'Hail, Caesar!' is sharp and amusing but a minor work by the Coen brothers

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Caesar!' stars Josh Brolin as a 'fixer' for movie studio Capital Pictures and George Clooney as a famous, fatuous movie star. Clooney has a lot of fun with the role.

|
Universal Pictures/AP
George Clooney portrays Baird Whitlock in 'Hail, Caesar!'

In “Hail, Caesar!” the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have come up with another ​one of their brainy, jokey head-scratchers (as opposed to one of their apocalyptic creepfests like “No Country For Old Men” or “Barton Fink”). Set in 1950s Hollywood, it centers on Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a real-life “fixer” for MGM – called here Capital Pictures – whose primary job is keeping the studio’s high-priced stars from publicly shaming themselves. 

The Coens have an affinity for the waning days of ​Hollywood’s Golden Age, if only because that era allows them to wax nostalgic while at the same time subverting the nostalgia. The film involves the kidnapping of a famous, fatuous movie star, played by George Clooney, by a team of Tinseltown Communists. (Clooney, uniformed in Roman legion garb for a biblical costume epic, has a lot of fun with this dimwit.) Along the way the Coens work in satirical tributes of spangly musical numbers à la Esther Williams (Scarlett Johansson) and Gene Kelly (Channing Tatum), though both stars go by different names here. The film is often​ sharp and amusing, but it’s a doodle in the Coen canon. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Hail, Caesar!' is sharp and amusing but a minor work by the Coen brothers
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0205/Hail-Caesar!-is-sharp-and-amusing-but-a-minor-work-by-the-Coen-brothers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe