Movie Review: “Hail, Caesar!” A Comedy, A Period Piece
Arts & Entertainment March 25, 2016By Sean Burns
“Hail, Caesar!” is the newest comedy film by the Coen brothers; the men behind such movies as “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski”. With its sister films’ large critical acclaim, this film is not far behind.
The film is about “Eddie Mannox”, a “fixer” for “Capital Pictures”, keeping the actors out of trouble and their exploits out of the tabloids. The film takes off when the studios big star, played by George Clooney, is kidnapped and the hunt for him begins. “Hail, Caesar!” had an overall budget of 22 million dollars, which is a surprisingly low budget for a comedy movie. Despite this, the film manages to create the authentic and immersive world of the 1950’s Hollywood scene, including entire sets and scenes framed around shooting a movie inside of a movie.
The overall tone to the film is in a strange grey area, with scenes of opposing feelings and tones one after another. While this does fit with the state of the film industry in the early 1950’s, it can alienate some of the viewing audience.
“Honestly it made me feel confused,” said one movie goer. “I was never certain if a scene was supposed to be serious or not.”
Some have argued that this may be the point of the film, as the Coen brothers are known for using unorthodox methods to get their ideas across.
While possibly not for the mainstream movie going audience, “Hail, Caesar!” is a funny and visually stunning film that is definitely worth a trip to the theater.
Photo and trailer property of Universal Pictures.
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