Movie Details
| Title: | Empire of Light | |
| Director: | Sam Mendes | |
| Year: | 2022 | |
| Genre: | Drama | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.12.23 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- 1917
- Away We Go
- Jarhead
- Revolutionary Road
- Skyfall
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.12.23 | Internet | Sam Mendes can make a good movie, and this had some things going for it which made me want to see it, like a score from Reznor and Ross and the setting of a movie theater. I tend to love movies about movies, but movies about movie theaters can be a mixed bag. Sometimes the filmmaker's clear love for a movie theater takes you the highest heights of a celebration of all the magical church-like qualities of the place like Cinema Paradiso, but sometimes it's just thrown into a movie really about something else and it feels like a saccharine diversion (like Frank Darabont's The Majestic). This is more the latter unfortunately. Everything about the theater itself, like as a set, is so lovingly produced and photographed that it feels like a literal heaven or something with the golden art deco lighting, but then you've got a frankly Oscar-bait-y story with like a checklist of progressive topics. The craft of the film is spot on but even very good actors can't totally make the may-december interracial mental illness relationship work. It's like one too many things. I was a bit disappointed with the score as well. I think those guys are falling into a whole with happy-piano, sad-noise and it took an already disjointed and meandering pace and made it feel even more drawn out. The movie looks incredible though. Many shots of the building and the beach remind me of some artist that's not coming to mind. Very clean, colorful in a constrained way. The alternating blue and orange tint to the ballroom windows look lovely. It's all very clean and pretty for sure. I also liked all the supporting cast. Just a shame the story didn't connect with me. I wanted this to be like a John Carney movie set in a theater, but I got more Revolutionary Road. oh well. |
