February 10, 2016 -- The great playwright George S. Kauffman said “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” so catch “Hail, Caesar!” before Sunday. It is the best comedy ever by award-winning directors Ethan and Joel Coen, but much of its content will probably go right over the heads of most people in the audience. It is both smart, and silly.

Set in the Hollywood of the 1950s, this screwball satire makes fun of movies, directors, studio executives, actors, audiences (including people watching this movie) communism, capitalism, conventional morality, religion, you name it. At the same time, it is entertaining, with the kind of musical numbers that Esther Williams and Gene Kelly used to do back in the day. It is loads of fun.

The main character is a studio fixer, Eddie Mannix (played by Josh Brolin of “Sicario”) who has to deal with a wide variety of problems in a short period of time, including the kidnapping of the star of “Hail, Caesar, a Story of Christ.” This biblical epic has a plot a lot like a real film made around that same period of history, “The Robe” (1953). The none-too-bright star of the film, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney of “Gravity”) is kidnapped by communists who demand $100,000 ransom for his return. Whitlock doesn't seem to mind, and even takes a liking to Marxist ideas, or at least as much of them as he understands.

Mannix quickly arranges for the $100,000 cash payoff, and hurries on to the next problem. His studio boss, Nick Schenk (sounds like Skank) insists on casting a cowboy actor, Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich of “Beautiful Creatures”) in a sophisticated high society film, much to the horror of the director, Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes of “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

Then Mannix has to deal with his Esther Williams-like star of a waterlogged musical who is pregnant, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson of “Lucy”). The problem is that it would be a big scandal if the newspapers found out DeeAnna had a child out of wedlock, so Mannix cooks up a complicated scheme to allow DeeAnna to keep her child while making it seem legitimate. He also has a meeting with religious leaders, hoping to make sure the studio's new biblical epic won't offend Christians or Jews.

Mannix also has to deal with twin gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played by Tilda Swinton) who are closing in on a homosexuality scandal involving studio star Baird Whitlock. While he is dealing with all this, and trying to maintain some semblance of a home life, Mannix is also contemplating a lucrative job offer from an aircraft company, but it irritates him that the recruiter (Ian Blackman of “Inside Llewyn Davis”) keeps denigrating the movie business, and he is beginning to think this tempting new job, with regular hours, might not be as much fun.

This movie has a lot going on, but it works, for the most part. The scene between Hobie Doyle and Laurence Laurentz goes on too long, and it is never a good idea to spend too much time, and try too hard to make a jokes out of names, such as Thora Thacker, Thessaly Thacker and Laurence Laurentz. But Mannix is the real hero of the movie and Brolin gives another fine performance in this film.

The song and dance number by homosexual communist actor Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum of “Magic Mike”) is a nice homage to similar musical numbers done by actors like Gene Kelly. Tatum shows some real song and dance talent in the scene, which includes a not-so-subtle hint of homosexuality, also referenced later in the film.

This film manages the neat trick of paying tribute to classic Hollywood entertainment, while making fun of it at the same time. In that regard it reminds me of the Preston Sturges film “Sullivan's Travels”. That 1941 film, of course, served as inspiration for the Coen brothers' film “O Brother Where Art Thou?” (2000).

George Clooney gives a fine performance in the film, including calculated overacting in his big scene as a Roman centurion at Christ's crucifixion (a film within the film) and being outclassed by Clancy Brown (playing Gracchus) in the same scene. This mirrors the overacting of Richard Burton in “The Robe” and the way he was upstaged in that film by Victor Mature's performance.

Better than most filmmakers, the Coen brothers have really nailed the look and feel of the 1950s, including the conformity and hypocrisy of that era. Mannix has to decide between the real world, which includes the hydrogen bomb tests carried out with the aid of aircraft company trying to recruit him (“Armageddon,” Mannix says, when he hears of this reality) or the fantasy world of making movies that provide escapism from worries of Armageddon. In the end, it is an easy choice. This film rates a B+.

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Copyright © 2016 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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