Hillbilly Elegy review - misery in the heartland

★★★ HILLBILLY ELEGY Ron Howard's melodrama softens the message of a Trump-era memoir

Ron Howard's melodrama softens the message of a Trump-era memoir

Published in June 2016, J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy became a best-seller around the time of that November’s presidential election as people sought to understand why working class whites in the American heartland supported Donald Trump en masse.

Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine, Netflix review - star-studded special for Trump lip-syncer

★★★★ SARAH COOPER: EVERYTHING'S FINE, NETFLIX Star-studded special for Trump lip-syncer

Politics and race examined in sketch show

When the world was in lockdown and performers turned to TikTok to keep in touch with their fans, Sarah Cooper started using the online platform for short videos where she lip-synced Donald Trump's speeches, and they quickly went global. Not many people can say they owe worldwide fame to Covid and America's worst-ever president.

The Queen's Gambit, Netflix review - chess prodigy's story makes brilliant television

★★★★★ THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, NETFLIX Chess prodigy's story makes brilliant television

Anya Taylor-Joy excels in adaptation of Walter Tevis's novel

It’s surprising, perhaps, that the dramatic potential of chess hasn’t been more widely exploited. There was a nail-biting tournament in From Russia with Love, while the knight’s chequerboard struggle with Death was the centrepiece of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. In 1972 the game became a proxy for global power politics when Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky in Iceland, an event former world champion Garry Kasparov called “a crushing moment in the midst of the Cold War”.

Rebecca review - mishap at Manderley

★★ REBECCA Pointless remake of Daphne du Maurier's novel

The new film of Daphne du Maurier's novel serves no purpose

When it was announced that Ben Wheatley would be directing a new version of Rebecca, his fans must have wondered what kind of exciting damage he would do to the neo-Gothic template of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel – and how he might spin the material in a different way than did Alfred Hitchcock in his unimpeachable 1940 classic starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson.

Emily in Paris, Netflix review - addictive escapism in the City of Light

★★★★ EMILY IN PARIS, NETFLIX Addictive escapism in the City of Light

Lily Collins shines in Darren Star's fashionable fantasy

Is Emily in Paris “the dumbest thing on Netflix right now?” or a sugar-rush of escapism in the midst of our global pandemic misery? “We need things to make us smile,” commented one Parisian viewer. “In the time of Covid,we don’t need more to stress us out.”

David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet review - is the end nigh?

★★★★ DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Is the end nigh?

A powerful fear and tear-inducing documentary from the legendary naturalist and broadcaster

At 93-years-old and with a career that spans nearly 60 years, David Attenborough has spent a lifetime transporting audiences from the comfort of their sofas to the dazzling, often bewildering, majesty of the natural world. Now, he offers what he calls his ‘witness statement’, a Netflix documentary that not only charts Attenborough’s remarkable career, but also how the world has changed for the worse over those years.

Enola Holmes review – a new Sherlock-related franchise is afoot

★★★★ ENOLA HOLMES A new Sherlock-related franchise is afoot

Millie Bobby Brown gives the patriarchy what-for in a charming young adult adventure

Its no secret that Arthur Conan Doyles most famous creation lays claim to more appearances on screen than any other fictional character. Over the past several decades, weve seen Sherlock as a pugilist action-hero, a modern-day sleuth, and in a painfully unfunny slapstick guise.