HAIL, CAESAR! review by Mark Walters – the Coen Brothers poke fun at old Hollywood

HAIL, CAESAR! review by Mark Walters – the Coen Brothers poke fun at old Hollywood

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Joel and Ethan Coen make movies that seem to become almost instant classics, though sometimes those films aren’t the sort of thing everyone will appreciate. For every time-honored production like RAISING ARIZONA and FARGO, there’s also an oddball entry like BARTON FINK (which incidentally I love) or THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, and that inconsistency can be enough to make some moviegoers wonder why the directing duo are held in such high regard. That said, most actors in Hollywood will still drop everything to work with them, including George Clooney, who returns as one of their leads in HAIL, CAESAR!. Just to give you an idea of how well the Coens are respected, Clooney reportedly didn’t even read the script for the new movie before agreeing to be in it, just because he knew these boys were in charge. That’s ‘power’ in this business, or at the very least significant influence. While this newest entry in the Coen Brothers legacy may be one of their funniest in years, it’s also one of the most disjointed.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) works for a major Hollywood movie studio in the 1950s, doing his best to keep actors and actresses in line and the studio’s reputation on a positive path. His current problems include a stunning actress named DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) who is hiding a child out of wedlock, and a Western star named Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) who is pushed into trying a dramatic role for fussy director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). One of the biggest projects Eddie’s studio is tackling is a biblical epic starring Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), one of the biggest names in the business, though sorely miscast. When Whitlock is kidnapped by an unknown group, Mannix finds himself trying to solve the mystery while juggling a wife and child he never sees, an aggressive recruiter pushing a job opportunity with a major company, and nosy reporters Thora Thacker and Thessaly Thackeris (both played by Tilda Swinton).

While most of the advertising for HAIL, CAESAR! has been pushing George Clooney, make no mistake, this is Josh Brolin’s movie. He gets the most screen time and dialogue, and in many ways carries the bulk of the film… but that’s also part of the problem. The character of Eddie Mannix just isn’t that interesting. Brolin does fine capturing the sensibilities of a 50s era everyman having to deal with superficial problems, but we keep waiting for him to do something shocking or impressive, and it just never seems to happen. Even a subplot involving Eddie trying to quit smoking never seems to go anywhere, despite being heavily eluded to throughout the proceedings. George Clooney fares a little better as the dimwitted and aloof actor thrown into an odd circumstance, and adapting to his kidnapping almost a little too easily. One of the many subplots involves the communism era of Hollywood writers, and an imaginative concept in which the shunned wordsmiths form an almost cult-like group of genius thinkers. This portion of the film reminded me of the recent Bryan Cranston film TRUMBO, though much more absurd in its execution.

The oddest aspect of the movie is how it’s put together, in that there’s not exactly a straightforward narrative so much as extended vignettes that sometimes feel completely unrelated, yet all loosely leading to a rather ludicrous conclusion. As a film, this is definitely one of the strangest Coen Brothers entries to date, but thankfully the many laughs almost make up for that. There’s a lot of biting commentary on the Hollywood system of that time, and the way big studios sometimes push actors into roles just because they’re the hot thing at the moment. And there’s a weird irony there, as the inclusion of current hot names like Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill almost comes across like a cheap attempt to hook younger moviegoers into seeing something they’d normally never go for. Let’s face it, the audience for those three alone would usually avoid this kind of movie, so perhaps using them in this film was intentional in a tongue-in-cheek way. Hill especially is barely used, almost like a glorified cameo, making it surprising his name is so prominent in the marketing campaigns. Tatum is the most impressive of the newer faces, as he hams up his role to an extremely effective degree, and executes a song and dance scene that is all at once highly impressive and utterly ridiculous. One of the other great performances here is Alden Ehrenreich as the naive singing cowboy star, who definitely means well but is clearly only good at a certain kind of big screen performance. The scene where he’s forced into a serious dramatic film is one of the funniest bits of the movie, and it’s saying a lot that an actor like Ehrenreich can steal the show when surrounded by the other big names in this production.

HAIL, CAESAR! is one of those movies you’re just not sure how to feel about. While the laughs are very effective and the film itself is highly entertaining, as a cinematic experience it’s very bizarre and a little confusing. I appreciated the attention to detail used when capturing the era and various settings, giving the overall feel a nice classic flare, but I was also well aware even while watching it that things just weren’t meshing together. Like BURN AFTER READING or INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, the performances in here are exceptional regardless of the end result, and perhaps that’s what saves this from feeling like a mess. It’s definitely not one of the more accessible movies to come from the Coens, but it might just be the most amusing since THE BIG LEBOWSKI… though unlike that film it’s hard to imagine this one becoming a treasured favorite among fans. Despite all that, I’m still chuckling a bit while thinking about certain moments, and I guess that says a lot.

HAIL, CAESAR! opens February 5, 2016

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.