Hail, Caesar!

14 January 2019

Hail, Caesar! 2016

• Director: the Cohens
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Eirenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand, Heather Goldenhersh, Alison Pill
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Josh Brolin – True Grit, Milk, No Country for Old Men, The Dead Girl
• George Clooney – Gravity, Burn after Reading, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Intolerable Cruelty, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Solaris, The Perfect Storm, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Thin Red Line
• Alden Eirenreich - Beautiful Creatures
• Ralph Fiennes – Spectre, The Invisible Woman, Skyfall, Great Expectations, Harry Potter, Coriolanus, The Reader, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Maid in Manhattan, Sunshine, The English Patient, Strange Days, Schindler’s List
• Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer, Only Lovers Left Alive, Moonrise Kingdom, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton, Broken Flowers, Young Adam, Adaption, The Deep End, Orlando
• Scarlett Johansson – Lucy, He’s Just Not that Into You, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Prestige, The Island, A Love Song for Bobby Long, Girl with the Pearl Earring, Lost in Translation, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Manny & Lo
• Channing Tatum – Jupiter Ascending, The Eagle, Battle in Seattle
• Frances McDermond – Moonrise Kingdom, This Must Be the Place, Burn After Reading, North Country, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Almost Famous, Fargo, Palookaville, Beyond Rangoon, Mississippi Is Burning, Raising Arizona
• Heather Goldenhersh – The Merchant of Venice, School of Rock
• Alison Pill – Snowpiercer, Pillars of the Earth, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Milk, Dan in Real Life, Dear Wendy
• Why? The Cohen brothers and the cast
• Seen: 13 January 2019      

       Eddie Mannix (Brolin) is a producer in Hollywood’s golden 50’s, just now producing a Roman epic about the coming of Christ. He meets with religious leaders to make sure the film won’t step on any toes. Clooney plays the actor playing a Roman tribune who is kidnapped by a group of communist scriptwriters. Johansson is a tough-talking, fast-smoking pregnant but not married mermaid. There’s a cowboy too (Eirenreich), transformed into a tuxedo clad society playboy, to the despair of suave British director Laurence Laurents (Fiennes).

       The connection is probably there somewhere. Invisible but there. In the meantime, the question is – is it funny enough to carry the chaos? And meanwhile, I’m waiting for Swinton and McDormand. OK. Swinton plays twin high-powered journalists in fantastic fashion creations and McDormand is a grey-haired, bespectacled heavily smoking film editor.

       Fargo it isn’t. Not even Burn After Reading, but it all pulls together in the end, and yes, it’s funny enough to carry the chaos.

3.98 * of 5 (we negotiated the rating)