The Cineskinny

The Odyssey, the biggest film of the year in every sense, has rolled into town. Christopher Nolan's epic has been receiving rapturous reviews from critics and packing them in at the cinemas on its opening weekend; now the CineSkinny team weigh in.

And in terms of this week's theme, we were slightly uninspired, but we did notice that the Earth was now over halfway round its yearly rotation of the sun. Therefore, we thought it was a good time to take a little stock of film in 2026 and pick out our favourite movies from the year so far. 

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (02:49)
The Odyssey review (11:25)
The Films of 2026 so far: Blue Heron, Obsession, Everybody to Kenmure Street and more (45:01)

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Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-

The Cineskinny were delighted to be invited back again to Queer Cinema Sundays, the GFT's brilliant monthly film night bringing rarely-screened queer films back to the big screen. First time around, we screened Xavier Dolan's Matthias & Maxime. This time we plumbed for Gregg Araki's 1997 snapshot of disaffected youth, Nowhere. 

Set over the course of one wild day, it follows a group of horny and sexually fluid Los Angeles teenagers as they navigate 24 hours of drugs, partying, heartbreak and possible alien abductions, and it was wonderful to see this candy-coloured blend of melodrama, expressionism, and teen nihilism on GFT's biggest screen. 

After the screening, Peter, Anahit, Ellie and Jamie sat down to discuss the film, Gregg Araki's contribution to queer cinema and what we imagined some of Araki's characters might be doing now, 30 years later. Have a listen!

Find out more about Queer Cinema Sundays at https://www.glasgowfilm.org/queer-cinema-sundays/

Get us on 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

Just a couple of episodes ago, we were praising Steven Spielberg as one of our greatest living filmmakers. Then we watched Disclosure Day, and might have to roll back some of those compliments. 

We gush over Blue Heron, the extraordinary memory piece from Sophy Romvari. And inspired by Romvari's sophisticated approach to exploring her own childhood experiences – both real and imagined – through cinema, we discuss some other films that dig into the concept and aesthetics of memory in interesting ways. 

And finally, we get excited about our upcoming screening of Gregg Araki’s Nowhere on 28 June at GFT, which will be followed by an on-stage discussion.

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Tip Toe, Mama Mia and Toy Story (01:42)
Disclosure Day review (11:25)
Blue Heron review (29:38)
Our favourite films dealing with memory (45:01)

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-

Charlie xcx is a great pop star, but is she any good as an actor? We find out by watching her as the lead in Erupcja, the new low-key relationship drama from director Pete Ohs.

In honour of Erupcja, which makes great, lyrical use of its setting of Warsaw, Poland, we consider some of the other films in which the cities they are set in feel like characters in their own right. 

We also take a look at The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, a dark comedy starring Peter Mullan as a tour guide who begins to lose the line between history and fantasy when a TV production comes to town.

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Star Wars: The Despecialised Edition; Titanic; Obsession (01:02)
Erupcja review (15:13)
The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford review (28:06)
The team discuss "the films in which the city they're in set feels like a character" (39:50)

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-

The full team – Peter, Anahit, Ellie and Jamie – are in the house this week for reviews of crime caper Tuner and chicken-eye-view adventure Hen. And with Steven Spielberg about to release Disclosure Day, his 35th feature-length film, we take a look back at his stacked CV, from the rollercoaster cinema of Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark to the awe-inspiring sci-fis ET and Close Encounters to gems from this century like Catch Me if You Can and Minority Report.

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Alien; Everybody to Kenmure Street; Yes, Madam; Half Man (0:55)
Hen review (12:05)
Tuner review (24:29)
The team discuss the great Steven Spielberg (40:15)

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-

On this week’s podcast, we check out Normal, which features Bob Odenkirk as a hangdog lawman who's been assigned as the temporary sheriff of a small town in Minnesota called Normal. But, you guessed it, it turns out this sleepy town and its quaint residents aren’t that normal at all. Much punching, shooting and exploding ensues in this B-movie action flick from director Ben Wheatley and writer Derek Kolstad, who created the John Wick and Nobody franchises. 

