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Kermode & Mayo’s Take

The Take
  • 4.5 (251)
  • FILM REVIEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Essential film reviews, TV reviews, and all conversations around movie and non-movie related stuff brought to you by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo. Plus a whole bunch of recommendations to watch in cinemas, on all streaming services and on physical media.   Want more Kermode & Mayo? Subscribe to Kermode & Mayo’s Extra Takes to get ad-free listening plus access to our subscriber-exclusive show, TAKE TWO, with new episodes every Friday. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or at extratakes.com to get access on your preferred podcast platform.   There's more to discover at kermodeandmayo.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices . EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

  1. 5D AGO · BONUS • EXTRA TAKES ONLY

    In Defence of LAST CHRISTMAS

    In this season of kindness, one bold Vanguardista has ventured to defend a much-maligned festive film... yes, there’s someone out there who loves Last Christmas. They make their case via some eloquent correspondence in this week’s Take 2—but will it win the Good Doctors over? A snowy bonus review of Happy Feet too this week—the family animation that follows Mumble the penguin—who can’t find his ‘heartsong’ like his golden voiced peers, but discovers a talent for tap dancing. Somehow it’s 20 years old this year(?!) and is back on the big screen to celebrate. We look ahead to the most exciting releases on the horizon in 2026 too, including new Josh O’Connor-starring Spielberg movie Disclosure, Emerald Fennel’s all-Aussie Wuthering Heights adaptation with Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, and Maggie Gylenhaal’s The Bride! Plus, Questions and Schmestions on everything from Antarctic cinema to the best Stephen King adaptations. Timecodes: Happy Feet 20th anniversary rerelease review: 07:26 Look ahead to 2026: 15:24 Questions Schmestions: 39:07

    54 min
  2. Best and Worst Films of the Year

    6D AGO

    Best and Worst Films of the Year

    It’s that time of year on the Take when Mark runs down his best and worst films of the year—so get ready for a reminder of 2025’s biggest raves and rants from I’m Still Here to Tron: Ares. It’s all new content as he ranks the big-screen bangers and clangers of the last 12 months and picks the Take’s best picture. We’ll also look at the year’s best small screen releases, revisiting stunning series like the gruelling Narrow Road to the Deep North and the gripping Pluribus (00:43:00 https://tv.apple.com/gb/show/pluribus/umc.cmc.37axgovs2yozlyh3c2cmwzlza). For Vanguardistas listening ad-free, Pluribus is at 00:39:31. Brand new reviews too of two new cinema releases. First up, Song Sung Blue—a feelgood musical drama biopic about a real-life couple who form a Neil Diamond tribute band and follow their long-held musical dreams, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. There’s Peter Hujar’s Day too—which follows the everyday life on the 70s Downtown New York arts scene of the titular photographer, played by Ben Whishaw. Plus we remember the greats we lost in 2025. We’ve said goodbye to some true cinema legends this year, including Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, David Lynch—and of course tragically and most recently Rob Reiner. Mark and Simon celebrate their exceptional contributions to cinema. Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free): 00:00:00 Start of Discussion 00:02:51 Song Sung Blue review 00:17:15 Best films of 2025: 00:30:20 Peter Hujar’s Day review 00:36:12 Best TV of 2025 00:45:39 Worst films of 2025 00:56:45 They Lived Their Dash (obits) You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey 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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 22m

  3. DEC 21 · BONUS • EXTRA TAKES ONLY

    SENTIMENTAL VALUE stars “one of the best actors currently working; she’s amazing”

    Do Christmas carols make everyone emotional? Is the John Lewis advert really as bad as Mark thought? These and many more Christmassy conundrums are answered in this week’s Take 2. The first of our bonus reviews is Sentimental Value—Scandinavian director Joachim Trier’s follow-up to 2021’s indie hit The Worst Person In The World. Stellan Skarsgård plays a famous director and absent father, and Renate Reinsve is the actress and estranged daughter to whom he returns after her mother’s death. You can watch that from Boxing day, just in case your Christmas holiday didn’t have enough family drama already. Plus, Mark revisits Guillermo del Toro classic The Devil’s Backbone for its 4K restoration. After the visit from our fabulously festive guest Kate Winslet in Take 1, we’re looking back at her best ever performances in One Frame Back—from Heavenly Creatures to Mare of Easttown, via Titanic, Eternal Sunshine and everything in between. Plus all your festive Questions and Schmestions answered and a holiday guide to TV movies too. Merry Christmas Vanguardistas! Timecodes: Sentimental Value review: 07:37 One Frame Back: 23:31 The Devil’s Backbone rerelease review: 33:16 Questions Schmestions: 52:53

