© 20th Century Studios
Olivia Colman and Tom Brooke in EMPIRE OF LIGHT
Olivia Colman and Tom Brooke in 'Empire of Light'
Empire of Light
(In Theaters December 9)
During the U.K.’s COVID lockdown, director Sam Mendes penned a script to examine the allure of movie theaters. Set in 1981, theaters display posters from Raging Bull, Chariots of Fire, Being There and others. These films open at the Empire, an aging movie palace where velvet curtains and ornate woodwork hold sway.
Toby Jones appears as the theater projectionist. He waxes eloquent regarding the mechanics of showing and seeing a film. Located on England’s Southeast coast, the theater is managed by middle-aged Hilary (Olivia Colman). She takes lithium for an undisclosed mental condition. The drug makes her depressed, a feeling that isn’t helped by repetitive quickie sex with the theater’s married owner, Mr. Ellis (Colin Firth). She regains a measure of happiness when Stephen (Micheal Ward) joins her staff. He’s a handsome young black man oppressed by racism and Hilary’s growing crush on Stephen leads to their secret affair. He tries to take racial slurs in stride, but White Supremacists refuse to be ignored. Troubled characters and involving films, illuminate problems many of us combat. Here, all is overshadowed by the specter of social inequities. (Lisa Miller)
Hinterland
(Film Movement DVD)
Fans of “Vienna Blood” take note. Hinterland is set in Vienna a decade later, following Austria’s defeat in World War I. Peter is an army lieutenant, a POW in Russia who returns home to find an almost unrecognizable city of beggars, pimps, pickpockets, pushers and political radicals. He was a police inspector before the war and is drawn into a grisly chain of serial killings—as investigator, suspect and potential victim. Director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s CGI Vienna is shown through askew camera angles recalling Expressionist films. (David Luhrssen)
A Knife in the Head
(Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray)
Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) stars in this 1978 film by German director Reinhard Hauff. He plays Hoffman, shot in the head during a police raid on a leftist hideout. He lost memory and motor skills and undergoes long sessions of recovery as the police try to peg him as a knife-wielding militant and the leftists try to cast him as a hero in their struggle. Will he ever remember what happened? Ganz’s adept performance as the victim of brain damage has been called realistic by neurologists. (David Luhrssen)
The Whale
(In Theaters December 9)
In the wake of the pandemic, we relate to Charlie’s (Brendan Fraser) confinement to few rooms. More unusual is the reason: Charlie weighs upwards of 600 lbs. and can only get up from his lounge chair with great difficulty. He’s a reclusive English professor, conducting college courses online. One day, Charlie’s friend Liz (Hong Chau), a nurse, takes his blood pressure and alarmed by its elevation, declares he’ll be dead within a week if he doesn’t go to the ER. He refuses, citing his lack of health insurance.
There’s more to it, of course. We glean bits from Charlie’s interactions with his estranged 17-year-old daughter (Sadie Sink). She lives with her mom (Samantha Morton), only coming to Charlie for help and to extract promises for more. Others arrive, each one revealing new aspects of Charlie’s rare intellect and depth of emotion. Penned by Samuel D. Hunter, who adapted his stage play, Darren Aronofsky directs Fraser’s intimate, sly performance that keeps us hanging on every frame. We long for Charlie to let himself off the hook. It takes a two-hour film, along with a half dozen characters, to see if he can. (Lisa Miller)
