IF you wanted a dream duo to lead a film, you really couldn’t do better than Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. So it’s no surprise to find Wicked Little Letters, with these two stunningly versatile and charismatic actresses in the lead, is the most in-demand film of the summer with Moviola audiences.

Sad therefore, that it had rather lukewarm reviews – but reviewers can be wrong (trust me, we really can be!) and this is such a very English small town story that you might think (and you would be right) that metropolitan critics don’t always get what audiences will enjoy.

Loosely based on a true story, Wicked Little Letters is set in the Sussex seaside town of Littlehampton in the 1920s. When residents, including prim conservative Edith (Colman) begin to receive letters full of awful (but hilarious) swearing and profanity, the eye of suspicion falls firmly on foul-mouthed Irish immigrant Rose (Buckley) and she is accused of the crime. But as the town’s women investigate the mystery, they begin to suspect that Rose may not be the culprit.

In July, Wicked Little Letters is being shown at Moviola venues in Codford (Woolstore Theatre), Watchet (cinema), Somerton (Public rooms), Charlton Marshall, Shepton Montague, Leigh (near Sherborne), Horton (near Ilminster), Castle Cary (Caryford Hall), Bishopstone (near Salisbury) and Edington (Somerset). In August, the film will be screened at Fawley, Kingsbury Episcopi, Nether Wallop, Hanging Langford, Chard (Guildhall), Bransgore, Hythe (parish hall) and West Camel (Davis Hall).

For venues and dates see the Arts Diary. For more details including timing, visit moviola.org

The Oscar-winning 1970s-set Christmas story, The Holdovers, staring Paul Giamatti and the Academy Award-winning Da’Vine Joy Randolph, is being shown in July at Beaminster (Public hall), Hardington Mandeville and Norton St Philip, and at Somerton Public Rooms in August.

The Lesson, starring Daryl McCormack, Julie Delpy, Stephen McMillan and Richard E Grant, is the story of Liam (McCormack) an aspiring and ambitious young writer, who accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author JM Sinclair (Grant). He finds himself rapidly caught up in a toxic web of family secrets, resentment and retribution. Catch it in July at Highcliffe (community centre), Hanging Langford, Halstock and West Camel (Davis Hall), and in August at Leigh near Sherborne.

The other July screenings are:
Next Goal Wins at Fawley, Bransgore and Hythe;
The Color Purple (2023) at Shrewton and Calne (town hall);
The Zone of Interest at Kingsbury Episcopi;
Hamlet (with Sir Ian McKellen) at Nether Wallop;
The Longest Day (1962) D-Day anniversary screening at Chard (Guildhall); and
The Taste of Things at Motcombe.

The other Moviola August screening is The Zone of Interest at Shepton Montague. This is the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning film about the family of the SS commandant of Auschwitz, who live in a grand property next to the concentration camp, apparently unaware of what is happening over their high garden walls.