First Look Review: Hail, Caesar!

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e go to the movies in order to see how the world manifests itself on screen, and how we articulate our acutest desires and dreams. In this self-reflexive work, this process circles back on the film industry itself, giving us a day-in-the-life of professional film “fixer” Eddie Mannix. Here he has the hard and sometimes unenviable task of dealing with all the industries misfits – a job made significantly harder when the lead star (true movie legend George Clooney) of his Roman epic suddenly goes missing. The result is Hail Caesar!, the latest offering from the Coen brothers where communism, capitalism and Catholicism majestically coincide.

Image: UPI Media

Whilst not as cohesively convincing as the dialectical processes the diabolical Marxists explain midway through the film, there is more than enough here to satisfy any movie lover, making it an enjoyable, if lesser, addendum to classic films about films such as Night and Day and The Player.

Hail, Caesar! doesn’t have so much of a plot as a madcap scenario upon which to hang a bunch of amusing scenes on.  As Mannix, Josh Brolin acts as the straight-shooter amongst a motley gang of absurd types. When communist intrigue threatens to destroy the edifices of Hollywood, Mannix employs his unerring faith in order to preserve what he believes in (Conscious to get things right, and in one of the films best scenes, he gets advice on theological details from a rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Protestant priest and an orthodox priest).

In the process, the Coen’s have produced an elegy for the old Studio pictures, which however absurd they may seem to us now have a certain innocence in their ideals. Things were never quite the same after the Hollywood New Wave kicked into gear, and people wanted violence and murky morals as opposed to All-American cowboys, classic charming gentleman, and beautiful doe-eyed ladies. He is a comic analogue to Oscar Isaac’s titular character in Inside Llewyn Davis – both films having a similarly recurrent structure in the face of a changing world.

By not tying the screws of the plot tight enough, the film lacks any true momentum. Nevertheless, it is worth seeing for its film pastiches alone

This structure is both to Hail, Caesar!‘s benefit – giving us a true slice of life sense of the industry at the time – and its detriment. By not tying the screws of the plot tight enough, the film lacks any true momentum. Nevertheless, it is worth seeing for its film pastiches alone – whether its to see Channing Tatum do his best Grace Kelly impersonation in stand-out song “No Dames” or to marvel at Scarlett Johannsson as she effortlessly swims into the belly of a whale. Additionally, Clooney is a joy to watch, playing a star who seems not have every bulb turned on in his head.

George Clooney brings dimwitted humour to Hail, Caesar! Image: UPI Media

The Coen brothers, working with master cinematographer Roger Deakins, are experts at aping the old camera techniques and editing of studio films such as the one take scenes of Academy Ratio ballroom dramas or the misguided comic timings of sentimental westerns. With so many characters and scenarios to juggle, the Coen’s have much more on their hands than they can handle, so much it feels somewhat overburdened. Mannix is an unerring, stoic, brilliant figure – yet all around him the film seems ultimately frivolous as opposed to truly nostalgic for a long-lost age.

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum

Running Time: 100 minutes

Country: USA