Like many people, I had high hopes when Ron Howard decided to direct a film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir about growing up in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. The book became an immediate bestseller in 2016, not just for Vance’s insightful reflection on a much-maligned subculture, but also because he seemed to offer the upper classes a way of making sense of Donald Trump’s popularity.

Unfortunately, Howard’s version of Vance’s story offers nothing deeper than a pastiche of white poverty. 

Film director Namrata Singh Gujral felt immediate compassion when she learned about a beautiful 6-year-old girl from India who died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally last year. Her story and others inspired Gujral to produce a documentary, America’s Forgotten, to investigate. What she learned turned her preconceived ideas about illegal immigration upside down.

Knives Out, released in late 2019 but popular now on streaming platforms, is a Clue board game come to life, complete with a mansion, house staff, and a complicated family. 

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is a best-selling mystery author in his own last chapter. The morning after his 85th birthday party, the housekeeper finds Harlan dead by apparent suicide—or not? 

You’d think a story about a doughnut shop entrepreneur would be sweet through and through. The new documentary The Donut King recounts Ted Ngoy’s journey from Cambodian refugee to owner of 70 California breakfast eateries. But Ngoy’s love of money would be his eventual undoing. 

Throughout history, criticizing the governing authorities has been a sure-fire way to lose your home or your head. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi enjoyed the Saudi Arabian ruling royal family’s confidence for years. Then he began to speak and write openly against his country’s perceived failure to embrace democratic and social reforms.

Scottish actor Sean Connery, who originated the role of British spy James Bond, has died at age 90. Connery had small roles in musicals, television, and film before his breakthrough performance as Bond in Dr. No. His depiction of the debonair MI6 agent so impressed author Ian Fleming that he rewrote the character with a Scottish heritage in later novels.

From childhood, filmmaker Craig Foster has loved the ocean, spending hours exploring the shoreline and waters. Despite the cold temperatures of the South African coastal waters near his home, he decides to explore one particular kelp forest every day for a year.

In these daily dives, he encounters among hundreds of other creatures a female octopus who seems curious about this pale visitor to her world. “A lot of people say that an octopus is like an alien,” says Foster. “But actually, we are a lot like each other.”