Film criticism with arguments left in.
Kermode on Film turns Mark Kermode’s MK3D world into an audio companion, moving between BFI live-show interviews and looser exchanges with Jack Howard. It suits listeners who like film talk with strong opinions, deep references, and room for argument.
PRESS PLAY
Kermode on Film is a film show that behaves like both a live archive and an ongoing argument. Its centre is Mark Kermode’s critical voice, carried across MK3D recordings from BFI venues and more informal conversations with Jack Howard. The format gives the podcast range. Some episodes feel like a front-row seat at a film event, with named guests talking through bodies of work, new projects, inspirations, and craft. Others are intimate, restless exchanges from the Sun Pub in London’s West End, where a single title can become a long dispute about taste, memory, and what criticism is allowed to change its mind about. Eyes Wide Shut is treated through old reviews, new viewings, Kubrick’s final film, marriage, desire, and pop-cultural afterlife. Project Hail Mary opens onto Ryan Gosling’s comic timing, science-fiction companionship, Silent Running, and the odd emotional precision of genre filmmaking. Pirates of the Caribbean becomes a split-screen debate about blockbuster confidence, Johnny Depp’s performance, darkness in franchise filmmaking, and what large-scale movies once felt like. Awards episodes use the BAFTAs and Oscars less as scoreboards than as excuses to ask whether trophies matter after the morning headlines fade. The television conversation around Pluribus shows the feed is not sealed off from series culture, especially when Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul enter the frame. The live-show strand gives the podcast a different weight. Andrew Cotting discusses films, VR work, exhibition space, memory, autobiography, and resistant definitions. Dame Twiggy Lawson appears through a documentary lens, with career, image, film work, and pop performance in view. Edgar Wright brings talk of The Running Man, physical media, choreography, action movement, Jackie Chan’s influence, and the geography of Soho film culture. Ben Wheatley and Jack O’Connell add strange cinema, performance, and formative screen influences. Across it all, the show is energetic but not frictionless. It likes digression. It likes disagreement. It trusts that film history, audience questions, pub banter, and exacting criticism can sit in the same room.
Made for: For film and television listeners who enjoy opinionated criticism, film interviews, live-show energy, and deep reference trails. It especially suits people who like blockbusters, awards, cult cinema, and art-film conversations treated with equal seriousness.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its split personality: polished MK3D interviews from BFI stages alongside loose, combative pub conversations with Jack Howard. It makes room for both craft analysis and openly revised opinions.
This weekly podcast with film critic Mark Kermode is a podcast version of MK3D - the live show he does every month at BFI Southbank which includes movie guests and questions from the audience.Produced by HLA Agency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Mark Kermode pairs decisive criticism with guests and spirited disagreement, making films legible through performance, direction, genre history, and close comparison.
Mark Kermode treats film criticism as a conversation that can withstand disagreement. Alongside Jack Howard, he moves from new releases such as Project Hail Mary and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple to retrospectives on The Social Network and arguments over the Pirates of the…
Mark Kermode calls Jack Howard's beloved pirate blockbuster insufferable; your inner defense lawyer has entered the pub.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A spoiler-heavy, affectionate take on why this sci-fi story keeps working.
Mark Kermode and Jack spend the episode on Project Hail Mary as a big sci-fi film with a real emotional pull. They are best on Ryan Gosling, whose mix of drama and comedy gives the film its charge, and on the little pleasures of its language games, especially the…
A live BFI IMAX double bill that moves from Cotting's recursive self-revision to Twiggy's career-spanning conversation.
Mark Kermode's live BFI IMAX episode opens up into two distinct conversations: one with filmmaker and artist Andrew Cotting, whose work, new VR project, and Every World exhibition are traced through a looping, self-revisiting line of thought; the other with Dame Twiggy Lawson,…
A live MK3D session that balances awards talk, performance, and the uneasy fan/idol pull of Lurker.
Recorded live at the BFI South Bank in London, this MK3D episode keeps its focus tight enough to let the guests breathe. Posey Sterling talks through Lollipop with an easy, social energy, while Archie Madekwe brings a cooler, stranger edge to Lurker, which suits a film built…
A lively 15th-anniversary chat that makes The Social Network feel freshly uneasy.
Fifteen years on, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo treat The Social Network as both a marker of time passing and a film that still feels close at hand.
David Remnick and New Yorker writers on Ukraine, Iran, Hollywood, and AI ethics.
Patient conversations with working creative people.
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant explain one topic per episode, from the bicameral mind to Boeing's MCAS.
Multi-part dramatized retellings of scandals like OceanGate's Titan and the Lehman Brothers collapse.
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins dissect Oscar races, new releases, and Hollywood news.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, revisiting Kermode's original negative review and sharing a humorous quote from Jack's girlfriend.
Mark Kermode and co-host Jack review the film Project Hail Mary, praising its charming story of friendship between Ryan Gosling and an alien rock.
Mark Kermode hosts a live show at the BFI IMAX, interviewing filmmaker Andrew Cotting about his VR exhibition and collaborative work with his daughter Eden, followed by a conversation with Twiggy about her documentary, career, and influences like Ken Russell.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss the Oscars and the transition of directors from blockbuster to independent films.
Mark Kermode hosts a live show at the BFI IMAX with guests Edgar Wright discussing The Running Man physical media release and Amma Asante talking about her film series and upcoming thriller Billion Dollar Spy.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss the TV show Pluribus, created by Vince Gilligan, and share their late discovery of Breaking Bad.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss the BAFTAs and debate whether film awards matter at all.
Mark Kermode hosts a live podcast featuring interviews with Jack O'Connell about his roles in upcoming films and Ben Wheatley about his new film Bulk.
Archie Madekwe explains how he made an entire album and performed in real venues for Lurker.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard record at the Sun Pub on Drury Lane and spend the episode arguing that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is less about zombies than about what people do when society collapses.
This episode features interviews with director Philippa Lowthorpe and composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch about the film H is for Hawk, and actor Harry Melling about the romantic comedy Pillion.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss the Knives Out film series with spoilers, focusing on the latest installment Wake Up Dead Man.
Mark Kermode introduces a live episode featuring interviews with director Joachim Trier about his film 'Sentimental Value' and actress Meera Syal discussing her favorite Christmas film.
Mark Kermode reflects on The Social Network 15 years later, analyzing David Fincher's direction, Aaron Sorkin's writing, and the film's lasting impact on cinema.
Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss the importance of reviews, criticism, and validation in film criticism.