Hail, Caesar! (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Hail, Caesar! (2015) – J. Coen & E. Coen

I’m a movie nerd, so I found the Coen Brothers’ latest homage to the old days of the Hollywood studio system highly enjoyable.  Josh Brolin (channelling Brian Donlevy?) plays Eddie Mannix, The Fixer, who prevents the stars from causing scandals and keeps the day-to-day production routines running smoothly (mediating between the studio head and the directors and stars, fending off gossip columnists, engineering publicity stunts, etc.); apparently he’s based on a real figure from MGM’s golden days.  This time, star George Clooney has gone missing, presumably on a bender but actually kidnaped by a communist cell (screenwriters, of course).  Other real Hollywood luminaries also make appearances:  Scarlett Johannson facing a Loretta-Young-styled pregnancy scandal, Ralph Fiennes as a fastidious British director, Tilda Swinton in a dual role as duelling gossip colunnist sisters, Channing Tatum as a dancing star.  The events as laid out hew pretty close to what is known about Hollywood history – no surprises here and not much attempt to critique or revise.  However, the loving recreations of classic genres (the Busby Berkeley synchronised swim, the western, the very gay musical, the sitting room drama, and the sword and sandals religious epic) are top notch.  I chortled out loud on numerous occasions and the Coens’ intelligence is on display discussing some pretty high level content (religion, communism) that doesn’t often make it to the mainstream cinema.  This isn’t a masterpiece but it fits well into the upper half of the filmmakers’ oeuvre.