Hidden Figures movie review: triumph of the black girl geeks
The it’s-about-damn-time true story that puts paid to the notion that only white men had the Right Stuff. Often funny, ultimately feel-good, hugely exhilarating.
1960s
A United Kingdom movie review: a love that changed the world
Insistent chemistry between David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike fuels a true story of passionate romance with an urgent message about love as radical and political.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years documentary review: yeah yeah yeah
There’s not a lot new here, but the vintage footage is fab, as is the much-needed reminder that the supposedly innocent past was hardly innocent at all.
Big Eyes movie review: painted into a corner
A bitter feminist fairy tale about a woman betrayed by love and trust and crafted by culture to be vulnerable to the charms of a con-artist husband.
Love & Mercy movie review: strange vibrations
Intense, unconventional, often uncomfortable portrait of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson that transcends the typical clichés about madness and creativity.
My All American movie review: football fundamentalism
Not an inspirational football movie but the highlights reel from one, with a golden boy who is his own manic pixie dreamboat. The worst sort of hagiography.
Pawn Sacrifice movie rating: red light
Yawningly dull Cold War chess drama squanders the charms and talents of Tobey Maguire (as Bobby Fischer) and Liev Schreiber (as Boris Spassky).
Janis: Little Girl Blue documentary review: the painful soul of the music
A compassionate, intimate unpacking of the legend of Janis Joplin that reveals the troubled influences on the force-of-nature singer she willed into being.
a few thoughts about The Man in the High Castle S1
Nazis: I hate these guys. But I adore this show.
Experimenter movie review: the subject is you
A creepy-cool vibe of constructed cinematic artificiality echoes the illusory nature of Stanley Milgram’s notorious experiment into human behavior.
