A new Coen Brothers movie usually ranks as an event with certain cinephiles…
And you know who you are!
Through the years the brother filmmaking duo of Joel and Ethan Cohen has taken on just about every genre imaginable.
From BLOOD SIMPLE, RAISING ARIZONA and FARGO, right through THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, TRUE GRIT, MILLER’S CROSSING and O BROTHER WHERE ART THOUGH.
And let’s not forget the great NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN!
Now with HAIL, CAESAR! the Oscar winning brothers tackle the near end of Hollywood’s Golden Era.
The year is 1951 and Capitol Pictures is still churning out the big productions. Matter of fact one of its biggest spectacles called HAIL, CAESAR! is currently shooting on the lot.
However things are beginning to crumble all around the once famous studio.
There’s Esther Williams-like swimming star Scarlett Johansson with an illegitimate child ‘situation.’
Cowboy sensation Alden Ehrenreich who can’t act his way out of a Western.
And competing twin gossip columnists who keep sticking their noses where they don’t belong.
And if that’s not bad enough, studio super star George Clooney—who’s in the movie within the movie—has been kidnapped!
That’s right, he’s being held hostage by screen writers of the communist persuasion.
Time for the studio ‘fixer’ Josh Brolin to kick ass and take numbers!
Of course, there’s much more to the story, but suffice it to say HAIL, CAESAR! is basically a nostalgic trip back for anyone who’s into show biz history.
Others just may not get it.
And you’ve really got to pay attention as the Coen’s slip in a lot of Hollywood insiders which may just fly right past you.
There are pplenty of cameos in this comedy including Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Frances McDormand as the studio’s chain-snaking chief film editor who almost kills herself while wrestling with her Moviola.
But it’s Channing Tatum who steals the show as a Gene Kelly-like tap dancer in a big sailor production number.
Bottom line: If you’re into the Coen brothers and the movie biz, you’ll really enjoy this showbiz send up.
Others may scratch their heads wondering what the goofiness is all about.
It’s a re-creation of the Hollywood of yesteryear as projected on the screen by the fertile mind of the Coen brothers.
HAIL, CAESAR!
My score: B
(Reviewed at Cinemark Palace, Plaza)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Fridays during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.
where art thou, not though.
Oh brother!
Will you EVER forgive me???????
You don’t take correction very well, do you?
I do. But my editor didn’t catch the error either. So I guess we’re both guilty.
Oh Hedda darling, it is so like you to point out someone else’s errors while clearly overlooking your own! Do try to be kinder? OH GOODNESS, what on Earth could I have been thinking!? YOU? KIND? Heavens…
I call them as I see them, darling, as do you.