Anglo-American wizardry in a JK Rowling. prequel to the Potter cycle. This one’s set in NYC, a truly backward, morally loose and up-tight and corrupt place in the 1920s, where Newt (Eddie Redmayne) a wizard explorer arrives with a set of illegal fantastic beasts in his valise and all hell breaks loose. It’s clear why he’s bringing one with him, but not all and the all create serious chaos among the benighted Americans. He’s arrested by a demoted witch agent Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and they then struggle against an evil proto-Valdemort character in Colin Farrell’s Graves. I liked this one much more than did many others who saw it. Perhaps it’s because a muggle, or non-mag as they’re called in the US, plays a meaningful role and is more than simply the backdrop for the experience of all things magical. Funny to watch this at the same time I’m listening to her The Casual Vacancy on disc in the car. [Note: I never did finish that novel. I found it so relentlessly depressing and all the characters so damaged, narcissistic, corrupt, and unpleasant – or maybe just normal – that I didn’t want my drives to be marked by ongoing pain]