Review of Hail, Caesar! (2016) by Cammie M — 07 Jul 2016

I believe I remember saying this in my LadyKillers review, but the Coens are like sex. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. And I'm not even saying that this film is bad, quite far from it to be honest, but it's obviously not the Coens at their peak.

And it wasn't really even intended to be that as much as it was intended to be, as the consensus here puts it, as a love letter to post-war Hollywood. This is a film for film buffs made by film buffs.

While the Coens have never been shy about wearing their influences on their sleeves, they're usually much more subtle about it. With this movie, of course, they're going full bore with it. The most impressive thing about this film, really, is the incredible attention to detail.

From the look of the film, to the set design, to the films within the film themselves, dialogue, performance, everything really. Obviously it doesn't feel like a film from that era, as I'm sure modern practices were used, but it's about as close as you can get without using more archaic filming techniques.

As far as the narrative, however, eh, it didn't really click for me that well. Not that it's bad, but its structure wasn't exactly that exciting for me. It, really, is a sketch movie. Perhaps that's a bit harsh to say, but the film sees Eddie Mannix during his day, dealing with various issues.

From his biggest star being kidnapped by communists, struggling to finish a film about christ, gossip writers harassing him for stories, dealing with unskilled actors in way over their heads, a new job offer that's considerably less stressful than running a film studio, one of his stars being a single mother, among many other things.

The narrative, essentially, is about Eddie coming to the realization that maybe he should give in and take the job offer from Lockheed. That part of it works, to me, because you do get to see all of the things that Eddie has to deal with in a day that makes his job such a stressful one.

With that said, I just find that the movie does take longer than it probably should to get to the point. The problem with everything that goes on during Eddie's day is that it just doesn't feel interconnected.

And I guess that shouldn't be a problem, considering that there are many films being shot at the same time in the studio, so it's not all meant to be interconnected. But I don't know, I just wasn't that into it.

The whole is lesser than the sum of its parts, because, if you were to take a lot of these scenes out of context, they would actually be really good, but when put together with the rest of the flick, it just doesn't add up to a great movie.

I don't know how else to really explain it. The dialogue is still top-notch, that has always been one of the Coens' strong suits and it is no different here and the performances they get from their supremely star-studded cast.

Josh Brolin is excellent, as is Tilda Swinton and George Clooney. So, really, no complaints whatsoever when it comes to the acting. The cinematography is also excellent. Realistically speaking, I've got no complaints when it comes to the technical aspects of the film.

None. Which brings us to the negative reaction this film had with audiences. I'm not saying that negative reviews or reactions weren't due to the actual content of the film, but I'm assuming that lot of it is the fact that the movie isn't as 'funny' as promoted in the trailers.

Which, again, and I say this time and time again, is the PR department. The PR department and the people who actually made the film rarely ever have anything to do with the other. Trailers will always be misleading, it's a two-and-a-half minute, out of context, sneak peak at a film that may be two hours long.

The trailer will ALWAYS use the best or more memorable scenes. How else will they get you to want to watch the film? And, honestly, I don't even know how you promote this film. Because it's not really about Clooney's character being kidnapped.

I mean that's one of the elements, but it's not the main one. You can't promote this as what it actually was, Eddie's struggle to decide between two jobs, one stressful and one that yields more rewards for less work.

How do you promote THAT movie? Seriously. I've never understood judging a film based on what you saw in the trailer. That's just absurd. Take the movie as it is and not as what you wanted it to be.

But I digress, I thought this was a good movie regardless. I didn't fully enjoy the narrative, but its incredible attention to detail, loving tribute to post-war films and its excellent cast, this is still a good movie that I would recommend as a rental.