It's Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive Kindle Edition

I assume that you already know who Mark Kermode is otherwise you would not be seeking out his printed works. Mark Kermode is an articulate, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate film critic who could talk under wet concrete and has an opinion on everything. Listening to his film review podcasts is one of the highlights of my week because I know that I am guaranteed entertainment for at least 90 minutes ([...]

I have bought both the paperback (through amazon.uk) and the kindle edition of this book and now I am considering buying the audiobook because it is apparently read by Mark himself. I got at least 10 hysterical fits of laughter out of reading this book and quite a few chuckles and giggles (better laugh value than most allegedly humourous books I've read). For some reason the scene where Mark describes his interactions with the waitress while waiting to interview Linda Blair had me chuckling for days.

Some reviewers have complained that regular listeners to the Kermode and Mayo radio program or podcasts have heard many of these stories before - but I don't care, if Mark's telling the story I want to hear it again - so much so that I'm now contemplating purchasing the audiobook so that I can listen to Mark tell these stories again in his own inimitable style.

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!

One of our Anglophile obsessions is listening to the podcast version of the Friday afternoon movie review show on 5Live featuring Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo (or is it Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode?). Mr. Kermode is a highly opinionated film reviewer who has had a long and interesting career in the movie reviewing and film analyzing business.

His first book, It's Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive, came out in 2010 and chronicles his life growing up as a movie fan. He goes off to college in Manchester where he gets involved in hard-left political movements and film journalism. He's mellowed out slightly on the politics and not at all on his movie opinions. The book then relates several different stories of his travels for interviews with famous film makers. Most interesting is a visit to the former Soviet Union filled with the sort of hilarious disillusionment that's only funny long after the fact (the car ride from Odessa to a film location is a particularly memorable anecdote). And of course his (in)famous interview with Werner Herzog in the California Hills, when Herzog was shot in his abdomen by an "insignificant bullet."

The book also includes many asides about many different movies. Fans of the radio show will find his collected thoughts of the awful goodness of Mamma Mia! here as well as reflections on various other movies. The tone of the book is conversational, with Kermode describing his life as if it were being made into a "movie of the week" with Jason Isaacs playing himself. Many pop culture references are made. Some were unfamiliar to me, though they might be more appreciated by someone who grew up in England in the 80s rather than came to appreciate it more from afar in the 2000s.

It's a fun, quick read that fills in some gaps about Kermode's history for fans and provides a diverting character sketch with anecdotes for the reader unfamiliar with Kermode's many achievements.

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 its 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.Read more ›