An Evening With Mark Kermode
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Earlier this week myself and two friends of mine attended the FACT Picture House in Liverpool to see film critic Mark Kermode talk about his upcoming book 'Hatchet Job'.
Once we were seated the British critic entered the auditorium and a two hour talk about films, critics and Michael Bay began.
Throughout the evening Mark was never lost for words and it felt as though he could carry on talking until the early hours of the morning. This comes at no surprise because the man is highly passionate about cinema. And isn't that what we expect from a film critic?
There came a point during the Q & A section where my friend spoke to Mark about Tommy Wiseau's infamous film 'The Room'. I was curious as to what Mark thought of the film and the response came at no surprise. He hated it. He explained how he doesn't understand the cult following it has received and after my friend briefly explains what 'The Room' was to the rest of the audience, Mark asked if anybody would sit and watch that film. The response was a no-thought-for-a-second no.
As mentioned earlier Mark had a section where he talked about the abysmal director Michael Bay. If you are familiar with Mark Kermode it will have come no shock to you that he finds Bay to be the worst director in cinema right now. He even described him as "the anti-Christ of cinema". He mentioned his latest film 'Pain & Gain' where my thoughts of the film shares with his completely. He even asked who has seen the film and I shamefully raised my hand in embarrassment.
He was mainly discussing film criticism, which is the topic of his new book. He explained no matter how much he praises a film he will always be remembered for his bad reviews e.g. Pirates of the Carriban: At World's End, Sex & the City 2 and yes, his review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which involves him banging his head on a wall multiple times to visually describe how much he hated it. What he said made me think and agree with him. We enjoy reading or listening to bad reviews because they are the funny ones. They can be offensive but that's why we enjoy them (one reason why I believe Doug Walker's internet character The Nostalgia Critic to be so popular). When we see a critic release their anger that is when we see the true passion of cinema shown. Cinema is so important to them that they can be full of rage when someone comes along and ruins it for them.
Afterwards I got the chance to meet a Mark in person and have a chat with him. Recently this year the great Roger Ebert passed away and his last film review was of Terrence Malick's fantastic 'To the Wonder'. I personally thought TTW was one of this year's best films and Ebert really liked it. I had been wanting to hear Mark's opinion on the film and once I asked him he shared his views of the film and his thoughts on Malick. Though I didn't fully agree with his opinion I was still interested in what I was hearing. Just having a conversation with this brilliant man meant the world to me and my only regret was not thanking him to introducing me to the bigger and better world of cinema.
I am currently reading Mark's new book and if any of you love reading film reviews or are interested in film critics then I would highly recommend it. It is written by a man who not only loves cinema but cares about it and it's future. I think as film lovers we should too.
