Great performances wasted on an aimless and unfocused screenplay.
Sam Mendes is a much better director than he is a writer.
"To fuck, or not to fuck." Yes, that's an actual line from the movie.
'Empire of Light' shines the brightest with its dark yellow/goldish cinematography and performances.
Other than that, this might be Sam Mende's worst movie.
The whole movie talks about the "power" of cinema, etc. However, the power is sadly missing here. Incredibly dreary and tricky to pinpoint what the story is. It's all over the damn place. It follows the themes of mental illness, racism, forbidden love, and escapism. But those aspects are either underdeveloped or poorly executed.
Not the worst movie ever made, but it's painfully bland.
Like a marshmallow and paperclip beef stew: there's a lot in it but it doesn't go together well.
So, at first I thought the film was a tribute to the love of cinema and I was like, Oh, cool. But then I was like, Oh, the movie's about mental health issues, cool. But then I was all, Oh wait, it's about an unlikely romance, ok, cool. But then I was like, Hmm, I think it's an anti-racsim movie?
And then I was like, I wish Mendes could focus on one subject and stop head hopping among characters.
Whatever, I'll never pass up the opportunity to remind people what anti-vaxxer Eric Clapton said on stage in a concert during the period when this film was set:
Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands... So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country... I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white!
Watch the documentary White Riot instead!
Olivia Colman is awesome. Too bad her performance can't save this truly mediocre film.
It's been a long time since I've seen a film as dull as "Empire of Light." Director Sam Mendes tries to tackle topics like the "magic of cinema", racism, and mental health and fails miserably in every regard. The framework is a love story set in the 1980s. The main setting is a cinema called "Empire Cinema" on the south coast of England. Except for a single scene, Mendes fails to even begin to convey what cinema means to him as a kind of "magical place". The love story, on the other hand, falls flat because Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward, while both excellent in their own right, have little chemistry together. And the racism subplot could not be more clumsy. The only one who really shines is cinematographer Roger Deakins. He at least makes the film look good. If it wasn't so incredibly boring, that might have saved it. But as it is, I can't recommend it.
Story wise, I have no idea what to rate it. It felt like a bunch of random stories from random people shoved into what I would say is a cinamaticly pleasing experience.
a film about people, with good actors, photography and direction.
An absolute beautiful film. Love the cinematography, the setting and especially the score. Olivia Colman delivers a fantastic performance as always.
"I have a situation I need to discuss with you in my office." The situation was the need for suction. Oral suction.
The relationships depicted in this movie seem more driven by the screenwriter than by what the characters would ever pick.
There is a married male boss having a strange affair with a subordinate female manager and a younger black man having an attraction to that same female manager, who is white, older than him and doesn't seem like anybody he would be interested in.
They don't even acknowledge she is old enough to be his mom. She has mental issues and it doesn't turn him off.
No I don't know what the point of the movie is, but it seems to suggest not to let the problems of life keep you from seeing the enjoyment in life. The main problems being mental unstableness and racial injustice.
[Disney+] The nostalgic look at cinema of childhood once again attracts an established director, another reflection of traditional movie theaters that almost seems like a farewell. In the eighties of "Chariots of Fire" (1981), Sam Mendes uses nostalgia to talk about racism and Thatcherism, mental illness (just like Steven Spielberg) and unconditional love. There are very moving moments, an exceptional Olivia Coleman and a contagious melancholy, but also an unbalanced tone, a film that ends up feeling too irrelevant.
A glimpse into the messiness and pain of REAL life. No wonder we want to escape to the movies. This film is set in an old movie theater, half abandoned, but also still regal and well-loved. The main characters are broken, worn down by the world they inhabit. But they find friendship and love. They are honest with each other even when it hurts. Really well done.
This was a decent movie.
This is a very low-key story and it unfolds over the 2 hours into a really enjoyable movie.
Much better than the Steven Spielberg movie that came out around the same time and got all the attention and gushing over.
Highly recommend this!
9/10
Good overall but I wish it had shone a brighter light on the struggles faced by the two main characters. The story provided a lovely reminder of the power of film, however.
I loved this film. It's a film of people living and working and being. Great performances from everyone. Colman as usual is stellar, Michael Ward shines about as bright as any. It's not for everyone but if you like a drama and solid storytelling with a compelling group of characters this one will a good choice.
Empire of Light, more like Empire of ight...First off, Roger Deakins worked his magic yet again, and made the film look beautiful. Love the fireworks scene on the rooftop. Olivia Colman kills it, of course.
The screenplay ends up being a mess, with too many storylines packed in. The trailer had me believing that this film was destined for the award shows. oh well.
The trailer was really catchy, trying to sell the nostalgia of the old cinema screen (a bit like Cinema Paradiso). The film however did not work, the nostalgic parts on cinema were completely out of context and interpolated on the main characters plot, the latter quite a weak and uninspiring drama. It would have worked better just looking at the images (as if it were a silent documentary), which as said are not bad in capturing the idea of cinema in the 70s and 80s. Really a wasted occasion.
Shout by dridriovBlockedParent2023-02-08T17:47:18Z
Fragile relationships between flawed and frightened people in an era of authoritarian social pressure before instant judgment and shame became ubiquitous on social media. One of the year's best. Tune out the noise of the critics and watch it alone if you have to.