Then we’re off to Malaysia for Queer as Punk, a meditative documentary following the queer punk band Shh... Diam!, whose music and existence stand in protest against the rise of anti-LGBTQ sentiment from the Malaysian government.

And finally, after much discussion and confusion on The CineSkinny WhatsApp group chat, we discuss the subtle art of cinematography and ask what draws people to certain cinematographic styles and aesthetics… or something.

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Akira (again), Mother Mary, the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (01:25)
Normal review (15:18)
Queer as Punk review (30:28)
The team talk 'cinematography'! (44:18)

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-

We try not to confuse Christian Petzold with his fellow prolific European auteurs François Ozon and Olivier Assayas ahead of our discussion of Miroirs No. 3, Petzold's intriguing new drama about a Berlin pianist (Paula Beer) who gets 'adopted' by a lonely woman after a car crash. 

We then take a look at Exit 8, a nifty little thriller based on the simple walking video game of the title, in which you must escape the Tokyo metro tunnels using the power of spot the difference. 

And talking of video games, the team look back at the highs and many lows of video game adaptations over the years and asks what makes for a successful one. 

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Akira, The Pitt, and the Peaky Blinders movie (01:55)
Miroirs No. 3 review (10:04)
Exit 8 review (22:58)
The storied history of video game adaptations (39:57)

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-

During this year's Glasgow Film Festival, we caught up with Cornish filmmaking don Mark Jenkin to discuss his excellent new feature Rose of Nevada, an intriguing time-loop puzzle starring George Mackay and Callum Turner as two young men who find themselves in a time warp when they volunteer to help crew the eponymous fishing boat. 

Rose of Nevada is released 24 April by the BFI and Jenkin is currently on a Q&A tour with the film, which includes a stop in Edinburgh at the Cameo on 21 April. Full tour details at roseofnevada.co.uk

Interview recorded at Glasgow Film Festival 2026. 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

We’ve an actual, bona fide Hollywood movie star on the podcast this week: Professor X himself, James McAvoy. At this year's Glasgow Film Festival, the PR gods granted us ten meagre minutes with McAvoy to discuss his directorial debut, the boisterous stranger-than-fiction tale California Schemin’, about two lads from Dundee who convinced the London music industry they were a rapping duo from LA. McAvoy is joined by one of his film’s stars, Lucy Halliday, and they discuss the Scottish accent, McAvoy's filmmaking influences and how he goes about directing his fellow actors. 

On the review front, meanwhile, we discuss two very different new features. One is Orwell: 2+2=5, Raoul Peck’s serious-minded essay film on George Orwell and how his writing predicted the double-speak of the modern world. The other is Fuze, David Mackenzie’s fat-free thriller set in contemporary London starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James trying out a rather silly accent. Don’t say we don’t have range on this pod!

TIMESTAMPS:

What We’ve Been Watching: Project Hail Mary, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Netflix documentary The Dinosaurs (02:24)
Fuze review (21:08)
The Good Boy review (32:34)
Interview with James McAvoy and Lucy Halliday (45:57)

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-

On this week’s show, we pick over the ashes of the 2026 Academy Awards and ask, why are they so boring? Also Oscar-related, we review the new French animation Arco, which was competing in those awards, but left empty-handed, losing to Netflix sensation KPop Demon Hunters. Did voters make the right call?

We also review the curious Polish-British confinement thriller The Good Boy, starring Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough. And finally, we take a look at three films screening in Glasgow Short Film Festival’s Scottish Competition – an experimental animation (Existential Greg), a poetic documentary (Community Theatre) and an intimate drama (Monogamy) – to get a flavour of the work being made on Scotland’s lively short film scene. 

TIMESTAMPS:

Oscar debrief (1:22)
Arco review (14:28)
The Good Boy review (26:41)
Glasgow Short Film Festival taster: three Scottish shorts (39:29)

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-