HAIL, CAESAR!: A Broad, Smart Hollywood Farce (Review)

Joel and Ethan Coen are two of my favorite directors working today. They have a remarkable batting average, with only two films that are questionable. They are the masters of precise imagery, delightful irony, and characters who don't always learn the lessons presented to them. Joel and Ethan Coen are known for making both intense dramas and goofy comedies, but their thematic insights are always present. Their latest film is Hail, Caesar!, a broad Hollywood farce.

Hail Caesar! stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Channing Tatum, and Tilda Swinton, with Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Alison Pill, and Frances McDormand in supporting roles. The film marks the return of "always the Oscar bridesmaid, never the bride" cinematographer Roger Deakins as the Coens' go-to cameraman since True Grit, after sitting out Inside Llewyn Davis. Oscar nominee Carter Burwell (Carol) provides the score, and editing was handled by the Coens, under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.

Josh Brolin plays Eddie Mannix, a real life guy who worked as a "fixer." Basically he made unpleasant problems go away. Mannix is dealing with the usual nonsense, like a pregnant movie star with a good girl persona (Johansson), a Western star (Ehrenreich) assigned to a role with a fussy director (Fiennes), a tap-dancing hunk (Tatum), twin rival gossip columnists (Swinton in a double role), and a job offer away from Hollywood. But when top star Baird Whitlock (Clooney) is kidnapped, Mannix has to keep the news away from the press, and find the star.

The movie is a farce, but there is a theme of Catholic guilt going through it. The film has a few scenes of Mannix in confession for sins both minor and major. Mannix feels the weight of his job, dealing with drunks, lying to everybody, compartmentalizing a million different things at once. The temptation to be whisked away from the crazy is strong and sweet, especially since he is told that all of this is fluff anyway (this was before cinephiles were taken seriously). The Coens use imagery of Christ to draw parallels between He and Mannix. Basically they are both fixers, right? But Mannix wonders if these people are even worth saving. The main movie within Hail, Caesar! is "Hail, Caesar!" That movie is an obvious knock-off of Ben-Hur, and parodies the famous Jesus scene. Christ is all over this film, even in the opening shots, both as a stand-in for Mannix and a judging eye over all these idiots.

Hail, Caesar! is at its core a series of vignettes based on old Hollywood. Old school cinephiles will eat this movie up, as it painstakingly recreates some of the most well-known Golden Age genres: the aqua musical, the sword and sandals epic, the Western, the costume melodrama, and the horny sailor musical. The vignettes are hysterical, with a talented cast sinking into their teeth into these characters. Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich have a ball with some tricky, fake-poetic dialogue. Scarlett Johansson is gloriously abrasive and acerbic in her few scenes. Frances McDormand is a major highlight in her one scene as a chain-smoking editor. The Coens populate this world with a menagerie of oddballs and lunatics, perpetuating the stereotype that Hollywood is Holly-weird.

Josh Brolin is a brilliant casting choice as Eddie Mannix. It's a role with impeccable comedic timing, but he also has a "world on his shoulders" tiredness. Mannix juggles so many things at once, and Brolin is outstanding working on his feet. Tilda Swinton is a hoot in her dual roles, an insane bit of abstract weirdness that pays off. Channing Tatum dances right into your hearts, but his performance is a lot more "look at me" than it usually is. Like many Hollywood hunks, George Clooney is at his best when he doesn't tke himself so seriously. We normally don't see Clooney this loopy and dumb outside of his work with Joel and Ethan Coen--check out Burn After Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Somewhere, there's a point about celebrity worship of celebrities who don't deserve it, but the film is too fast to get weighed down by it.

As usual with the ensemble films, the standout is the least well-known guy. Alden Ehrenreich is sweet and charming in his role, finding ways to be funny without making fun of the character he's playing. His date scene with Carlotta Valdez (Veronica Osorio) is pure Hollywood romance, and I wish the pair had more screen time together. Osorio herself is delightful, and a great find. Speaking of Carlotta Valdez, there's no question that the name is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Also, a fim within Hail, Caesar! is called "Merrily We Dance," which features couple dancing to the Merry Widow Waltz for its opening credits--a reference to Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt?

Some people have criticized Hail, Caesar! as having no story or focus. For one thing, I can imagine people had the same problems with The Big Lebowski because that movie took time to grow. Also, the movie does have a story, but it's also just having some fun. Why not enjoy a movie for its charming and smart distractions? I'd hate to watch a movie just stripped down to what's necessary. I will concede that the conclusion is too fast, with important stuff happening off-screen, but that I can deal with. Hail, Caesar! is a smart movie pretending to be dumb. It's a funny satire, with some great people in front of and behind the camera. Joel and Ethan Coen always know what they are doing--even if it takes us some time to catch on.

Like what you read? Please like my blog at Facebook.com/MathurMarquee. Also, follow me on Twitter @HippogriffRider. For more of my work, check out Horror Film Central. Agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments below!