Empire of Light (2022)

2022 was a year for major Oscar winning filmmakers to make their love letters to the movies and 1917 (2019) and American Beauty (1999) director Sam Mendes' entry in the subgenre was Empire of Light (2022), a film set in the seaside town of Margate in 1980 where Hilary (Olivia Colman) ekes out a lonely existence working as the manager of a movie theater. When a young black man named Stephen (Micheal Ward) is hired to work at the theater, he and Hilary begin a clandestine affair though their struggles with the racist attitudes in the small town and Hilary's mental illness threaten their tenuous relationship from the start. At least it gives us a boffo scene where Micheal Ward strips nude to go skinny dipping while spending a day at the beach with Olivia Colman!