OPERATION MINCEMEAT Dir: John Madden


(12A) (128 mins)


A bizarre, true-life tale of espionage in World War II, with a talented cast of thespians adding weight to an incredibly devious plan. It’s 1943 and British Intelligence, in a bid to outwit the Nazis, utilize the corpse of a homeless man and some false papers to send their foes looking in the wrong direction. About to relaunch an assault in Europe and invade Sicily, the Allies need to wrongfoot the enemy or thousands of lives and the future of the war could be lost. Colin Firth plays Ewen Montagu, the man tasked with making this work with painstaking attention to detail; the excellent Mathew MacFayden is Charles Cholmondley, his second in command. Kelly MacDonald, sent to help the war effort after losing her husband in the conict, aids and


recent events have shown, disinformation about warfare is easy to create now; years ago, it was a different, more ingenious prospect, to which this film pays tribute.


abets the espionage. Unfortunately, as Out Fri 15 Apr


FANTASTIC BEASTS: (12A) (130 mins)


More wizarding world shenanigans in this third film in J owling’s rather lacklustre and, frankly, dull prequels to the Harry Potter franchise. Eddie Redmayne’s pouty Newt Scamander returns – the Magizoologist with creatures in his suitcase, who at the bidding of Jude Law’s Dumbledore sets out to foil the plans of Wizardy Baddie Grindelwald, Mads Mikkelsen. The latter stepped in after Johnny Depp exited the series, and with JK Rowling causing Twitter waves this feels like a compromised franchise. All of the other elements are present and correct under the direction of Potter veteran David Yates: CGI monsters, wand waggling,


cast members Katherine Waterson and Dan Fogler and the real-world parallels. Grindelwald wants to destroy the Muggles, establish a magic dictatorship and has to be stopped; Jude Law’s beardy Dumbledore will have to up his game and get his hands dirty. With another two films supposedly planned, it’s questionable whether there’s any more enthusiasm for these tales, but the Potter juggernaut cannot be underestimated. Expelliarmus!


snitches, original Out Fri 15 Apr


THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE Dir: David Yates


TRUE THINGS Dir: Harry Wootliff


(15) (102 mins)


A relationship drama based on Deborah Kay Davies’ book, with the ever-excellent Ruth Wilson at its centre, makes True Things worthy of notice. She plays Kate, a supposedly dowdy woman, lost and drifting through life with no significant other. She works at a ob centre, her snarky humour infuriating her employers, then meets a dyed-blond Tom Burke, whose confidence and arrogance sweeps her off her feet. They enter into a torrid, passionate relationship, but Burke is not all he seems: taking her car for himself, disappearing and reappearing on a whim and operating by his own selfish rules. Wilson is initially besotted, but then the scales start to fall from her eyes, and she gradually implodes. A story about gaslighting, toxic masculinity and self-discovery from Wootliff, the director of the equally immersive romantic drama Only You.


Out Fri 1 Apr


DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA Dir: Simon Curtis


(PG) (120 mins)


Aristocracy assemble! The bizarrely popular upstairs/downstairs soap opera continues on the big screen with a sequel to the bland television series, once again selling nonsense about the upper classes to a captive audience. This time out, the cast of British character actors have to deal with some movie makers coming to Downton to use it as a location, with Dominic West cameoing as a moustachioed troublemaker. There’s also a trip abroad as Dame Maggie Smith’s Aunt Agatha discovers she has inherited a villa in the south of France. So, in true British TV hits turned into movies style – see On The Buses/The Inbetweeners etc – the Grantham toffs decamp to France for some pleasant vistas and low-stakes badinage from the forever scribbling pen of Julian Fellowes. French star of Call My Agent Nathalie Baye pops in, joining the bloated cast all scrabbling to get a few lines of dialogue as the ‘plot’ unravels. In other words, business as usual for those who like this sort of thing. I’m going upstairs to take off my hat.


Out Fri 29 Apr 33


HAPPENING Dir: Audrey Diwan


(15) (100 mins)


An intimate abortion drama set in France in 1963, when the procedure was illegal, Happening is a gruelling tale of a student trying to find her way through her early life facing prejudice all around. Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, Anna Maria Vartolomei is Anne, a literature student who becomes pregnant as exams loom and her future becomes foggy and unclear. It’s a claustrophobic time. As the 60s progress, freewheeling free love may be just around the corner, but not in Anne’s community. To get an abortion is punishable with prison time and also holds serious personal risk – even death – but Anne is determined to go ahead, with the father unwilling to be involved. A harrowing, award-winning drama that looks set to unsettle with its intimate, uninching and personal take of a young woman’s plight in a prudish, hypocritical society.


Out Fri 22 Apr


THE FEAST


Dir: Lee Haven Jones (15) (93 mins)


A Welsh-language folk horror with plenty of subtext and gore, The Feast has been wowing festival audiences with its slow burn dread. Set in rural Wales, in a sleek modern home where once a family farm stood, it stars Annes Elwy as Cadi, a young woman employed to serve at a dinner party for the owners, Nia Roberts’ wealthy Glenda and Julian Lewis Jones’ politician Gwyn. They also have two children – creepy triathlete Gweirydd Sion lun Jones and drug addict Guto Steffan ennydd – and the visiting uros, played by former My Family star Rhodri Meilir. What was farmland is now rented out to energy companies for profit and there is to be a price. The dinner table is set for gathering tension and suspense as Cadi’s motives for being there grow gradually clearer. Directed by TV veteran Lee Haven Jones and written by Roger Williams (TV’s Bang, this will provide plenty to mull over amidst the disquiet.


Out Fri 29 Apr


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