Empire of Light (2022)

At work is just about the only place that a person can really spend time with people outside of their usual age group and social circle, e.g. the popular high school cheerleader's best work friend might be a white-haired grandfather trying to make ends meet. Somehow such a disparate group can become tight and share inside jokes and truly care about one another, which is the case at an old-school two-screen movie theater on the English coast in the early '80s.

Stephen, a young black man, is hired on and immediately becomes a staff favorite. He and the theater's manager Hilary hit it off and are soon romantically entangled, despite an age difference of a couple of decades. Other obstacles are that rampant, violent racism is a fact at this time in England and Hilary has stopped taking the lithium necessary to manage her mental health. Toss in a married boss who literally expects Hilary to bend over whenever the mood strikes and you know things will eventually blow.

And yet this manages to be a lovely film with many moments of quiet charm. The two leads can make your heart break with a glance.

B