HIDDEN Figures is the uplifting tale of three women who had the right stuff to work for America's space programme in the 1960s, challenging perceptions in the workplace and breaking the barriers of race and gender along the way.

This entertaining biopic, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly and directed by Theodore Melfi (who wrote the screenplay with Allison Schroeder), covers an overlooked aspect of US history and - without being too subtle about it - succeeds in pressing all the right emotional buttons.

Katherine Goble (Taraji P Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) were pioneers who persevered in an era when the odds were heavily stacked against them. They were black, female and living in the South (Virginia), a part of the country where they faced official discrimination in the form of segregation.