PLANNING ON HEADING out to the cinema this weekend?

There are a few new movies out, but which is a must-watch, and are there any you should avoid?

We take a look.

Moonlight

What we know

Director and writer Barry Jenkins uses his own experience as a gay black man to make this film based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Starring the much-touted Mahershala Ali.

What the critics say

• “Like all great films, Moonlight is both specific and sweeping. It’s a story about identity—an intelligent, challenging work that wants viewers to reflect on assumptions they might make about the characters.” - The Atlantic
• “Based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney, “Moonlight” is both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces.” - New York Times

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 9/10
• IMDB: 8/10

Fences

What we know

A movie version of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning play, starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington. Washington plays a man who appears to be honourable on the outside, but who has his dark side.

What the critics say

• “Washington’s movie – almost music free, completely dutiful to Wilson’s work – lies somewhere between the stabs at cinema in John Wells’s August: Osage County and the full embrace of the stage that has made live-streamed plays so popular lately. (But just remember: those have intervals. Fences does not.)” – The Guardian
• “The acting is all superb. At the moment Troy’s selfishness is fully revealed, Viola Davis delivers a monologue of tearful, scalding, nose-running agony that shows you one woman’s entire reality breaking down.” – Variety

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 7.8/10
• IMDB: 7.5/10

Hidden Figures

What we know

Based on the book of the same name, this is about three African American women who worked in Nasa – and who faced sexism and racism along the way.

What the critics say

• “This bracing movie, about a group of brilliant African American women whose scientific and mathematical skills helped NASA launch its space exploration program in the 1950s and 1960s, gets off to a spirited start and rarely lets up, sharing with viewers a little-known chapter of history as inspiring as it is intriguing.” – The Washington Post 
• “ Put together, the movie does offer a well-rounded portrait of institutional racism. An earlier film might have insisted on personifying prejudice via one or two unrepentant bad guys, but Figures emphasizes how racism can spread by the simple process of complacent people following orders.” – AV Club

What’s it rated?

• RottenTomatoes: 7.6/10
• IMDB: 7.9/10

Which one would you go see first?

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Support us Learn More