The Boys in the Boat review – George Clooney sports drama goes for patriotic boosterism
The director lays on the strident messaging in this clunky film, all about the gutsy underdogs of the US rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due; The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow; Him by Geoff Ryman; Audition by Pip Adam
Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson audiobook review – tales of fantastical mundanity
Paterson Joseph reads short stories of talking animals and ghostly revelations that weave into a melancholic, askew chimera of magic and quotidian woes
Let Me Go On by Paul Griffiths review – an exquisite experiment
Ophelia journeys beyond the grave, in a clever and affecting sequel using just the 481 words spoken by Shakespeare’s character
White Holes by Carlo Rovelli review – space odyssey
Time, quantum mechanics, and the nature of reality are considered in a mind-bending journey to the edge of reality
An Ordinary Youth by Walter Kempowski review – life under the Nazis
The unspoken tensions between banality and evil give this German autobiographical novel, first published in 1971, a powerfully unsettling impact
A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith review – one-way ticket to Muskow anyone?
Elon Musk has pledged to settle the red planet. Is it really worth the bother?
Bird Life by Anna Smaill review – where trauma meets talent
A Booker-nominated author’s speculative study of genius, grief and special powers fails to fly
Blood on the Snow: The Russian Revolution 1914-1924 by Robert Service – review
This work of a lifetime presents high-octane, high-politcal drama – and attempts to rehabilitate the ‘bourgeois’ provisional government that preceded the Bolsheviks
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward review – a plantation hell
This powerful tale of an enslaved woman’s journey through the deep south draws on Dante and African spirit mythology
The Three Musketeers: Milady review – more plotting, fighting and galloping derring-do
Our heroes are out to foil a complex plot involving smirking hitwoman Milady de Winter, tearing through gonzo fight scenes and excellent stunts at a teeth-rattling pace
The End of Enlightenment by Richard Whatmore review – a warning from 18th-century Britain
In a study with chilling modern resonance, the history don contends that the age of reason was betrayed by the greed, corruption and barbarism of Britain’s ruling elite
Wendy: A Peter Pan Story review – an awfully modern adventure
Gaming imagery blends with traditional adventure scenery in an exuberant present-day adaptation of JM Barrie’s novel
Wonka review – Timothée Chalamet delights in fizzing Chocolate Factory prequel
Paddington director Paul King works his magic with this unashamedly sweet-toothed musical imagining the formative years of Roald Dahl’s chocolatier showman
Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain review – a peach of a read
Pen Vogler’s second history of British food lives up to its title with a banquet of fascinating titbits, deep research and intellectual nourishment