The Cineskinny

It's a fresh new config this week, as Peter and Anahit review a trio of new films – the feral, intense Die My Love; the melancholic, Malick-esque Train Dreams; and Alpha, which is also out soon :| We're a lean, mean reviewin' machine, so strap in for talk about The National, us being infatuated with and scared of Jennifer Lawrence, Peter getting Gene Wilder and Billy Wilder mixed up, and lots of chat about a film we didn't much care for. CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching (1:30) Train Dreams review (8:25) Alpha review (15:00) Die My Love review (27:55) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Guillermo del Toro is back, with his long-gestating Frankenstein! Kelly Reichardt is back, with Josh O'Connor-starring art heist drama The Mastermind! The gang is back, and we're in a new office! What a time to be alive on this, The Cineskinny podcast. Oh, and before we forget, listen to our *other* podcast, Music Now – we spoke to Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman about their new score for the Lon Chaney 1925 Phantom of the Opera (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JjZNhEPJ5bPezB2MNPTWH?si=1ac9ad32df1a43d8) TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: London geography and capsule hotel reviews (4:55) Frankenstein review (17:10) The Mastermind review (32:15) Heists on film – Inception, Charley Varrick, The Wrong Trousers and more (49:20) Recorded at The Skinny office at Outerspaces, outerspaces.org Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This week, we take a peek at Plainclothes, a new thriller/romance about a cop whose job involves the entrapment of gay men, which he feels somewhat conflicted about as he himself is secretly gay. We also take a look at Good Boy, an American indie horror about a dog who's trying to save its owner from a supernatural threat. And with Halloween approaching, we recommend the horror films to catch on the big screen and the small screen at home. TIMESTAMPS: What We’ve Been Watching: The Wiz, Transformers: The Movie (1:42) Plainclothes review (11:37) Good Boy review (26:32) Horror film recommendations: Perfect Blue, Night of the Living Dead, Black Phone 2, V/H/S Halloween and more (37:20) Recorded on location at Jamie's flat in Shawlands, Glasgow. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

100 Episodes of The Cineskinny – luckily for such a milestone, the gang are blessed with two very very good films. Paul Thomas Anderson is back with a bang with the sprawling One Battle After Another, and Harris Dickinson's directorial debut Urchin is an annoyingly good first film that blends surrealism and social realism. Elsewhere, we look back on our favourites from The Time of The Podcast, give a birthday shout-out to some films that deserve your attention, Ellie drops a quality Al Pacino impression and Jamie is foiled once again in his attempts to talk about one particular film. Thanks to all who listen to this podcast, let's raise a glass to da movies... TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: Watership Down, Heat, Saved! and Election (3:50) One Battle After Another review (13:15) Urchin review (34:00) Our favourites, our recommendations, and the films we've changed our minds on (48:10) Recorded at The Skinny HQ, please forgive the background noise of people constantly wheeling TVs up and down the corridor. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This week, we’re off to a very near-future Tokyo for Happyend, in which a bunch of clubbing-mad high school teens turn rabblerousers when their headmaster installs a sinister surveillance system in their school, which mirrors the darkening political situation unfolding beyond the school gates. We also take a look at the documentary Power Station, which sees an artist couple try to tackle the fuel poverty crisis in their local community by turning their street into a literal and metaphorical power station. Power Station opens the community-minded Take One Action film festival, which leads us on to discuss some of the other film festivals coming to Scotland over the next wee while, from the Glasgow Youth Film Festival to a touring programme of highlights from the London Film Festival. TIMESTAMPS: What We’ve Been Watching: The Horse Whisperer, The Guns of Navarone, Weapons, Raising Arizona and The Secret Garden (1:05) Happyend review (13:14) Power Station n review (36:54) Smaller film fests: Take One Action, LFF on tour, IberoDocs and GYFF (37:40) Recorded on location in the Codebase meeting room with the lovely chairs. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

