The Cineskinny

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)

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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 [email protected]

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

Everybody To Kenmure Street tells the true story of a community coming together to resist a Home Office immigration raid in Glasgow's Southside in 2021. For this episode, Jamie caught up with its director, Felipe Bustos Sierra, earlier this year to discuss the making of the film, and to talk about the power of solidarity and protest.

Everybody To Kenmure Street is out in UK cinemas on Fri 13 March, and Felipe is taking the film on tour for a series of Q+A screenings – details at conic.film/kenmurestreet

Interview recorded in Jan 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 [email protected]

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

With the return of Glasgow Film Festival, we review a quartet of films from the programme. Listen in for our thoughts on Gus van Sant’s 70s crime thriller, Mark Jenkin’s existential fishing boat time-hopper, Pauline Loquès’ small but well-formed debut drama, and Jim Jarmusch’s award-winning ‘parents eh what are they like’ anthology.

As a little treat, Anahit slags off "Wuthering Heights", also we get interrupted by some building work in the office and we all become very cold to the point that Peter gets the sniffles at one stage. We’re talking the full Slavoj Žižek, but we think we caught them all in the edit… 

TIMESTAMPS:

"Wuthering Heights" review (1:50)
Dead Man’s Wire review (10:00)
Rose of Nevada review (21:00) 
Nino review (32:20)
Father Mother Sister Brother review (45:00)

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 [email protected]

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

A packed ep of the pod this time – we look at the recent sudden closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow, and what it means for Scottish arts in general, and Scottish cinema in specific.

Then, we review! The Secret Agent is a knotty, complex sun-drenched conspiracy thriller from Brazil; If I Had Legs I'd Kick You sees Rose Byrne go full power no brakes 100% as a mother at the end of various tethers. Both very good.

Finally, we look back on the career of the one and only Catherine O'Hara, and some of her best roles and funniest deliberate mispronunciations. Enjoy your Cineskinny, bebés.

CHAPTERS:

The CCA has closed: how did this happen and what's next? (01:50)
The Secret Agent review (13:45)
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You review (29:10)
Catherine O'Hara tribute (44:25)

CCA news: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/news/glasgow-cca-centre-for-contemporary-arts-to-close

Jamie's GFF top ten/11: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/opinion/glasgow-film-festival-2026-11-unmissable-films 

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 [email protected]

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