn’t prepared for however was the film’s incredible soundscape the harrowing chilling and

Chaotic cacophony of noise did did more heavy lifting than any other piece of sound design I think I’ve ever experienced in a film and while we weren’t witnessed to the atrocities from which these nightmarish sounds were generated their use in this way made them exponentially more powerful all

Complemented by an equally alarming and breathtakingly disturbing score an astonishing example of I was going to say show not tell actually here don’t tell this film and its reminder of the sheer horror of which humans are capable will stay with me for some time as it should I would encourage everyone to see

It just don’t expect to enjoy it thank you for the time reading my email uh Donna thank you very much and you should definitely go see it absolutely number four is all of us strangers again uh big winner at the critic Circle Awards and what I mean just what a moving film it

Was I think when you were talking to Andrew ha and he said that thing about so many people have done that thing about telling him their own stories um I think that’s that’s the thing that really cuts to the to the heart of it

And as I said I spent a large section of one of my most recent therapy sessions talking to my therapist about the use of um uh always on my mind in that film which is you know we just started talking about it and all other problems

Went out the window in which CLA Foy sings along to the Pet Boys Mean Girls is at three which has done very well considering particularly that it was originally intended for straight to streaming our gu isn’t number two here it’s number one in America so I saw

After I’d reviewed it because I mean I hadn’t seen any other for I read it is got kicked around town by everybody else including Robbie cin of this Parish who who absolutely excoriated it um I think so far it’s me and uh Matthew is a colleague and I think one other person

But we’re in the minority but I’m standing by it I enjoyed it uh Andrew Griffiths I decided to have the foolish idea of going to the pictures without consulting the New Testament of the church wi detainment I still haven’t heard the review but my assumption is

That the good doctor was as perplexed as I was as to how this was green lit I must admit I was tempted by the Stellar cast list and the trailer made it look interesting well cudos to the trailer makers cuz the film was utter tripe there are specifics to get into that

Would spoil some of the plot points but it stretched the suspension of disbelief to the Limit within the first 10 minutes and after that I had to struggle not to repeatedly matter oh come on at very regular intervals I wanted to enjoy it and I always enjoyed Brian Cranston

Giving maximum ham but I felt the actors themselves didn’t fully believe in the script so how could I uh I now have to profusely apologize to my girlfriend and I’m now forbidden from choosing spontaneous movie Nights the one benefit is that the ticket was free please someone reign in Matthew Vaughn uh Dr

Katie says Dear learned doctors me and the good gentleman surgeon him indoors needed some light relief so we took in a showing of Aral at our local Multiplex he had a great cast to embrace the craziness with gusto fantastic locations and extraordinary set pieces the standout being the gas and dance

Sequence that altogether should have made a great big smile of a movie bafflingly it was a huge anti appointment that’s a good word it is too many twists and turns made a giant messy scribble of a story that left us both a bit bored and just wanted it to finish

It was great the M Matthew Vaughn’s previously learing eye was absent But ultimately this was a film that was less than the sum of its parts thanks for all the wonderful wittering and for the excellent produ oh yeah okay and all that kind of stuff thank you Dr KY so

Nega it is just just negatives well there we go I mean all I can say is this as we’ve said many times you know it’s it’s all to do with your own personal responses and I can’t lie I enjoyed it I thought it was the most fun I’ve had in

A Matthew Vaughn film since kickass uh number one is migration number five in the states uh sha says Dear malard and uration teal I took my son to see migration at our local view uh Cinema the weekend the trip to the cinema is a fairly common occurrence for us these

Days he’s almost four and was born under the strictest lockdown conditions one of our first communal postl down outings with him was to our local Cinema who show an excellent selection of programs and films for small humans on Saturday and Sunday mornings migration started promisingly with a Minion short that he

Was so invested in he forgot to eat his hot non-code compliant corn-based sweet crunchy SN I thought the minion shot was the best thing the screening was sold out and full of rule Breakers there were shouts cheers standing on seats demands for the toilet and more food a more

Unruly group of Cinema goers you could not wish to be amongst although there was no obvious drug dealing as far as I could tell H that’s just my experience as we entered the final third of the film Tom hadn’t made a sound he had only made some angry hand gestures while

Stopping me from having uh some of his some of his popcorn unfortunately there came a point in the film which I will describe as heightened duck Peril Tom let all Code Compliance disappear as he wailed that he didn’t like it and wanted to leave visibly shaken we quickly left the cinema when

We were outside in the foyer he explained he was too scared and didn’t like it because of the Ducks seemingly impending fate I reassured him that the Ducks were probably okay I mean I really don’t know but we left and he was soon fine although Tom found the threat of

LED ducks a little too scary I think this probably highlights what a great job the filmmakers had done Tom was completely engrossed in the film the emotions and threat was all too real the story was gripping and the animation obviously pulled him into the story I

Enjoyed it too and the reaction in the screening appeared to be a universal thumbs up at some point we’ll watch the end I really hope the Ducks are okay says Shan the Ducks are okay um that thing about Duc alange when he says he says why is Duc alange he says it’s you

With aange on top um I was just looking at the bbfc I mean you’re absolutely right about the about the Peril the bbfc um stuff says does it say very I think their over thing is very mild Peril yes it says very mild threat violence and

Rude humor but it is true that there are scenes in it with which they’re not very mild it’s it’s I thought quite scary but I also agree that well done you firstly you did exactly the right thing when your child said I don’t like it I want

To leave you left well done because that whole thing about no no sit there just sit there and you know no it’ll be fine yes you don’t we know yeah secondly it is fine incidentally just so you know that’s not a plot spoiler that’s just a of reassurance for everybody but I

Absolutely understand yes there are I mean the scene you as I said there’s a scene in it which has got a definite reference to the Texas Chainsaw Massac in it and is definitely very creepy so yeah I agree with what you said I I the the Minion short at the beginning moon

Is just wonderful