“OMAHA might not employ the most thoroughly crafted methods by grabbing the heartstrings in its fist, but the cast’s performances capture an honest empathy that is difficult to put aside. And maybe you shouldn’t.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews. #filmsky

Ironically forgot to shout about a new episode because @simonxix.com & I were recording a different one earlier this week. Terminator: Salvation is one of the prongs on my Trident of Terrible Cinema from a godawful visit in 2009. Thought my opinion of it might improve in better context. It did not.

Pod With Us If You Want To Live is back! @simonxix.com & @jimgr.bsky.social talk about #TerminatorSalvation, a disappointing turn from anti-war themes towards military establishment narratives, dour-by-design colour palette, & Jim's legendary Worst Day of Cinema: buff.ly/O7cDXMx #filmsky #terminator

"EXIT 8 leans a little too heavily on [the 'liminal space'] aesthetic to remain fully engrossing for even the succinct 95-minute runtime, but the film finds its way much faster than The Lost Man did." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews, out this Friday in the UK.

“Visually dynamic and elegantly crafted, Damiano Michieletto’s PRIMAVERA is a compelling study of repression, suffering and earnest rebellion.” - Nancy Epton reviews. #filmsky

"Mark Jenkin’s unique filming style lends texture & physicality to ROSE OF NEVADA, a blend of British social realism & ghost story, even while the dream-like nature of it means that it fades like a dream upon ending." - @simonxix.com from the film's GFF run:

“[#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.” - #RagnhildEkner's doc is out this week, read @jimgr.bsky.social's review from LFF 2025 screenings: buff.ly/eQuM0xd

“Director Julian Lautenbacher [shows] bravery in choosing queer identity and dance as his documentary's expression of resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine." - Asia Lo Savio reviews:

“A dose of Polonium-210 already begins to feel inviting a mere half hour into the prolonged 136-minute runtime of THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews. #filmsky

“Even though WASTEMAN’s brutal narrative isn’t anything novel, it possesses a freshness courtesy of McMau’s first time behind the camera, added to the debut screenplay from newcomers Hunter Andrews and Eoin Doran.” - Nancy Epton reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/wasteman/

“Even if DEPARTURES leans heavily on its influences before it establishes what it wants to say, there are enough novel angles and flourishes that its bolshy Mancunian voice is clearly heard and worth listening to.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/departu...

We’re old enough to remember when Sora and video GenAI was the death of cinema. Most folk are. It was only last year.

“THE DRAMA renders philosophical thought experiments as tangible personal relationships. The film is both fiendishly juvenile and thought-provoking, with Kristoffer Borgli's black comedy approach harmonising these two qualities.” - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews. #filmsky

Going to the cinema this weekend be like

The year is 2085. Fifty years after a Looney Tunes reboot referenced 2020s internet culture, everybody thinks that ducks eat Dubai chocolate. Many ducks have perished with the myth.

"Frankenstein is, in part, about unchecked ambition & 'filthy creation'. In pursuing greatness for himself, Victor brought misery upon a creature of which he lost control. Maybe THE BRIDE! is a good adaptation of her work in spirit, if not in practice." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews:

First of a couple of new reviews from me this week. First up, PROJECT HAIL MARY, which I enjoyed a lot even if I wanted a bit more of what Sandra Hüller was bringing to the film. Review for @takeonecinema.net here!

"PROJECT HAIL MARY evokes many forebears which have perhaps examined such themes more deeply or to better effect. However, even if it remains emotionally simple (sometimes stubbornly so), few films can offer as many shining moments." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/project...

Happy don't-post-anything-bizarre-or-nobody-will-believe-you day, everyone!

"CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ has hints of greatness throughout its script but ultimately lands as a safe debut for James McAvoy that doesn’t dare to tread very far outside the formula for music biopic cinema." - @simonxix.com reviews out of GFF:

"...the story of a tour guide in a small Borders town, driven mad by the intrusion of [filming] a prestige fantasy series, balances a light comedy tone with unexpected poignancy, even if some of its more impactful ideas are underdeveloped." - @simonxix.com reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/the-fal...

"SUKKWAN ISLAND (also known as MY FATHER’S ISLAND) is a slow devastation. The conclusion seems inevitable from the outset but, like the young man in the film, we are dragged along for the experience." - @simonxix.com reviews at GFF: takeonecinema.net/2026/sukkman...

On this month's episode, we discuss TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES which is bland, kind of homophobic, and needlessly misogynistic. And somehow the franchise goes downhill /after this/.

The T3 episode of Pod With Us If You Want To Live is here! @simonxix.com & @jimgr.bsky.social discuss the pivot to generic early 2000s action, wild tonal whiplash, casual laddish misogyny & Arnold’s small distraction during this film of running for Governor of California. buff.ly/oZO1lAJ

"THINK OF ENGLAND starts by evoking the idea of indecency with a wry grin, but what it ends up producing is something more reflective." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews ahead of the @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social premiere: buff.ly/x2vVGzH #GFF26 #GlasgowFilmFestival #filmsky

Cracking film. I reviewed many years ago for @takeonecinema.net before even conceiving of doing a podcast series looking at the whole Alien franchise.

"There is more than enough wit and wisdom in the delivery of GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE that it rarely fails to be entertaining, even if the film struggles to shape a unique viewpoint from its mélange of influences." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/good-lu...

The @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social is underway, and so is our coverage. Articles incoming from @simonxix.com, @carmenchloie.bsky.social & @jimgr.bsky.social at least. Here's a thread as they come in! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🎞️

"Emerald Fennell manages to achieve some new and striking things, but it’s an odd irony that in trying to be stirring and daring, WUTHERING HEIGHTS ends up rather blunted and safe." - @jimgr.bsky.social reviews: takeonecinema.net/2026/wutheri...

Not this shit again

For @takeonecinema.net, I reviewed EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET, the opening film of this year's Glasgow Film Festival. It's a stirring documentary focused on the individuals who chose to defend their neighbours that day and the Scottish context of the protest. People Make Glasgow. #GFF26

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!