This week on the Lambcast, we take on another film featuring movies as the subject matter, at least that’s what we were promised. “Empire of Light” is the new film from director Sam Mendes who has a pretty good track record including two James Bond movies and the technically brilliant “1917”. It may be that hubris has set in, because our guests this week seem to be on a mission to skewer the film.
Maybe our opinions were effected by the bait and switch given to us by the promotional materials. When you are expecting a film about the power of movies to bring us together or inspire us, and instead, we get an odd remake of “Harold and Maude” or “The Graduate”, you can hear the disappointment in the audience. Olivia Coleman does her best to make her character Hillary, work in the story. Michael Ward is magnetic on screen, but lost as a character. Toby Jones needs more to do and Colin Firth’s character is a reprobate degenerate.
Editor Lee Smith, Cinematographer Roger Deakins, Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross all do their usual excellent work. Director Sam Mendes seems to be failed by his screenwriter. Listen to Howard Casner, Aaron Neuwirth and James Wilson all provide script notes that would have vastly improved to product. Maybe it is hubris on our parts, but someone should have said something to Mendes to make this work better.
Maybe love means never having to say you’re a schizophrenic, but do we need that story to be bloated by racial unrest? The list of movies mentioned in the film may lead you to wish you were watching them instead of this film. There are still things about the movie that are worthy, but our cast this week may give you pause about investing your time.
Introductions
Discussion (Spoiler Filled) 3:13
Lambscores 56:00
Rants/Raves/Reviews 57:10
Aaron The Code is Zeke Out Now With Aaron and Abe
Howard Pop Art
James Blogging By Cinema Light
Richard KAMAD
The show can be found, of course, via iTunes – just do a search for “LAMBcast.” Also, I always post a link to the show on the LAMBcast’s Facebook page, and there’s a player there if you’d like to listen online. Find the show here:
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2022-12-12T12_35_00-08_00
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