    1h 16m
  4. Good Kate Winslet (lass) Looks Back on her Feats of Acting

    DEC 20

    Good Kate Winslet (lass) Looks Back on her Feats of Acting

    Some exciting news—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. We’ve got a proper festive treat for you in this week’s Christmas week Take special. The one and only Kate Winslet—Oscar winner, Hollywood royalty and all round very good egg. She’s given acclaimed performances as an actress in films like Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sense and Sensibility, Steve Jobs and more—as well as in HBO’s Mare of Easttown series. She looks back over all that with Simon and Mark in this bumper chat—plus this time she’s getting behind the camera to direct her first film, Goodbye June. It’s a Christmas movie about a dysfunctional family thrown together when the elderly matriarch (June) falls ill during the festive period. As well as directing, Winslet plays Julia, one of June's four adult children. She came in person to our studio to unpack it with the Good Doctors—and she was so brilliant that she gets this Christmas Take special all to herself. She talks about her experiences as a debut director, working with her screenwriter son Joe Anders, and the incredible cast—from Helen Mirren and Timothy Spall to Toni Colette, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough. We even got a sneak peak of what a Winslet Christmas looks like. You won’t want to miss this. Happy holidays one and all! You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey 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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 2m

  5. DEC 19 · BONUS • EXTRA TAKES ONLY

    Paul Bettany’s greatest role ever?

    Bonus reviews this week of Bowie: The Final Act—a new Bowie doc focused on the late stage of his career from Tin Machine to Blackstar, featuring interviews with his closest collaborators from the period—and seasonal slasher Silent Night Deadly Night. Hear Mark’s takes on both in time for your Christmas holiday viewing. Following his Amadeus interview in Take 1, this week’s One Frame Back is all about Paul Bettany. We hear your favourites of his roles from A Knight’s Tale to A Beautiful Mind, Uncle Frank, Gangster No. 1 and more. Mark decides which performance from this excellent filmography takes the trophy. Plus all the usual Questions, Schmestions, and your top correspondence. Keep it coming Vanguardistas! Timecodes: Bowie: The Final Act review: 07:19 One Frame Back: 17:22 Silent Night Deadly Night review: 20:58 Questions Schmestions: 27:45

    41 min
  6. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH: “like some nightmare furries convention”

    DEC 18

    AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH: “like some nightmare furries convention”

    Some exciting news—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. Howdy Take listeners! We’re approaching the very end of the Christmas corridor—and we’ve got all the movie reviews you need to get you through the final push and onto the sofa eating Quality Street and turkey leftovers. First up, The Housemaid—Paul Feig’s psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney as a live-in maid for a family with dark secrets. Plus Marty Supreme, the high-speed Josh Safdie drama starring Timothée Chalamet as a aspiring table-tennis star in 1950s New York—and finally, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Regular listeners will know about Mark’s longstanding love for (slating) the Avatar films—so buckle up for a festive rant. The wonderful Paul Bettany—star of A Knights Tale, Dogville, and more recently the Marvel Cinematic Universe as both the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. and as Vision—is our guest this week. He’s with us to discuss the new Sky adaptation of Amadeus—in which he plays Salieri, the frustratedly mediocre nemesis of Will Sharpe’s Mozart. The Oscar-winning 1984 film adaptation is Simon’s favourite movie of all time—but will Bettany win him over to this new TV version? They unpack it and talk music, the truth about Mozart, and whether Paul will ever direct again. Thanks for listening, and Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free) The Housemaid review – 11:17 BO10 – 20:34 Paul Bettany Interview: 28:20 Laughter Lift – 53:55 Marty Supreme review 57:55 Avatar Fire & Ash review 1:10:24 You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey 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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 33m

