A return to J.K. Rowling's wizarding world dominates the multiplexes, while a variety of art house specialty offerings include a fascinating period romantic thriller.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (pictured) takes a pre-Potter wizard story and only proves how important the hero was to those stories. Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden  mixes a wonderfully twisty narrative with bold images and fascinating socio-political content. The animated adventure Long Way North breaks from predictable visual style to tell a gripping coming-of-age story.

MaryAnn Johanson finds Bleed for This taking the real-life story of Vinny Pazienza and doing absolutely nothing new with familiar boxing-movie material. The documentary The Uncondemned  finds optimism in the story of efforts to prosecute wartime rape in Rwanda .

In this week's feature review,The Edge of Seventeen's caustic charms collide with an attempt to address too many issues.

Also opening this week, but not screened for press: Oscar-winning director Ang Lee follows an Iraq War veteran coping with being called a hero in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk; and a seductive sorceress tries to make the man of her dreams desire her in The Love Witch.