The Queen's Gambit Review

The achievement is that the games are legible and thrilling. Frank shoots chess as a series of faces, clocks and small physical tells, uses ceiling projected pieces to externalise Beth's thinking without a single line of explanation, and cuts the tournaments for rhythm rather than accuracy, so a viewer who cannot play still knows exactly who is winning. Anya Taylor-Joy holds the camera completely, and Marielle Heller and Bill Camp give the two most affecting performances in it.

The costume and production work across the American and European sixties is gorgeous, and Steven Meizler's photography is warm where the story is cold. The weakness is friction, or the lack of it. Beth's addiction is styled rather than felt, her setbacks resolve within an episode, and the men she beats are almost uniformly gracious about it, which drains the period of the sexism the story keeps mentioning. The final act, in which the rivals she has defeated gather to help her by telephone, is lovely and completely unearned. Beautiful, propulsive and a little frictionless.