We said we'd be back. This film has loads of literature on it so we get into quite a few different readings of the film in this episode particularly around representations of masculinity and femininity.

We continue our new pod with T2: JUDGMENT DAY. @Simonxix.com & @JimGR.bsky.social discuss how this film develops as a sequel, the various - some dubious - readings of this film in literature, shifting of genre and tone, how masculinity & femininity are presented & subverted: buff.ly/dtZrKZv #filmsky

If they’re doing film based food someone missed an opportunity to just boil fifty eggs, insist they’re eaten within the hour and have done with it.

"To have such a feminist epic, directed by a woman, with a unique vision and power, should serve as a cinematic testament, not a solitary miracle." - @reaffirmsfaith.bsky.social reviews THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE:

Some words for @takeonecinema.net on 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, which feels like a less propulsive but more coherent evolution of the previous film, both of which are much better than they had any right to be.

"28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE is an oddly hopeful film, which brings the messy themes of its predecessor together into a compelling whole based in compassion and the notion that even suffering will return to dust." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews:

Really enjoying film chat to offset the contemporary doom. Will always champion @takeonecinema.net series with @simonxix.com and @jimgr.bsky.social

My favorite artifact in the "you don't need AI to do art" discourse is, of course, screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's sketch of the facehugger to explain it to Giger.

Thanks, we fucking hate it. youtu.be/fnncIVKvJkg?...

All advertising removed from the site, simply because it's shit and annoying. Reader survey incoming that might ask folk about how we operate in the future, but if we must exist in the hellscape that is publishing film criticism on the internet in 2026, best we try to do it on our own terms.

first episode done, excellent as ever

Our pod is back! In the first of our new TAKE ONE Presents series, @simonxix.com & @jimgr.bsky.social discuss The Terminator: “tech-noir”, 1980s-ness & interesting sense of temporality; the immediacy, sexual politics & feminism through action heroines; nuclear anxiety & AGI ideas:

Having checked our Google Analytics for the first time in months, apparently a whopping 0.04% of our readers are reading our articles on a 4K smart TV. #purecinema

We're back! With spicy takes like "tech-noir" isn't a real genre.

Our pod is back! In the first of our new TAKE ONE Presents series, @simonxix.com & @jimgr.bsky.social discuss The Terminator: “tech-noir”, 1980s-ness & interesting sense of temporality; the immediacy, sexual politics & feminism through action heroines; nuclear anxiety & AGI ideas:

“Be kind, be involved, believe in your art. At a time when people tell you art is not important, that is always a prelude to fascism.” - Guillermo del Toro

‘Reports about Alderaan’s explosion are conflicting,’ reports BBC News. ‘The Emperor says a “defensive shot” was fired, while others claim the planet was destroyed in an unprovoked attack’

Little slow to publication with my review of MARTY SUPREME, but have a read - it's a film I had (but also needed!) a lot of time for. Review for @takeonecinema.net below!

"By the time MARTY SUPREME finishes batting balls at you and falls to the floor in exhaustion, the chaos left in its path is at once maddening and impressive." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: buff.ly/Jx0aOUJ #filmsky #cinema

The Feb 25th opening gala of @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social will be EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET: a new film from Nae Pasaran director Felipe Bustos Sierra covering the Kenmure Street protests in May 2021, when neighbours & locals induced the release of two men taken from their home by the Home Office.

RIP to the legend Béla Tarr. We were lucky to have Mike O'Brien, now trustee of @camfilmfest.com, reflect on Tarr's career all the way back in 2012 in the wake of the UK release of The Turin Horse: takeonecinema.net/2012/focus-o...

Loved @takeonecinema.net’s analyses of the M:I, Jurassic and Alien films, so very looking forward to this.

We're starting a new series of TAKE ONE Presents podcast for 2026. If you've never listened before, @jimgr.bsky.social and I do semi-naïve readings of blockbuster franchise films, attempting to situate the films in their historical context and read them without the cultural baggage.

Seems a good time to mention our new series on ‘TAKE ONE Presents…’: Pod With Us if You Want to Live, covering all films in the Terminator franchise. We’re changing the title format, but not the approach. Join @jimgr.bsky.social & @simonxix.com Jan 28 for The Terminator! buff.ly/JYP0K7v

We hope to bring you more of our great writers’ reviews and thoughts on cinema in 2026 - a whole fifteen years since we launched! This week we’ll be posting some of our favourite pieces from each person who contributed in 2025, as well as sharing some of our plans for this year!

Your recyclables…give them to me, now.