The pod returns, in sleepy mode – Peter, Anahit and Ellie get caught up on some recent releases, talk through our home set-ups, discuss Films Of 2025 So Far, and go surprisingly in-depth on... Pride & Prejudice and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. The mid-2000s, baby! TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching (recaps on 28 Years Later, Superman and The Office (US)) (2:00) Our favourite places to watch the movies (16:20) The films we’ve watched the most (Spongebob, Lord of the Rings) (27:00) Our comfort watches (Spinal Tap, Mona Lisa Smile, Pride & Prejudice) (35:55) Actual Film Chat: Films of 2025 so far, and our picks for the rest of the year (46:20) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow the team on Twitter @ptrsmpsn @anahitrooz @jamiedunnesq @lew_rob_, get us on TikTok @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

While Peter, Anahit and Ellie are off covering the various other festivals happening across Edinburgh this August, Jamie has been attending the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which kicked off in wonderful style on 14 August with Sorry, Baby, the debut feature from Eva Victor, who writes, directs and stars in the film. Sorry, Baby seemed to go down tremendously well with everyone at the opening. On the day after that opening, we sat down with Eva Victor to discuss the film. Have a listen below. TIMESTAMP How it felt opening the Edinburgh Film Festival (2:40) The initial idea for Sorry, Baby (5:40) The female friendship at the heart of the film and working with Naomi Ackie (7:25) How online comedy videos prepared Victor for her first feature (9:02) On choosing the film's non-chronological structure (10:51) Choosing to leave Agnes's assault off-screen (17:31) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow the team on Twitter @ptrsmpsn @anahitrooz @jamiedunnesq @lew_rob_, get us on TikTok @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Recorded on location at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Today! The Edinburgh International Film Festival starts today (if you're listening to this podcast the day it comes out, which you should), so Peter, Jamie and Ellie take a closer look at three films from the programme. We've got Canary Islands-based family mystery Islands, Charlie Shackleton's new metadoc Zodiac Killer Project, and The Golden Spurtle, 75 delightful minutes following the World Porridge Championships. All that, and a few more picks and tips from your extremely warm friends in the studio... CHAPTERS: Islands review (4:20) Zodiac Killer Project review (20:05) The Golden Spurtle review (36:35) More EIFF picks (50:35) Edinburgh International Film Festival, 14-20 Aug, edfilmfest.org Recorded on location in the Codebase meeting room with the lovely chairs. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

