1 hour 27 minutes | Thursday, 30 July 2026
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Spider-Man is swinging back onto cinema screens this weekend in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland’s masked web slinger is anonymous once again, his identity having been wiped from the memories of his fellow New Yorkers - including those once closest to him. Mark reviews this latest Marvel blockbuster, alongside a homegrown British indie that’s generating some serious buzz: Ish. Recalling Kes, The 400 Blows and the Apu trilogy, it’s a vivid coming-of-age debut you won’t want to miss.
Also coming soon on digital is Our Hero Balthazar, a dark satire tackling gun violence and internet culture, starring Asa Butterfield - who is our special guest this week. He plays Solomon, a gun-obsessed would-be school shooter, online-trolling from the Texas trailer he shares with his granny. The film centres around Solomon’s uneasy friendship with Balthazar, a New York rich kid who craves the social cachet of preventing a shooting by befriending its potential perpetrator. Asa joins Mark and Simon to unpack this transformational performance.
Plus the Laughter Lift, more on our inevitable technological overlords in new mini-feature ‘AI Don’t Like That’, and of course lots of top correspondence from you. Cheers!
You can contact the show by emailing correspondence@kermodeandmayo.com or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo.
Our Christmas Movie Spectacular is back! It’s in Bristol this year on Sunday 6th December. Don’t miss it!
Here’s the link for tickets:
https://www.fane.co.uk/kermode-and-mayo
What’s On info:
https://www.deliveryafterdark.com/
https://theatreship.co.uk/#tickets
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Timecodes:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:08:29 Ish review
00:16:27 Box Office Top Ten
00:31:22 Asa Butterfield interview
00:46:51 Our Hero, Balthazar review
00:57:48 Laughter Lift
00:59:26 AI don't like that
01:03:32 Spider-Man: Brand New Day review
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