  7. DEC 12 · BONUS • EXTRA TAKES ONLY

    Backstage Bonus from our Christmas Live Show

    Behind the scenes bonus goodies from our live Christmas Spectacular in this week’s Take 2—brought to you from the Good Doctors’ green room backstage at London’s Prince Edward Theatre. There are two bonus movie reviews—the new drama Preparations for the Next Life, following the story of an Uyghur immigrant and an American soldier struggling to build a life together in New York—and a reissue of The Shining gives Mark an opportunity the revisit Kubrick’s chilling classic. Since he’s back on our screens in Wake Up Dead Man we’ll take a look at Daniel Craig’s best roles in One Frame Back. Some top correspondence too, including your takes on Pluribus (yes, we’re still obsessed) and some very pleasing news from some of your Spotify wrapped rundowns too—cheers for all of your ears, Vanguardistas! Timecodes: The Shining (reissue) review: 06:51 One Frame Back: 22:58 Preparation For The Next Life review: 37:11 Questions Schmestions: You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com 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! 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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com --- Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com

    1 hr
  8. Live Christmas Spectacular with Nia DaCosta and Jason Isaacs

    DEC 11

    Live Christmas Spectacular with Nia DaCosta and Jason Isaacs

    Some exciting news—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. To those of you who joined us for our Live Christmas Spectacular at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End last weekend—thank you for being a fabulous audience and we hope you had as much festive film buff fun as we did. To those of you who couldn’t be there—fear not! This week’s Take brings it directly to your ears. Recorded live from the auditorium, it’s stuffed full of more goodies than your Christmas stocking, including interviews with Nia DaCosta on next year’s 28 Years Later sequel The Bone Temple, and Jason Isaacs beamed to us chatting about whatever he was doing in a massive conference centre in New Orleans... Plus reviews of some brand new films you can watch in cinemas and at home this holiday: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery—the latest instalment in the whodunnit franchise that’s fast becoming a Christmastime screen staple, starring the fabulously accented Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc and Josh O’Connor as a priest at the centre of the case—alongside the stellar ensemble cast we’ve come to expect from Knives Out. Plus we’ve got Goodbye June—the directorial debut from Kate Winslet that sees a dysfunctional family thrown together when their matriarch falls gravely ill at Christmas. The ensemble cast includes Helen Mirren, Toni Colette, Johnny Flynn, Timothy Spall, and Andrea Riseborough, alongside Winslet herself—and its screenplay was penned by her son Joe Anders. Kate Winslet will be joining us for an extended Christmas special interview on the Take—so you’ll hear a little sneak peek of that too. And finally, on a less festive note we’ve got Lurker—a fame and fandom psychodrama about a retail worker who becomes part of a pop star’s inner circle. We’ve got a Christmas cracker edition of the Laughter Lift too (oh you lucky things). Enjoy it, and we hope to see some more of your fabulous faces in the audience next year! Timecodes (for Vanguardistas listening ad-free) Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: 11:19 Nia DaCosta Interview: 19:27 Christmas Cracker Laughter Lift: 42:22 Lurker review: p1 47’17 Jason Isaacs interview: 48:50 Lurker review pt 2: 1:00:53 Goodbye June review: 01:05:35 You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo Please take our survey and help shape the future of our show: https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/survey 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: podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 24m
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About

Essential film reviews, TV reviews, and all conversations around movie and non-movie related stuff brought to you by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo. Plus a whole bunch of recommendations to watch in cinemas, on all streaming services and on physical media.   Want more Kermode & Mayo? Subscribe to Kermode & Mayo’s Extra Takes to get ad-free listening plus access to our subscriber-exclusive show, TAKE TWO, with new episodes every Friday. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or at extratakes.com to get access on your preferred podcast platform.   There's more to discover at kermodeandmayo.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices . EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

Information

  • Channel
    The Take
  • Creator
    Sony Music Entertainment
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    521
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sony Music Entertainment
  • Provider
    Pod Sub LLC

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