Trouble using ThymeLeaf - spring

Question

I'm having trouble figuring out how to add text and image to a table using ThymeLeaf. All model attributes are empty. If I change the size of the repo, there remains only one row. But if I do print statement in run(), everything works. I have the following code in movies.html:
<div class = "container">
<div class = "row">
<h1> List Students </h1>
</div>
<table class = "table table-striped table-bordered">
<thead class = "table-dark">
<tr>
<th th:text="${hello}"></th>
<th th:text="${world}"></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr th:each = "movie : ${movies}">
<td th:text="${movie.title}"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
I have the following Controller class. I've tried changing return type to ModelAndView but that makes no difference.
#Controller
public class MovieController {
// https://www.baeldung.com/spring-boot-logging
private final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MovieController.class);
#Autowired
private MovieService movieService;
/**
* This method is being called because if I change
* the size of the movies repo, the number of cells
* in the webpage table also changes. However, all
* of the cells are blank! "Hello" and "World!" are
* also blank!
*/
#GetMapping("/movies")
public String listMovies(Model model) {
model.addAttribute("movies", movieService.getAllMovies());
model.addAttribute("hello", "Hello");
model.addAttribute("world", "World!");
// not printing to console
System.out.println("TEST TEST TEST!");
// also not printing to console
logger.info("TEST TEST TEST");
return "movies";
}
}
Current Movie class. I've tried typing out my own getters, setters, and constructor in case for some reason Lombok wasn't working, but it makes no difference.
#Entity
#Getter
#Setter
#NoArgsConstructor
#Table(name = "movies")
/**
* Lombok generates getters and setters.
* If I write out getters and setters myself,
* the problem still persists. Also, I'm able
* to call the getters and setters of this class
* with Lombok, which means Lombok is working.
*/
public class Movie {
#Id
#GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
#Column(name = "movie_id")
private Long id;
#Column(name = "title")
private String title;
#Column(name = "director")
private String director;
}
And I have the following in Application class:
#Override
public void run(String... args) {
movieRepository.deleteAll();
Movie empireStrikesBack = new Movie();
empireStrikesBack.setTitle("The Empire Strikes Back");
empireStrikesBack.setDirector("Irvin Kershner");
movieRepository.save(empireStrikesBack);
// add more movies here...
// This works just fine, prints all info to console
for (Movie movie : movieService.getAllMovies()) {
System.out.println(movie.getTitle());
System.out.println(movie.getDirector());
}
}
The movie entry is visible in the MySQL table after running the app, but on the webpage the table contents is completely empty. "Hello" does not appear and the movie title doesn't appear either. Why are all my model attributes empty?