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    Movie review

    Olivia Colman shines again in movie-centric Empire of Light

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 7, 2022 | 12:05 pm

    The reason almost all filmmakers start making movies is because they fell in love with movies at a young age. Plenty of directors have attempted to demonstrate that love by making a movie about their experience, sometimes literally and other times filtered through another type of story. The result is typically well done, as the person telling the story fights to get every detail just right.

    The latest to do so is writer/director Sam Mendes with Empire of Light. Taking place almost exclusively in and around a movie theater named Empire Cinema on the south coast of England in 1980, the film centers on Hilary (Olivia Colman), the theater’s duty manager whose life consists of work and little else. She gets along with her colleagues at work, save for Mr. Ellis (Colin Firth), the boss with whom she is having a deeply unsatisfying affair.

    Her life starts to change with the hiring of Stephen (Micheal Ward), a college-aged Black man. The two strike up a quick bond and soon embark on a mostly-platonic relationship, connecting over their appreciation of the theater’s history, their respective life struggles, and the shared love of movies they rarely get to watch themselves.

    The film is literally surrounded by the idea and allure of movies, but it rarely becomes about them. Notable films like 9-to-5, The Elephant Man, Chariots of Fire, Stir Crazy, Raging Bull, and Being There make their way through the theater, but the characters, busy with their own work, discuss them sparingly. Cinephiles will relish the look back to this particular period in film history, but Mendes keeps the story in check by not going too deep in the minutiae of the movies themselves.

    Instead, he keeps the focus on the characters, most of whom bring something interesting to the table. Hilary and Stephen get the most attention, and the film delves into some serious issues through their lives. But equally engaging are other theater employees like Janine (Hannah Oslow), Neil (Tom Brooke), and especially projectionist Norman (Toby Jones), whose quiet demeanor belies a wealth of knowledge.

    Mendes, who was last seen wowing with the “one-take” World War I film 1917, brought in the big guns for this passion project, featuring not just two Oscar-winning actors in his cast, but also two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins and two-time Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, among others. The behind-the-scenes artists do yeoman’s work, with Deakins bringing every corner of the cinema to glorious life, and Reznor and Ross utilizing a tender, piano-based score to accentuate the themes of the film.

    There are a few creaky elements, most notably the lack of examination of similarities between Hilary being used for sex by Mr. Ellis and her pursuing a relationship with Stephen. The same power dynamic of boss and employee exists in each pairing, yet the former is portrayed as utterly toxic while the latter is mostly given a pass.

    Colman has reached a new level as an actor in her forties, garnering three Oscar nominations and one win in just the past four years (not to mention an Emmy for playing Queen Elizabeth on The Crown). She is as good as ever here, exploring huge swings of emotion with relative ease. Ward has an ease about him that makes his character pop immediately, indicating he should be able to expand beyond the British film/TV scene if casting directors are smart.

    Empire of Light is a period piece layered with some modern sensibilities and, of course, a love for the magic of movies. Mendes keeps the film on an even keel for the most part, telling a story that’s relatively small yet still totally cinematic.

    ---

    Empire of Light opens in select theaters on December 9.

    Olivia Colman in Empire of Light
      

    Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh / courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

    Olivia Colman in Empire of Light

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    Book News

    Barnes & Noble to open 2 new Dallas-area stores but will close Plano

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jun 12, 2025 | 6:56 pm
    Barnes & Noble
    Barnes & Noble
    Barnes & Noble, new look.

    There's good news and sad on the bookstore front: Two new locations of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble are opening in the Dallas area, one soon and one very soon, but a third is closing this week.

    Closing
    The store in Plano at 801 W. 15th St. is closing on Sunday, June 15. According to a company representative, the Plano store is an older, larger store model that the chain is turning away from, in favor of a new smaller model it's embracing for all new stores.

    This Plano store is also within close proximity to three other Barnes & Noble locations: West Plano, Richardson, and Allen which just opened in 2024.

    Other Barnes & Noble locations with that same older/larger floorplan include Preston & Park in Plano; Prestonwood Center in North Dallas, and Lincoln Park in Dallas across from Northpark Center.

    Opening
    On the bright side, there are two new Barnes & Noble stores opening in summer/fall:

    • Rockwall, at 1009 E I-30, will open in late summer in the space formerly occupied by Staples, which closed in January 2025.
    • Prosper, at 1191 Gates Pkwy., in the newly developed Gates of Prosper, will open in the fall.

    According to a spokesperson, both stores will follow the chain's new design seen in their most recent store openings, featuring "all the best books, toys, games, vinyl, and gifts our customers have come to expect." They will both span approximately 20,000 square feet, and will both house a B&N Café.

    In August 2019, Barnes & Noble was acquired by Elliott Advisors (UK) and taken private. Elliott’s acquisition of Barnes & Noble followed its June 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest bookseller in the U.K.

    Barnes & Noble is experiencing a period of growth, the result of a strategy to hand over control of each bookstore to its manager. They're enjoying strong sales and have opened many new stores a comeback after 15 years of declining store numbers. In 2022, they opened more new bookstores in a single year than in the entire decade from 2009 to 2019.

    They've continued to open more locations, including three in the DFW area in 2024: the store in Allen, as well as stores in Flower Mound and Richardson.

    Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest retail bookseller in the United States. The company has more than 630 bookstores across the U.S., as well as its online bookstore at bn.com, the Nook Digital business which offers both e-books and an audio book subscriptions service, the SparkNotes educational service, stationery and gift retailer Paper Source, and the publisher Union Square & Co.

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