“I go to the movies A LOT. We know this. I go so much, that it often ends up feeling like a chore, especially during slow release weeks. However, this weekend wasn’t that. This was one of the movies that I was actually really excited to see. Everything about it (cast, premise, Coen bros) seemed like it’d be fantastic, and it really was.
The Coen brothers are incredible film makers. That’s just an indisputable fact. The one catch is, that there’s a handful of their films that just don’t do it for me. But the ones that do are amazing. This was absolutely one that did.
Hail Caesar is set in 1950’s Hollywood, and we follow a day in the life of a movie studio bigshot (Josh Brolin’s Eddie Manix). Among the day’s problems he has to deal with, a movie star (George Clooney’s Baird Whitlock) has been kidnapped from the set and is being held for ransom. This is on top of the usual mess of shuffling around actors, handling potential PR issues, fending off pesky reporters, and generally keeping everybody happy while all the various gears stay in motion.
I don’t even know which aspect of the film was the best part. It’s one of those rare ones where every piece was solid. The screenplay was smartly funny. The cast was impeccable. The story was unique. The setting was fantastic. It’s such a great film, that I wonder why it was released now and not held back for the next Awards season. I’m sure it could have done quite well.
And yeah, that cast? Besides the aforementioned Brolin and Clooney, we’ve also got Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Allison Pill. Those names alone should draw you to the film, but the Coen name should draw you even more. This one is certainly going down as one of their mastperieces.
Hail Caesar – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”