In this episode, the team was bowled over by Dreams, part of a new arthouse trilogy by Norwegian writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud called The Oslo Stories Trilogy (not to be confused with Joachim Trier's similarly named Oslo Trilogy). The other two instalments - Love and Sex - are released later in August. Dreams got us talking about our favourite trilogies in general, from the first three Toy Story movies to Richard Linklater's Before... films via Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy. We also squeeze in a review of stop-motion film Savages, the long-awaited new work from Belgian director Claude Barras, best known for his bruising coming-of-age animation My Life as a Courgette. TIMESTAMPS: What We’ve Been Watching: Female Perversion, Legally Blonde the Musical, Safe and Lena Dunham's new series Too Much (02:44) Savages review (15:23) Dreams review (27:52) Movie Trilogies: What are they, and which ones do we love? (46:25) Recorded on location in the Codebase meeting room with the lovely chairs. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On this week’s podcast, we head off in two *completely* different directions – the gang review art doc/biopic hybrid The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, then Anahit sings the praises of the new Superman movie. Cinema - it truly has a bit of everything. Elsewhere, Jamie reports back from Karlovy Vary Film Festival in his fresh KVIFF t-shirt, the squad discuss the idea of cult cinema (what is it, good examples, etc etc), and a few more bits and bobs. A good pod, come hang out. TIMESTAMPS: Jamie’s KVIFF recap (1:15) What We’ve Been Watching: Sidney Lumet, The Parent Trap (10:05) The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire review (19:10) Superman review (37:00) Cult Films: What Are They, and Why? (50:45) Recorded on location in the Codebase meeting room with the lovely chairs. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On this week's show, the Edinburgh Filmhouse is back, bay-bee! Peter, Jamie and Anahit offer their thoughts and well-wishes after each visiting it on opening weekend. If you've ever wanted to hear us talk about legroom and patina, you're in luck. Film-wise, we review Pavements, Alex Ross Perry's multi-stranded doc/biopic/musical of Peter's favourite 90s slacker indie band, and 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle's return to the land of iPhone cameras, violent zombies and haunting depictions of faux-50s provincialism (they're calling it 'The UK', etc etc). Oh, and there's time for a first look at the Edinburgh Film Festival programme. Early notes: looks not bad. Interesting stuff, good venues, intriguing times ahead. TIMESTAMPS: Thoughts on the Filmhouse, ft Local Hero, The Brutalist (2:00) Pavements review (14:30) 28 Years Later review (31:30) Edinburgh International Film Festival first look (49:10) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Intro and interstitial music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Owing to there being a dearth of great films out in June, we've ditched our usual format and for one week only we're doing a 'call-in' show. We asked our listeners to send in questions and voice notes, and they sent in loads, quizing us on myriad subjects, from sexiness in film to our ideal directors' dinner party to which film characters would make for terrible flatmates. TIMESTAMPS: "They’re adapting the Cineskinny into a major motion picture - who would play each of you in the flick? Jamie, you cast Anahit; Anahit, you pick Ellie; Ellie, you choose Jamie." From Peter Simpson (1:33) "When Harry Styles said that Don't Worry Darling really felt "like a movie", what do you think he meant? What other films really feel like a movie??" From Rho Chung (11:38) "Do you think it's cooler to be a director who hones in and does one thing really well (Wes Anderson (debatable lol but ygm), Tarantino etc), or one with RANGE (Danny Boyle for example)" From Phoebe Willison (19:20) "What about 'best and/or worst film you've watched with your parents?" From Carmen Paddock (34:47) "What's your dream directors' dinner party (pick 3, living or dead) and what film would you put on for everyone afterwards?" George Sully (43:18) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Recorded at Ground Floor, Leith – ehfm.live Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

John Maclean's new film Tornado is a samurai revenge western, shot in the hilly countryside around Edinburgh, starring Kôki, Jack Lowden and Tim Roth. Jamie caught up with John earlier in the year to discuss the film and how it all came about – with Tornado hitting UK cinemas this weekend, here's another chance to hear that chat. Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On the latest episode of The CineSkinny, we take a wild trip with a ruthless tycoon (Benicio del Toro), his deeply moral daughter (Mia Threapleton) and his Swedish tutor-cum-secretary (Michael Cera) in Wes Anderson's breakneck espionage comedy The Phoenician Scheme. We come back down to earth with the urgent and enraging documentary The Encampments, which takes us inside the Palestine solidarity campus encampment at Columbia University that became a focal point last spring in the fight against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. And inspired by The Encampments and the upcoming SAFAR Film Festival, each member of the team recommends a great Palestinian film. TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; Julia & Julia; Taskmaster; Feel Good (1:40) The Phoenician Scheme review (12:08) The Encampments review (32:05) Palestinian cinema: It Must Be Heaven, Gaza mon amour, 5 Broken Cameras (48:52) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Recorded at Ground Floor, Leith – ehfm.live Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Greetings The Cineskinny listeners - before our next full episode drops, here's something else you might like. It's a new Scottish music podcast, it's called MUSIC NOW, and the first episode is an interview with the amazing piper and composer Malin Lewis. Here's a clip about songwriting and making a new instrument basically from scratch – links to the full episode below. Godspeed, enjoy, more film chat soon xx SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kvLAfixelglrrF5gofXgj?si=0f3146df83884aab APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/music-now-the-music-podcast-from-the-skinny/id1815765281

