Reviews

County Lines—a bleak vision of hopeless, demonised teenage victims

County Lines doesn’t flinch from showing the squalor behind the headlines. But it feels as if it’s avoiding the most important question

Flint is harrowing to watch—but there is also hope

In 2014, Michigan’s state government decided to cut costs by redirecting Flint’s water source from Lake Huron to the river Flint

Small Axe—Red, White and Blue shows truth of racist police

The third film in Steve McQueen’s series takes on the institutional racism that exists in the police

Don’t miss this book about women’s liberation battles

Misbehaving recounts the 1970 Miss World protest in the words of those who made it happen

Ghosts is a good read that can’t quite ditch the cliches

Ghosts is an enjoyable look at the ties that can bind us, and how easily—and traumatically—these can be severed

Mangrove—a powerful, and long overdue, tale of a struggle for justice

The first film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series tells the true story of the Mangrove Nine

His House—a realistic but surreal vision of refuge

This horror film follows a couple, Rial and Bol Majur, who have escaped from the civil war in South Sudan to a small English town

Complex characters make for a harsh, thrilling Irish tale in The Searcher

Tana French, author of the Dublin Murder Squad series, is back with a brilliant standalone novel

Mr Wilder & Me is a novel to give you hope

Jonathan Coe’s latest novel might be described as “life-affirming” but it is so much better than that makes it sound.

Looted—an understated look at a life going nowhere

Looted is billed as a crime thriller, but it’s not really that at all

Borat—subsequent Moviefilm for make benefit of liberalism

The second Borat film caught the US right in compromising positions. But its own liberal racism shouldn’t get a free pass

La Revolution is a confusing “re-imagining” of the French Revolution

From the beginning La Revolution seems to touch on the upheaval that led to one of the most famous uprisings in history.

The Gambler—biography that’s a weak effort to show Boris Johnson’s ‘greatness’

Journalist Tom Bower’s last biography was a hatchet job on Jeremy Corbyn. His latest book fawns over Boris Johnson

Arts workers resist the grim future Tories have planned

The Tories’ response to the impact of the pandemic on the arts has been predictably brutal—but artists are fighting back, writes Mark Brown

Kiss the Ground—documentary delivers climate change hope

“The Truth is, I had given up.”

Rocks—a brilliant, realistic film about young lives in London film

Rocks is a teenager struggling to take care of herself and her younger brother Emmanuel after her mum leaves them suddenly.

Oil firms taken to task in Devil Has a Name

The star-studded drama can’t quite decide what kind of film it wants to be. But Simon Basketter says it’s enjoyable watching it try to work it out

A Moving Image shows gentrified London and a city constantly in motion

This award winning film investigates gentrification in Brixton, south London,

Public Enemy release a nostalgic album for new struggles

Fans have been waiting for Public Enemy to drop their new album What you Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? since they returned to the Def Jam label

The Rhino Conspiracy—a novel that’s more than a thriller

The Rhino Conspiracy by Peter Hain follows a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle taking on corruption in the governing elite

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