The Cineskinny

Edinburgh Film Festival 2025: The Golden Spurtle, Islands and Zodiac Killer Project

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

Savages, Dreams and Our Favourite Trilogies

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

Superman, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, Karlovy Vary and Cult Classics

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

Filmhouse 2.0, Pavements, 28 Years Later and an EIFF first look

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

 

The CineSkinny Call In Show

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

[BONUS] John Maclean on his Scottish samurai western, Tornado

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

The Phoenician Scheme, The Encampments and the cinema of Palestine

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

 

Introducing our new Scottish music podcast, Music Now

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 

Magic Farm, Good One, and the wonderful world of Wes Anderson

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

Sinners, Motel Destino and Big Nights Out that Go Awry in Movies

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