The Cineskinny

Our Films of 2025: Sinners, One Battle After Another and more

It's the final episode of The Cineskinny for 2025! And it's the top ten films of the year! 

Peter Jamie and Anahit talk through a list with some surprising thematic links, some personal favourites, and a whole bunch of those Good Films we love to talk about. Then, once the dust has settled on the 'proper' part of the podcast, a coda in which we relitigate the whole thing by talking about Some More Good Films.

Feliz navidad to all Cineskinny listeners, we will be back in 2026.

Part 1: How The Top Ten sausage Gets Made (1:30)
Part 2: Films 10-4 (10:20)
Part 3: Die My Love redux (24:10)
Part 4: Sinners and One Battle After Another (28:55)
Part 5: Our personal faves, performances of the year etc (42:05)
Epilogue: Anahit chatting about sexy vampires (1:05:00)

If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials!

Anahit’s chat with Jafar Panahi: https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/16828/jafar-panahi-interview-it-was-just-an-accident

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

Sentimental Value, It Was Just an Accident and Cover-Up

On the penultimate CineSkinny episode of the year, we've got three absolute bangers for you.

First up, we take a look at Palme d'Or-winner It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi's powerful moral drama that just got him another unjust jail sentence from the Iranian regime. 

Another moral crusader who's been a thorn in his corrupt nation's side is journalist Seymour Hersh. His extraordinary career as an investigative reporter is documented by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus in Cover-Up.

And finally, we review Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s exquisite and expansive drama examining generational trauma and burning resentment within a Norwegian family. 

CHAPTERS:
What We've Been Watching: The Running Man, Field of Dreams, RoboCop (2:45)
It Was Just an Accident review (12:50)
Cover-Up review (30:05)
Sentimental Value review (47:33)

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

Pillion, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and What Makes a Good Whodunnit?

You’ve had your Jamie and Ellie episode. You’ve had your Peter and Anahit episode. Now it’s a Peter and Jamie combo – possibly sponsored by everyone’s fave streaming service, Tubi. They’ll be discussing the sub-dom-rom-com Pillion, which stars Alexander Skarsgård as a dom biker who takes a shine to Harry Melling’s shy traffic warden. They also dig into the third film in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, which sees Daniel Craig’s detective investigating some strange goings on at an Upstate New York church. 

And in honour of Wake Up Dead Man, we take a look at what’s required to create a good whodunnit. 

CHAPTERS:
What We've Been Watching: Pennies from Heaven, Speed Racer, Hard Boiled (1:40)
Pillion review (12:05)
Wake Up Dead Man  review (20:30)
The art of the whodunnit (31:05)

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

Lynne Ramsay's incredible, intense Die My Love, plus Alpha & Train Dreams

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

Frankenstein, The Mastermind, and our favourite heist movies

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

Plainclothes, Good Boy and horrors to watch this Halloween

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

One Battle After Another, Urchin, and a 100th episode recap

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

Happyend, Power Station, Take One Action, GYFF, LFF and IberoDocs

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

Spongebob Squarepants, Pride & Prejudice, comfort watches and films of the year so far...

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

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025: Eva Victor on Sorry, Baby

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