Empire of Light Is Somber, Static, and Shallow
Starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, and Colin Firth, Sam Mendes’s film about mental illness and racism in early ’80s England is wan and lifeless.
A grim yellow pall hangs over the drab, empty spaces of Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light. Its source is, at least part of the time, the giant lit letters of the movie theater where much of the picture takes place. Perhaps they were there once to evoke grandeur and brightness; the Empire thea... More »