Written by: Kevin Berge
The Coen Brothers celebrate the film industry by putting together a collection of funny characters and no plot. (Image Courtesy of: ruthlessreviews.com)
Quick Take: Hail, Caesar! has its comedy down, but it never seems to find its way with a haphazard plot that never finds its footing. The acting and writing are effective, but the direction leaves this a hard movie to love.
***This is a review of a movie from 2016, so the reader is not expected to have seen it yet. Therefore, this is a spoiler-free review with only simple early story elements addressed.***
Few directors have become more iconic than the Coen Brothers whose signature brand of dialogue and flashy direction trademark all their movies. From The Big Lebowski to Fargo, Ethan and Joel Coen have made unique filmmaking their specialty.
Hail, Caesar! though does not quite stand up to the brothers' best work even though it is clearly a Coen Brothers movie from start to finish. While the humor and styles is present, this movie simply seems to have forgotten to connect its parts together.
This is clear even in the cast of the film as an impressive group including George Clooney (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Josh Brolin (W.), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin), and Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) feel largely underutilized.
Hill's role is blink-and-you-miss-it. Swinton, Johansson, and Tatum have zero relevance to the main story and have oddly told side stories. The only stars here that have real roles are Clooney and Brolin who are hilarious centers of the somewhat central story.
The real star though is not any of these movie stars. Instead, the showstealer is Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures) who is a revelation in a dynamic comedy role where he is forced to act like he can't act and come off as both sympathetic and dim-witted.
Few directors have become more iconic than the Coen Brothers whose signature brand of dialogue and flashy direction trademark all their movies. From The Big Lebowski to Fargo, Ethan and Joel Coen have made unique filmmaking their specialty.
Hail, Caesar! though does not quite stand up to the brothers' best work even though it is clearly a Coen Brothers movie from start to finish. While the humor and styles is present, this movie simply seems to have forgotten to connect its parts together.
This is clear even in the cast of the film as an impressive group including George Clooney (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Josh Brolin (W.), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin), and Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) feel largely underutilized.
Hill's role is blink-and-you-miss-it. Swinton, Johansson, and Tatum have zero relevance to the main story and have oddly told side stories. The only stars here that have real roles are Clooney and Brolin who are hilarious centers of the somewhat central story.
The real star though is not any of these movie stars. Instead, the showstealer is Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures) who is a revelation in a dynamic comedy role where he is forced to act like he can't act and come off as both sympathetic and dim-witted.
Good of Channing Tatum to show up for five minutes for this movie. (Image Courtesy of: wsj.com)
This is certainly a funny movie. The dialogue throughout is stellar, and the direction celebrates the writing. It just feels like the movie has no idea how to take its bits and pieces and put them together.
Flashing back from story to story, Hail, Caesar! revels in its scenes. The camera captures the magic of 50s cinema with a new eye, playing up the successes and failures at every turn. It defines itself by its homage.
Still, Hail, Caesar! is more like scatter-brained poetry than a true love letter as it concocts its series of stories and scenes without any sense of commonality. It becomes hard to follow anything that is going on at times with the occasional scene that makes no sense at all.
A viewer who goes into this movie expecting another Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? may come out amused but will likely leave unsatisfied. There are no characters to latch onto, no scenes to remember long after they are over. This is just a collection of gags and riffs.
This is truly unfortunate because the pieces are here for a movie that could have defined 2016. If certain aspects of this film were not so well constructed and filled with quality talent, this would feel more like a parody of the Coen Brothers.
Flashing back from story to story, Hail, Caesar! revels in its scenes. The camera captures the magic of 50s cinema with a new eye, playing up the successes and failures at every turn. It defines itself by its homage.
Still, Hail, Caesar! is more like scatter-brained poetry than a true love letter as it concocts its series of stories and scenes without any sense of commonality. It becomes hard to follow anything that is going on at times with the occasional scene that makes no sense at all.
A viewer who goes into this movie expecting another Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? may come out amused but will likely leave unsatisfied. There are no characters to latch onto, no scenes to remember long after they are over. This is just a collection of gags and riffs.
This is truly unfortunate because the pieces are here for a movie that could have defined 2016. If certain aspects of this film were not so well constructed and filled with quality talent, this would feel more like a parody of the Coen Brothers.