A bumper pod this week – we review Amalia Ulman's Magic Farm about a bunch of hipster journalists getting lost in Argentina, and India Donaldson's Good One about a v v awkward intergenerational camping trip. But that's not all! We also dig into Wes Anderson's ornate cinematic toolbox ahead of The Phoenician Scheme, so we're talking family, casting, animation, etc etc. But that's still not all! Jamie inspires some Final Destination-style catastrophising, and Anahit's been back on the Love Is Blind tip so that's in there as well. And that's all. TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: Final Destination Bloodlines, Love Is Blind UK, Earth Girls Are Easy (2:20) Magic Farm review (16:15) Good One review (29:10) Wes Anderson, cinema's fanciest lad (40:00) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Recorded at Ground Floor, Leith – ehfm.live Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On this week's pod, two hot, hot movies. First up, Sinners, Ryan Coogler's sexy Southern Gothic vampire flick set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. It's got two Michael B Jordans, it's got epic musical sequences, it's got exquisite period detail, it's got spit sharing, it's got a smart and thorny race analogy at its heart, it's got great actors bringing their A game, it's got wonderful post-credit scenes and, did we mention, it's got two Michael B Jordans. Similarly sexy and sweltering is Motel Destino, a neon-lit tropical noir from Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz. And inspired by Sinners, the team choose their favourite films set during parties or big nights out where things go off the rails. TIMESTAMPS: What We’ve Been Watching: Blue Velvet, April, GFT's Derek Jarman and Chantal Akerman retrospective, Manhunter (2:20) Sinners review (13:42) Motel Destino review (31:28) Theme: Nights Out Gone Awry (Carrie, Festen, The Invitation, Coherence, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) (41:36) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

In a change to our usual format, we review only one film this episode: the French coming-of-age film Holy Cow. Set in Jura, in the east of France near the Swiss border, it follows a wild 18-year-old lad who has to grow up fast and learn how to make some award-winning Comté after a family tragedy. The rest of the episode sees Peter, Anahit, and Jamie discuss what they’ve been watching on the big and small screen recently, from Black Bag and a Jacques Tati classic to Adolescence and White Lotus via a goofy-sounding show we're pretty sure Anahit has made up. TIMESTAMPS: What We’ve Been Watching: Movies (Black Bag, Uptown Girls, Playtime) (2:14) Holy Cow review (17:08) What We’ve Been Watching: TV (Adolescence, White Lotus, Paradise) (25:34) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This week, we review Bong Joon-Ho's latest – Mickey 17 stars multiple Robert Pattinsons and Mark Ruffalo doing what we're assured is not an impression of any named individual. We also dive into the lovely 3D animated waters of Flow, Oscar-winning animation and, fun fact, the highest grossing Latvian film of all time. Elsewhere, we interrogate horrid visions of surveillance, intrigue, subterfuge and suspicious gender politics, but eventually we do *stop* talking about Love Is Blind and talk about dystopias in cinema instead. The Cineskinny; we had you in the first half, not gonna lie. TIMESTAMPS: Love Is Blind, Picture This, Good Time (2:10) Mickey 17 review (11:30) Flow review (29:45) Dystopian Cinema chat (39:40) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On this edition of The CineSkinny we take a look at two of the most anticipated Scottish films of the year. First we review On Falling, the deeply impressive feature debut from Edinburgh-based director Laura Carreira. And fresh from his second feature Tornado having its world premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, we have an interview with John Maclean who talks about westerns, samurai films, and the challenges of indie filmmaking in Scotland. Elsewhere there are a couple of great film festivals (Glasgow Short Film Festival, HippFest) we wanted to give shout-outs to, and we take a look at some filmmakers who are attempting different distribution models that involve taking their films on intimate tours of the country. We also briefly chew over the Oscar results. TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: Walking & Talking, Disney Channel original movies, Common Side Effects and more (1:49) On Falling review (14:18) GSFF, HippFest, The People's Joker and Hundreds of Beavers (32:30) Interview: John Maclean on Tornado (50:10) Oscar chat (1:07:50) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license