Film Opinion
Opinion pieces from our film writers looking at key debates and discussions around films, directors, actors, and cinematic trends. Here you can also find insight to stay current with coverage of booming film festivals.
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FestivalsTen Films to See at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024
From noir dramas to moody docs, time-travelling women to road-tripping ventriloquists, our picks from this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival Read more »| 25 Jul 2024 -
OpinionProwess beyond the pecs: Zac Efron's dynamism
Ahead of A Family Affair coming to Netflix, we look back on Zac Efron’s eclectic career and underrated star power Read more »| 28 Jun 2024 -
OpinionShallow Grave is 30, and Edinburgh renting is still a nightmare
Shallow Grave is back in cinemas this month for its 30th anniversary. Looking back at this dazzling landmark in Scottish cinema, we have many thoughts, most of them concerned with the nightmare that is renting a flat in Edinburgh Read more »| 07 May 2024 -
OpinionEye for Film: The greatness of Lynne Ramsay's early shorts
Ahead of the 25th-anniversary rerelease of Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher, one writer explores how Ramsay's talent for visual filmmaking was forged in her early shorts like Gasman and Small Deaths Read more »| 04 Apr 2024 -
OpinionFilm festivals as a space for community and radical change
Scotland has a thriving film festival scene, and it's at its best when it functions as a communal and political space. Programmers like Xuanlin Tham and Sanne Jehoul are among those unleashing this collective and radical potential of film festivals Read more »| 04 Mar 2024 -
OpinionTen films to see at Glasgow Film Festival 2024
Super-lean siege thrillers, magic-realist comedies, archive documentaries and time-travelling romances – here are ten must-watch films from Glasgow Film Festival 2024 Read more »| 23 Feb 2024
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OpinionThe Unheroic Journey: Awards Season's Best Biopics
Narrative fiction has long travelled outwith the rigid story structures set out by Aristotle and Joseph Campbell, but biographical cinema has been slow to catch up. Might this year's crop of biopics be turning the tide? Read more »| 25 Jan 2024 -
OpinionHold the Scotch: Poor Things, Lanthimos, Gray and Scotland
The prospect of Yorgos Lanthimos adapting Poor Things has been mouthwatering for Alasdair Gray fans. But by changing the setting from Glasgow to London, has the book's political message been lost? Read more »| 09 Jan 2024 -
OpinionThe Skinny's Films of 2023: Our Writers' Top 10s
Our film writers' personal top tens in 2023, plus honourable mentions, rereleases of the year and a few stinkers thrown in for good measure Read more »| 11 Dec 2023 -
OpinionThe Skinny's Films of 2023
The best films of the year feature acts of protest and resistance, alongside work that reckons with horrors wreaked by abusers, narcissists and racists – which seems particularly apt for 2023... Read more »| 07 Dec 2023 -
Opinion20 Underrated and Overlooked Films from 2023
We'll admit it. Critics (and audiences) often get it wrong. Plenty of great films this year have come and gone without fanfare. But don't write them off. The Skinny's Film Team choose 20 underrated titles that deserve your attention Read more »| 06 Dec 2023 -
OpinionThe Skinny's Scottish Films of 2023
Notable feature film debuts and sparkling documentaries were the story of Scottish film in 2023 Read more »| 05 Dec 2023 -
OpinionChicken Run and the Aesthetics of Self-Determination
Is Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget a potent analogy for colonialism? Are the escaped chickens crypto-Zionists? Our Theatre editor muses on the new Aardman animation Read more »| 05 Dec 2023 -
OpinionGrease 2 4EVA, I.D.S.T.
In Grease 2, sexism and patriarchal misogyny hang heavy in the air like a bad smell, but Michelle Pfeiffer rules the school – we take a closer look at the cinematic flop turned cult classic Read more »| 13 Nov 2023 -
FestivalsEdinburgh Film Festival 2023: Our Top Ten Picks
This year's Edinburgh International Film Festival is smaller than usual but there's no shortage of great films. Here are ten titles we’d urge you to see Read more »| 11 Aug 2023