Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: June 7th, 2016.
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson
Year: 2016
Purchase From Amazon
The Film:
Since the release of Blood Simple over three decades ago, the Coen Brothers have been steadily delivering a series of works that not only feel strikingly idiosyncratic but also pay homage to the iconic films of the past. While there have been some filmmakers who have able to walk this fine line between creating a distinct style and displaying a cine-literate sensibility (Brian DePalma comes immediately to mind), very few can pull it off as consistently as the Coen Brothers have proved over the years. And Hail, Caesar! is perhaps the most cinematically self-referential work that the Coen Brothers have done since their brilliant 1991 film Barton Fink.
The movie stars Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix, the head of production at the fictional Capitol Pictures in the early 1950s. In addition to dealing with the official business of the film studio, Mannix also operates as a “fixer,†which means making sure to protect the stars of the studio from scandal-mongering gossip columnists (wonderfully depicted by Tilda Swinton in a double role of identical-twin reporters working for rival rags). As Mannix struggles to perform his increasingly surreal activities for Capitol, he meets with representatives of the Lockheed Corporation for a high-ranking position in the famed aerospace company. One of the main questions in the film is whether or not Mannix will take the prestigious job at Lockheed and leave his “frivolous†job at Capitol.
The plot of the film is just a thinly-veiled excuse for the Coen Brothers to indulge in amusing pastiches of various Hollywood genres, including an unintentionally homoerotic musical and a goofy singing cowboy western. Each of these set-pieces usually feature cleverly-cast stars who are clearly enjoying themselves as they earnestly struggle to deliver what ultimately amount of mediocre product. The funniest of these performances is undoubtedly Ralph Fiennes who plays Laurence Laurentz, a pretentious director of period dramas who finds himself saddled with having to give the lead performance of his film to Hobi Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich), one of the aforementioned singing Western film stars.
At the center of these pastiches is the titular film, Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ, a Cecil B DeMille-style prestige picture starring Baird Whitlock (frequent Coen Brothers collaborator George Clooney). One of the funniest scenes in the film has Mannix holding a meeting with a quartet of religious leaders - a Protestant minister, a Catholic priest, an Orthodox priest and a rabbi - in order to assess whether there is anything offensive about the film. It reminds one of the Coen Brothers' modern-day Job parable A Serious Man, although the New Testament pop-theology on display here is played for broad laughs… when was the last time theological discussions were played for laughs, save perhaps for the films of Woody Allen?
The central conflict of the film (in as much as there can said to be one) arises when Baird Whitlock is abducted a group of communist screenwriters calling themselves The Future. These kidnappers demand that the studio pay a $100,000 ransom for the return of their valuable leading man. While it is true that various strands and secondary characters are woven into this overarching plot, the kidnapping business is really a red herring - an excuse to string together the goofy cinematic send-ups into something resembling a narrative. In this sense, the kidnapped Whitlock has a function similar to that of the stolen rug at the center of The Big Lebowski.
How much you enjoy Hail, Caesar! ultimately depends upon how you respond to the quirky humor of the Coen Brothers, in particular the screwball quality of some of their works. While the film was largely acclaimed by critics, most audiences were frustrated at a script that assumes a lot of knowledge regarding this era of American filmmaking. On the flipside, some critics have accused the Coen Brothers as being cynical or misanthropic; the Wall Street Journal went so far as to suggest that the film was evidence that the filmmakers “really hate the moviesâ€). And yet there is something endearing about the way that the Coen Brothers depict this by-gone Studio system. They can't help it that for every beloved classic from this time period, there were about a dozen stinkers as well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Universal's blu-ray release of Hail, Caesar! features a wonderful hi-def 1080p transfer of the film's 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Regardless about where you stand on the merits of the film, you can't fault how the film looks; wonderful period detail and lavish spectacle during the backlot sequences. Black levels are spot-on, there's excellent detail and the warm image looks appropriately filmic throughout.
While the majority of Hail, Caesar! is dialogue driven, the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers good surround sound during the musical sequences of the film. There are no errors to report on this main audio track. The disc also features an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track and a pair of DTS Digital 5.1 Surround Sound tracks in both Spanish and French. There are English SDH, Spanish and French subtitles.
On the extras front, there are a series of four featurettes that are the standard press-junket stuff you find on most mainstream releases these days. “Directing Hollywood†features the cast's thoughts regarding the Coen Brothers, and it clocks in at only 4 minutes. “The Stars Align†runs a bit longer, at 11-and-a-half minutes and offers a description of the characters in the movie. “An Era of Glamour†and “Magic of a Bygone Era†run about 6 minutes each and respectively look at production design and the evocation of cinematic spectacle in the film.
The Final Word:
It seems unsurprising in hindsight that a film as episodic as Hail, Caesar! should have proven to be so divisive a film for audiences. Whether you'll find it amusing or self-indulgent really depends on what you think of the Coen Brothers' comedy work as a whole. The movie is obviously recommended for their fans, who'll see it anyway, but also worth a go for people who love films about films. If you find yourself in that camp, the film is highly recommended.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Hail, Caesar!
Collapse
-
- Published: 07-06-2016, 08:26 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2513)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 22nd, 2024.
Director: Bryce McGuire
Cast: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Night Swim – Movie Review:
The feature length directorial debut of Bryce McGuire, a collaboration between James Wan's Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, 2024’s Night Swim opens with a scene set in 1992 where a young girl looks out her window and sees a toy boat floating...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:24 AM -
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -