'Hail, Caesar!' : All Style and Satire.

"The studio's arranging it. They're changing your image."

I was very disappointed to see the Coen brother's new film: Hail, Caesar! getting bad press. I understand it might not be a film for everyone even though it is advertised to be a popular period comedy.  However have any of the Coen brother's films been conventional in any manner? The film definitely has its moments, meaning that, once the film is over, you'll remember certain scenes you enjoyed, certain actors' cameos. Hail, Caesar! is a nod to the Classical Hollywood era of film making and it gives an insight into the behind the scenes palaver including issues like trying to find a missing actor, manipulating an actresses story to how she gotten pregnant out of wedlock; all while trying to steer clear of these issues being leaked to the gossip columns. Dan Jolin wrote how, "Joel and Ethan revel in the absurdities of the studio system, whereby directors can’t pick their stars, and stars have to change their image at the wag of a fat finger and date who they’re damn well told."It references cinema at the tail end of its Silver Screen era, when studios manipulated its contract players and worked the media to prevent the "unfortunate" aspects from being revealed to an audience that just wanted escapism fantasy. Hail, Caesar! follows a day in the life of Eddie Mannix, a Hollywood fixer for Capitol Pictures in the 1950s, shares the Hollywood-studio setting of Barton Fink who cleans up and solves problems for big names and stars in the industry.

The film opens with a glorious narration from the discernible Michael Gambon. His narration is used as unnatural reminder for the viewer, to be brought back to the element of film and it is also a reference to Classical Hollywood style as dramatic voice overs were a regularity for film. The protagonist however, Eddie Mannix - the closest thing this movie has to a main character - "He will do something as objectionable as slapping an actress for taking part in an unsanctioned photo-session, but is also wracked with Catholic guilt over lying to his wife about quitting smoking."The story follows the lives of the many actors within 'Capitol Studios'; there’s Scarlett Johansson character who is an obvious advertence to Esther Williams with a centered synchronized-swimming sequence, featuring a giant, mechanical whale. There’s a full-on, astonishingly inventive song ’n’ dance number featuring a tap-dancing Channing Tatum (a Gene Kelly reference no doubt) and a bunch of sailor-boys lamenting that 'We Ain’t Gonna See No Dames'. There’s cowboy Doyle’s latest picture, a Western named 'Lazy Ol’ Moon', complete with a cantankerous prospector-type. And there’s 'Hail, Caesar!' itself, which glows convincingly with all the grandeur and pomposity of a true, old-school Hollywood epic. Dan Jolin described the story in his article for Empire Online:"It’s slathered with the ’50s period sheen of The Hudsucker Proxy, tussles with similar existential issues to A Serious Man. There is an ill-fated suitcase full of money, a shouty fat man, a little yapping dog, philosophical monologues from an eccentric white-hair, and George Clooney mugging." After watching the film, I walked out of the cinema thinking to myself that not much actually happened, but at the same time a lot happened. This kind of aspect rings true for a lot of the Coen Brother's films, as I found myself thinking the exact same thing after watching their The Big Lebowski (1998). This shouldn't detract from the value of the film however as I still did very much enjoy it. Most modern films take themselves too seriously and everything has to have some depth and meaning behind it, so it is refreshing to watch a film just to enjoy it, rather than having to take away some morale and significance to it.

Scarlett Johansson as Esther Williams in Hail, Caesar!

It's hard to go wrong when you see Rodger Deakins is the cinematographer for a film, with a track record like The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and also having worked with the Coen brothers on many occasions, there is no doubt that they could go wrong with the visual aspect of the film. Tim Robey wrote in his article for The Telegraph saying: "The Coen brothers’ whole oeuvre is so winkingly savvy about the genres, styles and fetishes of films past." Hail, Caesar! is the first film that Roger Deakins has shot for directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen on 35mm film since True Grit (2010). After this, Deakins had became an advocate of shooting digitally, and used Arri Alexa cameras on his next five films, but switched back to 35mm for this because the Coen brothers dislike digital cameras and thought that shooting on film suited a period piece set in 1950's Hollywood. And they were most definitely able to capture and embrace all elements of the time through the sepia tones hints to the popular genres of the Classical Hollywood era.

George Clooney in Hail, Caesar!

As aforementioned, the majority of the characters are nods to old classic stars; Channing Tatum's Gene Kelly was a fantastic performance no doubt. His performance was the heart of the comedy in the film and it was difficult not to laugh during any scene he was in, albeit short scenes. Robey described Tatum's performance in his article for the The Telegraph illustrating, "when Tatum gets his big scene, an uproariously homoerotic barroom song-and-dance medley called “No Dames”, it’s hard to suppress big grins at how brazenly the Coens are both sending up and celebrating how unmentionably gay that era’s fads for entertainment were."In all honesty, I have never really watched any films George Clooney has starred in; probably because the first film I saw him in was Batman & Robin (1997), a film that we all would like to forget. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Clooney's performance in Hail, Caesar!. He was charmingly comical in his portrayal as the easily swayed, dim-witted actor. During the scene between Mannix and Clooney, Clooney was actually slapped by Josh Brolin several times and all his reactions shown in the film are genuine. Ralph Fiennes made a very brief appearance in the film, yet it was very much outstanding and his character most definitely stuck with me; so much so that it is even a wonder I am able to write about him due to the fact that his screen time was only around five minutes. Robey also wrote on Fiennes saying how, "Fiennes, affecting an air of infinite but grimacing patience, reminds you yet again what a secret weapon he is in comedy."

Channing Tatum in Hail, Caesar!

In essence, Hail, Caesar! is a period piece if nothing else. It is a very accurate to the era it represents through small details that anyone could miss; to the use of European directors and the fact that in one scene the cowboy actor uses spaghetti as a lasso in relation to spaghetti westerns. This film has been drawn comparisons to some of Wes Anderson's work, and I can most definitely see a correlation between Hail, Caesar! and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) through the fact that both films follow multiple plot lines which all have no significance yet all seem to unite into one story. On the one hand, the Coen brothers are snickering at the silliness of how things used to be, but on the other they are celebrating this bygone Golden Age. Because, beyond all the trademarks and gags what Hail, Caesar! essentially amounts to is a series of impressively mounted pastiches. The one unfortunate setback the film has is that too many characters seem to be fighting for too little screen time, and no strong character relationships are developed despite the fact that everyone is trying to get a word in at all times during the course of the film. I would rate Hail, Caesar! three and a half stars out of five.