Happy New Year! May 2026 be a great year for you and cinema! 🎉

Mia Humphreys talks to the Director of HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE, Eleanor Mortimer, about her experience living with ocean taxonomists for two months, her filmmaking inspirations and the limitations of being an observer: takeonecinema.net/2025/eleanor...

Merry Christmas! 🎄 🎁

Merry Christmas all! @simonxix.com & I bring you our last episode of ‘TAKE ONE Presents’ for the year, and it’s our wrap up episode of The Impossipod, where we take a step back to reflect on the franchise as a whole and give our series rankings.

Listen to our final thoughts on the turbulent Mission: Impossible franchise. We return next year to cover a different blockbuster franchise.

To say this in the year Brett Ratner directed and produced a Melania Trump political documentary with a $40M budget and premiering at the Kennedy-Von Clownstick Center seems to be an egregious error.

The Impossipod wraps up: @simonxix.com & @jimgr.bsky.social discuss the overall trajectory of the #MissionImpossible franchise, what the directors went on to do, the politics, their franchise rankings, & how this ties into wider thoughts on blockbuster franchise filmmaking: buff.ly/MsIOxWa #filmsky

Finishing up my year by banging on about a second really good football doc. This time we’re going global with my spiel about football & football fandom as a tool for understanding communities & societies, with Ragnhild Ekner’s ULTRAS out of #LFF a couple of months ago. Review for @takeonecinema.net!

“[#ULTRAS demonstrates that #football] is not an escape from society, or even a reflection of it – it is a key thread running through the tapestry of communities across the globe.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews the documentary on fanatical fans from #RagnhildEkner: takeonecinema.net/2025/ultras/

“HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE is a thoughtful & beautiful exploration into one of the last holdouts of unexplored territory; a gentle yet deep dive into a world we seldom have access to & that director Eleanor Mortimer urges us to try & protect.” - Mia Humphreys reviews: takeonecinema.net/2025/how-dee...

Some reviews from me over the next short while to round off the year. First up is KENNY DALGLISH, which I had an obvious interest in, but it’s really good beyond the football. If you’ve been avoiding as non-football-fan, then don’t. Review for @takeonecinema.net: takeonecinema.net/2025/kenny-d...

“KENNY DALGLISH provides an extended example not only of how sport, politics, and social justice can intersect, but also of why they should, whilst being mindful of the cost to those who feel they must.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: takeonecinema.net/2025/kenny-d... #filmsky #asifkapadia

AMR: DYING TO CHANGE THE WORLD is a striking documentary narrated by Brian Cox, tackling an urgent global crisis: antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Director Alex Tweddle sat down with Duru Usanmaz to discuss risks behind personifying a microbe and how filmmaking can inspire change: buff.ly/RGGkqPb

Apropos of nothing, no articles produced under TAKE ONE (text, audio, video, holograms, etch-a-sketch, spirographs, whatever) will be produced using generative artificial intelligence. We check all articles, pitches & contributor applications for it. We've also added a request not to use it...(1/2)

RIP to Rob Reiner, a director behind the camera for many iconic lines & images in modern cinema, and influence with Castle Rock Entertainment beyond his own. Choose to remember that, and his efforts to improve the lives of others - ignore the other noise and maybe pop on one of his films this week.

WAKE UP DEAD MAN is out on Netflix today and it's well worth your time. A fun murder mystery that speaks to how the far-right are co-opting Christianity and what it actually means to live through Jesus' teachings.

"Disney and OpenAI affirm a shared commitment to responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators."

I've seen it more than once and it doesn't get less harrowing. I was physically shaking coming out of seeing City of Life and Death at the cinema. It took a pint and a half for me to stop shaking. At one point, a woman in my screening screamed out 'no'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKEg...

I'd suspect this is a popular answer, but Grave of the Fireflies for me. I couldn't sit through it again. Absolutely broke me.

Grave of the Fireflies Requiem for a Dream Killing of a Sacred Deer

My answer used to be Gerald Kargl's ANGST (1983), but I've recently been hankering to revisit, ooft. Maybe it's more of a once every ten years or so type deal...

Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant - features one simple shot of a secondary character having their feelings hurt that is so painful that I don’t want to risk seeing it again. I can’t recall where the scene is, so it would lay in wait, like a shark. Related - I can’t rewatch the first five minutes of Jaws.

Terence Malick's The New World. I sat mesmerised throughout with a deep seated feeling of serenity. It's the only time a film has had that profound effect on me. I'm scared to watch it again in case it doesn't have the same effect.

I'll never see TITANE again. I loved it but it was so physically visceral that I almost walked out at one specific moment.