White Riot review - energetic documentary races through the history of Rock Against Racism

★★★ WHITE RIOT Energetic doc races through the history of Rock Against Racism

The power of music to change hearts and minds in the 1970s

This documentary about the 1970s activist movement Rock Against Racism comes with festival prizes and much acclaim. It’s certainly a nostalgic feast for those old enough to remember when punk and reggae musicians were purposely united and it’s a timely release in the age of Grenfell, Windrush and Brexit.  

Nick Hornby: Just Like You review - funny but inauthentic Brexit novel

★★ NICK HORNBY: JUST LIKE YOU Funny but inauthentic Brexit novel

Hornby's latest novel tries so hard to be ‘woke’ that it ends up being tone-deaf

Nick Hornby’s protagonists are worlds apart. Joseph is a Black 22-year-old with a “portfolio career", which includes shift work at a butcher’s and a leisure centre and the distant dream of becoming a DJ. Lucy, a regular customer at the butcher’s where Joseph works, is a white, forty-two-year-old mother, recently divorced from an addict ex-husband and Head of English at a local “troubled inner city school.” When she asks Joseph to be a babysitter for her two children, the pair embark on an unexpected romantic relationship.

Les Misérables review - exhilarating French policier

★★★★★ LES MISERABLES An immersive thriller set in troubled present day Paris

An immersive, morally complex thriller set in the troubled suburbs of present day Paris

The only thing confusing with Les Misérables is its pointedly provocative title, as there are no costumed urchins and no singing involved. Searching online to find the UK cinemas where it’s playing this week entails a trek past the execrable 2012 musical of the same name, but it’s well worth tracking down a screen that's showing this exhilarating and intelligent new film.

Lovecraft Country, Sky Atlantic review - Misha Green, Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams take us on horror-driven road trip

★★★★★ LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, SKY ATLANTIC A horror-driven road trip

A timely, pulpy delight full of supernatural and all too real terrors

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for a series like Lovecraft Country (Sky Atlantic) in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Zalika Reid-Benta: Frying Plantain review - tales of growing up young, black and female in Toronto

★★★★ ZALIKA REID-BENTA: FRYING PLANTAIN Young, black and female in Toronto

A writer-in-the-making studies the art of not making a scene

It is as unsurprising as it is vital that a spotlight has been thrown on writing by people of colour this year. It is unsurprising, too – looking at bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic since June – that most of that light is being shed on particular kinds of writing by people of colour: stories and histories of struggle and suffering. These books, non-fiction and fiction alike, are typically said to “bear witness” – as they should.

Everything: The Real Thing Story, BBC Four review - brilliant but long overdue

★★★★★ EVERYTHING: THE REAL THING STORY, BBC FOUR The breakthrough Liverpudlian band's story told lovingly and not before time

The breakthrough Liverpudlian band's story told lovingly and not before time

This documentary is bittersweet viewing on quite a number of levels. First, it’s got all the glory and tragedy of the most compelling music stories: a Liverpool band struggling from humble beginnings, trying to find an identity, fraternity and fallings-out, coping with huge success and its aftermath – not to mention sex, drugs, mental illness and death.

Imagine... My Name is Kwame, BBC One review - interesting but incomplete

★★★ IMAGINE... MY NAME IS KWAME, BBC ONE Interesting but incomplete

Profile of Young Vic artistic director could go still further

Filmed, as one would, well, imagine, prior to lockdown, Imagine .... My Name is Kwame hearkens to what now seems a bygone era of full and buzzy playhouses and adventurous theatre-making that was about the live experience and not some facsimile online.

The Talk, Channel 4 review - coping with the legacy of racism

★★★★ THE TALK, CHANNEL 4 Coping with the legacy of racism

Black Britons discuss their personal struggles against prejudice

Shall we talk about racism? Currently we seem to be talking about it all the time, and it’s the question non-white parents in Britain sooner or later find themselves pondering as they watch their children grow up in our increasingly confrontational society.

The Merchant of Venice, BBC iPlayer review – a parable on the limits of tolerance

★★★★ THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, BBC iPLAYER A parable on the limits of tolerance

Polly Findlay's 2015 take on Shakespeare's trickiest comedy pays dividends

Ah, 2015. Those halcyon days of packed theatres. Thank God the RSC had the presence of mind to film Polly Findlay’s production of The Merchant of Venice, now streaming on BBC iPlayer.

Coincoin and the Extra-Humans review – God's gunk

Bruno Dumont's irresistible sequel to 'P'tit Quinquin' splatters rural French bigotry

It’s no accident that the eponymous young antihero of Coincoin and the Extra-Humans loses his virginity to the daughter of a French white nationalist in a field close to a sewage farm. The stench of racism pervades the hilarity of Bruce Dumont’s follow-up to his 2014 miniseries Le P’tit Quinquin, which happily features the same principal cast members.