by Ross Hunter
Hail, Caesar! (2016) isn’t the kind of comedy film audiences will be used to. After years of the comedy genre being dominated by blithe character comedies with saccharine endings, it feels good to watch a film that, while outlandish, doesn’t centralize its jokes around the apparent ‘craziness’ of the plot. Yes, extraordinary things happen in this film. But the humour comes from the fact that for Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), the head of production at Capitol Pictures, these situations are just an ordinary part of his day. He’s the guy making it seem as if the glamour depicted in the films is the reality of life in Hollywood and not just a veneer for the cameras. As you can imagine, it isn’t an easy job.
The stellar cast is almost a joke in itself. We see Busby Berkeley (The Blue Veil) style dance routines and synchronized swimming performances that are genuinely mesmerizing, only to have the illusion shattered by the foul-mouthed starlet (Scarlett Johansson) calling a halt to the scene because she has wind. The film displays how wonderful the art of filmmaking can be while simultaneously revealing its drawbacks and fallacies. Frances McDormand’s (Fargo) fleeting appearance exemplifies this contrast perfectly.
Furthermore, this film gives life to an actor who, a few years ago, many people would have openly ridiculed never mind respected. There was a time when Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) was looked upon as a typically gormless Hollywood meathead, adored by teenage girls but detested by everyone else who had the misfortune to sit through Step Up. Yet today we find him playing a pivotal role in a Coen brothers’ movie. If the McConnaissance seemed unlikely then this was pure fantasy. But it works. Channing Tatum is good. Better than that, he is actually funny. Even if you hate this film you’ve got to applaud the Coen brothers for that.
The real star of this film, however, is Alden Ehrenreich (Stoker). He plays the Roy Rogers-esque Western star who, thanks to the nature of the studio system, ends up bumbling his way through a period drama. He provides by far the funniest and most memorable performance of the entire film and I would recommend this film to anyone purely for the sake of making Ehrenreich better known. He really is that good.
Hail, Caesar! isn’t perfect, though it isn’t meant to be. There is far too much going on for us to really care about the plight of Eddie Mannix and it arguably trivializes what was a notoriously intolerant period of American filmmaking (as depicted far more seriously in Trumbo). Yet the film’s sheer shamefaced urge to make audiences laugh and occasionally deride the ridiculousness of Hollywood is what makes this film worth seeing. This isn’t the kind of film that will be adored by the casual filmgoer; the jokes aren’t nearly abundant nor outrageous enough for that. But this is a film that fans of cinema will love. Not just because of the star-studded cast or the impeccable set design but because it was made with the sensibility that American filmmaking is both wonderful and sickening. An opinion any true movie fan will surely sympathise with.
[imdb id=”tt0475290″]
Hollywood star famed for his all-nighters
Nabbed by bizarre group of Commie writers
“Would that it were so simple.” A fitting epitaph etched into the grave faces of many a Hollywood producer who took a punt on a sure-fire hit only to find that the tried and tested A-listers produced a trying and testing D-minus flop. But also the humorous catchphrase in one of Hail, Caesar’s funniest scenes in which a cravat-sporting Ralph Fiennes à la Noel Coward repeatedly tries but fails to direct his rodeo clown-cum-leading man Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) – for whom language (let alone the English language) is not even his first language – to articulate the immortal line of dialogue without breaching the Just A Minute guidelines of hesitation, repetition or deviation. It’s complicated!
Joel and Ethan Coen (themselves four-time recipients of an Academy Award: one for Fargo, three for No Country for Old Men) have assembled a distinguished team of long-time collaborators including the thirteen-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins and a host of Hollywood heavyweights such as Gorgeous George, Magic Mike and Sultry Johansson to pay homage to and make a satirical pastiche about the so-called “Golden Age” of movie-making during which the studio system’s well-oiled machinery churned out a conveyor belt of money-making mega-hits about biblical epics, beautiful mermaids and gun-toting cowboys shooting from the hip (though, as in the case of the fictional Hobie Doyle, rarely from lip).
But behind the candelabra lies a complex web of secrets and lies which Eddie “The Fixer” Mannix (Josh “Steadfast” Brolin) works round the clock to avoid leaking into the press such as the chisel-chinned Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) whose penchant for benders and love nests and drying out at Our Lady of Perpetual Rest is excused with “a high ankle sprain”. Or the so-called squeaky-clean DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) who as an unmarried actress is forced into adopting her babe-to-be rather than raise him or her as a single mother because “having a child without a father would pose an image problem for the studio”. Or the bean-eating “dust actor” Hobie Doyle who swapped blank stares and action for subtext and dialogue despite the fact that “the man barely knows how to talk”.
But these domestic indiscretions are nothing but trifles when compared to the political kidnapping of A Tale of the Christ co-star Baird Whitlock by a group of anti-capitalist screenwriters known as “The Future” who have swapped the subtle promotion of Communist content for the blatant agitation of direct action by placing a $100,000 bounty on their captive’s head in an attempt to challenge the status quo and bring down the system (the studio system) which they say exploits the workers and drives down wages to increase productivity and maximise profit for the closed shop of aristocrats, investors and corporate crooks. At least, I think that’s what their ringleader said. Either than or I’m confusing him with Jeremy Corbyn’s budget response last week!
There is much to hail in Hail, Caesar! Much. Particularly the comedic exchange between the dapper Fiennes and the flapper Ehrenreich which marks a high point on the tickle-o-meter. Channing Tatum shines as the all-singing, all-dancing, all-grinding star of Merrily We Dance, Burt Gurney (think Gene Kelly meets Glee). And the Coen brothers’ script bristles with wonderful one-liners such as the Carmen Miranda-inspired Carlotta Valdez’s response to a question about whether she finds it difficult to dance with “all dem bananas on your head”. “Oh, no,” she replies. “Anyone can do it. It’s all on the hips and lips, eyes and thighs.” But for all the A-listers and all the great performances and all the witty wordplay and all the joyous references to the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Is. It. A. Hit? To quote Hobie Doyle: “Would that it were so simple.”
Verdict: 3/5