Film Review: “Empire of Light”

Bright spots transcend cliched moments in new Mendes picture  

Hilary (Olivia Colman) works the ticket booth at the Empire Cinema. 

Hollywood loves to make movies about itself. My last review was on The Fablemans, a movie about the magic of movies. This review is about Empire of Light, a movie about the healing power of movies. And my next review will be about Babylon, a movie about, you guessed it, the good and bad of the movie industry. If Hollywood wants to get folks back into theaters, maybe making a bunch of narcissistic films about itself isn’t the best way, but nevertheless, here we are, with three releases within a month that basically say, “Movies are awesome! Go to the movies!!” This week’s offering makes its case mightily, and somewhat succeeds in spite of the pervasive layer of schmaltz that covers the picture.

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Film Feature: Carrie and Chris Pick the 2020 Oscars

Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 92nd Academy Awards

The 92nd Academy Awards air tomorrow, Sunday, February 9th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST. Once again, Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions — and hopes — for the major categories. A lot of the winners feel like locks, based on earlier award season wins, but, honestly, we’d rather have some upsets to make for an interesting show then have all our predictions come true. Fingers crossed for some liveliness!

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Film Review: “Skyfall” (aka The New James Bond Movie)

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Skyfall.

Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Judi Dench

Written by: Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan

Directed by: Sam Mendes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language and smoking

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