Hail, Caesar!

The Coen Brothers have by now directed over fifteen films together, bestowing upon the world such classics as Fargo, The Big Lebowski and the 2007 Oscar darling No Country for Old Men. Throughout the years, they have become synonymous with a style of filmmaking that pays tribute to classic American movie genres such as film noir, while simultaneously retaining their very own brand of dark humour, a knack for suspenseful satire and a feel for detached irony (of the postmodern kind). Their frequent collaborators include some of the most astonishing talent in contemporary Hollywood including cinematographer Roger Deakins, composer Carter Burwell, Oscar-winning actors Frances McDormand, George Clooney, J.K. Simmons and many, many others. When we go to the movies to see a Coen Brothers film, we know we are about to enter a world inhabited with quirky characters who find themselves in bizarre situations, in the same way in which we would once go to a Hitchcock film expecting it to be entirely his own, unique creation. The Coens have become a brand name, much like the fictional movie studio Capitol Pictures that the characters of their new film orbit around.

And so it is with Hail, Caesar! that we are taken on a buggy ride, metaphorically speaking, around a beautifully shot film studio of 1950s Hollywood and its sets, where several vignettes about showbiz folks intertwine. The character who serves as glue bringing these stories together is a studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) whose job is to keep everyone’s scandals out of the press. The press here is played by Tilda Swinton in dual roles of rival twin sisters /gossip columnists named Thora and Thessaly Thacker. These two have the amazing ability to appear out of nowhere as they suspect that the studio’s biggest star Baird Whitlock (Clooney) has mysteriously disappeared from the set in the middle of shooting a new Rome-set epic Hail, Caesar!. Working on his own investigation of this case is a western star Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehnrehreich, brilliantly playing an amalgam of James Dean and John Wayne), a Gene Kelly-type studio asset by the name of Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum), a synchronised swimming actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) and an old school English director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).

What Hail, Caesar! does right, and there are many compliments we can throw its way, are all the movie references and in-jokes about the studio system of the time and movie making en général. For instance, the Hobie Doyle cowboy character is obligated to go on a date with a Carmen Miranda-type actress, who he had never met before, solely because the studio demands it. Somehow, the two stars end up enjoying themselves from the get-go as if contractual dating is the most natural thing in the world. In another scene, the Coens subvert the beautiful imagery of a Busby Berkely-style mermaid choreography by having the goddess-like DeeAnna suddenly throw her crown and swim out of the pool, only to later explain in a strong Brooklyn accent that she is suffering from gas brought on by pregnancy - one that also turns out to be out of wedlock. At its best, Hail, Caesar! is a witty deconstruction of Hollywood, its insights are more or less entertaining throughout. However, as the Coen brothers and their postmodern creations reach a point of wrapping up, we realise that the pieces of the puzzle have failed to come together in any real meaningful way. There’s Hail, but no Caesar.

7/10