Trainspotting at 30, De Gaulle's Film Triumph & Why Documentaries Could Steal Venice

Thirty years after Trainspotting introduced a generation to the worst toilet in Scotland, does Danny Boyle’s era-defining film still hold up — or do we simply miss being young?

Kaleem recalls seeing it at one of its earliest Edinburgh screenings (for £1!) and winning a 25-word review competition, while Emma argues that civilisation peaked in the 1990s and has been deteriorating ever since.

They also discuss the extraordinary French success of the lavish wartime epic De Gaulle: Résistance; the gloriously unlikely, visibly handmade animated film Niu Lai challenging Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey at the Chinese box office; and why audiences may finally be turning against AI slop.

Plus, could documentaries steal the show at the Venice Film Festival? With the controversial Gaza film NAZA, Alex Gibney’s Musk and an Oasis reunion documentary all heading to the Lido, reality might prove more interesting than fiction.

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