Now Playing: Hail, Caesar! (2016)

I was recently able to see the Coen brothers' brand new spankin' comedy Hail, Caesar! in theatres. Set during the 1950s, this film told the highly fictionalized story of real-life Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix. He interacts with a cast of zany characters from actors to directors to the press, all while trying to figure out what happened to his studio's biggest star who has mysteriously disappeared.

This might sound obvious, but this movie was very Coen. It had a great cast, clever writing, beautiful cinematography, hilarious moments mixed with symbolism. The works. For all these reasons, I quite enjoyed Hail, Caesar! 

As always, the Coens have a wonderful collective cast, including Coen favorites like George Clooney, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton. The film also stars Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johannson, Jonah Hill, and Ralph Fiennes. Two surprisingly amazing performances come from relative newcomer Alden Ehrenreich and Channing Tatum. I'm usually not a fan of Channing but he was hilarious in this movie and I was quite impressed! All of these actors fell right into Old Hollywood. There was great chemistry and everyone was very funny.

The Coen brothers also have an incredible ability to perfectly capture the essence of a certain decade, if they are making a period film. It's one of the reasons I love O Brother, Where Art Thou? (my favorite Coen creation). The Coens don't just give us one or two characters to focus on and expect to represent a generation or part of a generation. We get to explore many facets of 1950's Hollywood. After seeing the film, I looked up Eddie Mannix and learned he was a real person. I also didn't know that a fixer was a real, legitimate job. A Hollywood fixer is someone who is paid to clean up after the scandals of the studio's talent. In this film, the studio "owns" many of these actors and Mannix makes sure that they have their chances in the spotlight, that their records are clean and their images maintained. In this Cold War-era and family values-oriented world, it seems to be a pretty important job in the entertainment industry. From the eyes of Mannix, we get to see what it was like to make a movie in the 1950's. First, we see all the different jobs and technology that was being used. We also see all the different types of films that were being made at once in one studio. Hail, Caesar! covers all the basic Old Hollywood movies that were popular: a Roman epic; a Bette Davis or Cary Grant-esque drama; a musical complete with Fred Astaire tap numbers; a performance piece with a live orchestra and synchronized swimmers; a fun and action-filled Western. Within each film, we learn more about the people within them. Actors who struggle to transition from genre to genre, how actresses were treated differently than actors, directors trying to create art versus directors trying to make a cash grab that will garner guaranteed audience favor. In fact, this is one of the themes in the film, but we will come to that later.

This journey through Old Hollywood shows us both the good and the bad. The film's most profitable actor, played by George Clooney, is kidnapped by Communist writers. This was such a great take for the film and I love how the Coens didn't tell us right away that they were Communists. The Coens never pander to their audience; they want us to figure out the clues for ourselves. With mention of the hydrogen bomb and emphasis on public image, the addition of Communism and the Red Scare rounded out the film. Like I said before, the Coens are great at showing us all angles of a decade, the good and the bad, the ugly and the pretty. There was no mention of blacklisting at all, but I still think this secret society of Communist ex-Hollywood writers made the film more historically accurate and interesting. If you are already familiar with American history, the movie is all the more entertaining.

As with most Coen brothers' movies, there are always several themes or questions being raised and the symbolic imagery and cinematography helps establish those themes or questions. There is no doubt that there was a big religious theme in Hail, Caesar! The films opens with a statue of Christ on the cross. In the beginning and towards the end of the movie, Eddie Mannix is in confession with an impatient priest who believes Mannix visits him too often. Mannix is concerned about the accuracy of the Roman epic about Jesus Christ, and, wishing not to offend anyone, asks leaders from different faiths to view the film and give him their opinions. It is clear that Mannix is very religious, however, this part of his character juxtaposes with his job. Being a fixer includes a lot of lying; it's a very dishonest job. And yet, at the end of the film, Mannix claims that he thinks that what he does is right. I was reading some reviews and analyses on Hail, Caesar! and someone wrote that Mannix is himself a Christ figure, which is very interesting. Just as Jesus Christ had taken the sins of the world upon Himself, Mannix takes the sins of the studio's actors upon himself. This idea is very evident in a particularly beautiful shot in which Mannix stands on the set of the Roman epic film. He is silhouetted and stands before three silhouetted crosses. The last shot of the film is also very curious. There is a heavenly light that shines over the Hollywood film studio; the water tower says "Behold" on it, and then the camera moves up and zooms into the sunlight in the sky. The Coens could be saying a number of things here. Hollywood, either old or new, is one of the least spiritual places there are; this particular shot is a contradiction. It could also be criticizing the "worship" of the entertainment industry and the celebrity. But I think it raises a few important questions, some that are addressed in the film: is making movies about creating art or making money? And can you truly be religious in Hollywood, when so many jobs (including the most obvious: acting), involve lying, and sometimes other questionable behavior?

The humor, the acting, the cinematography, the history, the story itself all made Hail, Caesar! a good movie. But what the Coens really do well and they did very well here is show all different angles of a specific time period, place, or profession. Old Hollywood is very classy, fun, and beautiful, but it deserves criticism. The Coens did this wonderfully; making important statements all while putting in those silly moments that make us remember why we love the Coen brothers so much. Was Hail, Caesar! the best film I've seen in the past year? No. Was it even my favorite Coen brothers' film? No. But it had all the ingredients, to me, that made it an enjoyable and meaningful Coen film and period piece, in general.