7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In which we learn that Helen Mirren is scarier than Linda Blair, March 4, 2010
At least British film critic Mark Kermode thought so when Helen Mirren "handbagged" him at the BAFTA film awards. Kermode had written that The Queen, starring Mirren in the title role, wasn't a real film (he thought it was more like a TV movie). "Oi!" Dame Helen yelled at him, and he suffered the wrath of one of the icons of British theater and film.
Kermode left the awards with all his parts still attached, even if he was still shaking.
Kermode tells his story of becoming a film writer as if it were a movie "playing inside [his] head." He doesn't trust memory, but he realizes he has to use it. So he's not surprised when he discovers it has failed him. He wants Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) to play him in the movie of his life because they went to school together, and he wants the Queen herself to play Helen Mirren.
This book is very entertaining, and it takes film criticism seriously enough to make you wonder if it's worth much. Kermode tells the story of reels of David Lynch's Lost Highway being mixed up and the movie making more sense that way. But is that story really true? And if it is, does it matter? Or does the fact that the story is told prove it's truth?
My head hurts.
I get the impression Kermode is too young to have been in the generation that saw great British social and political films in the 1980s like Letter to Brezhnev. Instead of My Beautiful Laundrette he writes about My Bloody Valentine 3-D.
Kermode's great cinematic love is for horror film (on the cover of the British paperback he's sitting in a movie theater holding a chainsaw in a phallic pose that I didn't consciously recognize until just now), but his taste isn't limited to meat movies.
He talks about Woody Allen, David Lynch, Mario Van Peebles, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes, and Lars von Trier. But he admits he acquired his social and political worldview from the Planet of the Apes series (which I can understand--Eric Greene's book
Planet of the Apes As American Myth: Race And Politics in the Films And Television Series shows how those movies talked about race and class in America) and Kermode insists that The Exorcist is the greatest film in history.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilariously opinionated with great hair, September 2, 2011
This review is from: It's Only a Movie (Kindle Edition)
I've been a fan of Kermode"s snarky film reviews for years. This book is in the same style with great anecdotes from his years of watching great (and terrible) films. If you're a fan of the friday film reviews, you have to read this book. And if you like this book, go get the podcast!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kermode., May 11, 2011
I've listened to Kermode's film reviews on radio 5 for years. They are a must listen and always entertaining. His book is just as good, which is a hell of a push.
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