ONE of the cliches of the media at the turn of the year is to run features that riff on the theme of “new year, new you” – Moviola doesn’t need memes and mundanities as there are always new films to excite its rural audiences, and this new year is no exception.

The first quarter brings a host of exciting, challenging, touching, poignant and fascinating films to village halls and community venues across our region. The most requested films, starting in January, are, with a degree of predictability, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, The Roses and The Choral (from March, starring Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam and Simon Russell-Beale, and scripted by Alan Bennett).

But there are many other titles to inspire and entertain, ranging from the unlikely big-screen documentary The Golden Spurtle, about the annual international porridge-making contest in Scotland, to the rock icon docudrama, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White.

As always, we preview a few films each month and give a chronological list of the venues showing films that month. For dates and venues, visit the Arts Diary, and for more information on the films and times of screenings see www.moviola.org

The most-requested film in January is another cosy visit to Downton Abbey. Described as “The Grand Finale” and said to be the last episode in the Crawley family saga, it doesn’t have the pace or emotional heft of the television series or the strong (if slightly implausible) plot of the first Downton films. But you can spend a couple of hours very pleasantly in the company of Lady Mary, with her usual complicated sex life, the elegant Earl and Countess of Grantham, the Countess’s hitherto not featured brother and the engaging and relatable downstairs team, with a welcome back to a few old faces.

You can see Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale at South Petherton (David Hall), Beaminster (Public Hall), Odcombe, West Lydford, Cheddon & West Monkton, Ditcheat (Jubilee Hall), Watchet (Community Cinema), Frogham, Edington (Somerset), Leigh (near Sherborne), Halstock, Castle Cary (Caryford Hall), East Stour, Bishopstone (near Salisbury) and Martock.

Also in demand this month is the relationship drama The Roses, with the stellar pairing of Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as a blissfully happy couple with lovely children whose lives fall apart as his career wanes and hers blossoms. It is on at Fawley (Jubilee Hall), Hawkchurch, Hanging Langford, Chilthorne Domer, Trent, Horton (near Ilminster), Mere (Lecture Hall), East Knoyle, North Petherton, Westbury-sub-Mendip and Royal Wootton Bassett (RWBO Academy).

The Ballad of Wallis Island, a very English movie about an eccentric lottery winner who lives on an island and brings together a long-separated folk duo (including the always-marvellous Carey Mulligan) for a concert just for him. It doesn’t go according to plan, of course. Catch this wry little not-quite-romantic comedy at Kingsbury Episcopi, Churchinford, Donhead St Mary, Shrewton, Winsford, Bransgore, Charlton Marshall, Winterslow, Norton sub Hamdon, West Camel (Davis Hall)and Netherbury.

The other films being screened by Moviola in January are:
I Swear, at Chard (Guildhall); Four Mothers at Wookey Hole and Harnham; The Golden Spurtle at Beer and the 1973 classic The Sting, with its wonderful Scott Joplin music, at Yetminster Jubilee Hall.