Hillbilly Elegy review - misery in the heartland
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
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 Crown, Season 4, Netflix review - royalty rocked by personal and political turbulence
Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher steal the limelight
Pre-release excitement about the fourth coming of The Crown (Netflix) has centred on Emma Corrin’s portrayal of Princess Diana, still big box-office 23 years after her death.
The Queen's Gambit, Netflix review - 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
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
Lily Collins shines in Darren Star's fashionable fantasy
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet review - 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
Millie Bobby Brown gives the patriarchy what-for in a charming young adult adventure
It’s no secret that Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation lays claim to more appearances on screen than any other fictional character. Over the past several decades, we’ve seen Sherlock as a pugilist action-hero, a modern-day sleuth, and in a painfully unfunny slapstick guise.