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Wonderful true story about a mixed-race woman raised in an aristocratic British family in the late 18th century; like the best Jane Austen romance with an angry social conscience. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m hungry for stories about women

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Warning: I am about to get sweary about a genteel romantic costume drama.

To everyone who has ever said or believed that white men built the world on their own and bestowed civilization on the rest of us? Fuck you. To anyone who has ever said or believed that the stories of women and everyone not-white haven’t been told because they’re not worth telling because, obvs, they did nothing significant? Fuck you.

That the stories of women and nonwhite people — and nonwhite women! — have been erased from the history books does not...

Adaptations of Jane Austen’s work and other Georgian-era-set films arrive via indie theaters and PBS almost as though they’re on a schedule. Fans of witty stories of class-defying romance get their fix of empire-waist dresses, demure courtships and misunderstandings every year or so, but there’s often little to differentiate one from another (not that we complain when a new adaptation appears). Based on a true story, director Amma Asante’s “Belle” has every element that costume drama fans love, but it elevates a standard love story by adding larger historical implications and giving us a new perspective on the era. In 1769, after the death of her mother, a young Dido Elizabeth Belle (Lauren Julien-Box) is brought to the home of her naval officer father’s uncle to be raised as though she were a legitimate daughter. Though her mother was an African slave, her great uncle Lord...