The Coen Brothers have always been kind of hit and miss for me. While they're undeniably great at what they do, the movies that I've seen by them always feel kind of flat, It comes from their style, from them just showing real life in movies like Fargo or The Big Lebowski. There aren't any sweeping scores or amazing action setpieces, which make their films feel more low-key. I hate to use that stupid phrase "you just don't get it", but I'm just using it towards myself. I think that if I go back and watch their films again, I'll understand and enjoy them more.
Hail Caesar! doesn't have that same low-key style at all. The style is the most memorable part of this film, besides the writing. In terms of visuals, Roger Deakins nailed it (which isn't that much of a surprise). But the production design is where this movie really shines, and the attention to detail was incredible. That, along with everyone doing that old 50s accent, really pulled me into the world.
The characters were a lot of fun because they were portrayed by actors who you don't usually associate with those kinds of people. Scarlett Johansson, one of the most attractive people out there, plays a Hollywood starlet who can be downright unpleasant at times. Channing Tatum plays the star of a Navy musical, and George Clooney is kind of what you imagine George Clooney is like, only much more ridiculous. It was actually really cool of him, because George Clooney usually presents himself as very dignified, but he's not afraid to be an idiot here.
I could honestly go on for hours about how great George Clooney is. There's a scene where Mannix is watching the dailies from the Hail Caesar movie inside the Hail Caesar! movie, and they're watching take after take of George Clooney looking amazed. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time, and really shows Clooney's talent. It takes a lot of talent to be not just act well, but to play a character who can act well, but in a different way, as well as playing a character who can act well overacting.
The breakout star of this movie is definitely Alden Eirenreich. He plays a character who stars in a bunch of westerns, and is then put in the starring role of a drama. Ralph Fiennes is the very uptigt dramatic, dignified director, and seeing him have to work with this guy who barely knows how to speak was hilarious. Like I said with Clooney, it takes a lot of talent to play a character who plays a character who's good at acting, but it takes more to play a character who's bad at acting trying to be good at acting.
But this movie doesn't just lose itself in its quirky charm. As with any Coen Brothers comedy, the story is has layers upon layers of interconnected plots, and this one was the most fun to unravel for me. It also has a constant underlying theme of faith, and even though we're regularly reminded of religion through Mannix's many visits to a confessional, as well as through the titular film-within-the-film, it's never really about religious faith. Rather, it's about the faith that the characters have in what they do, in their careers and their actions.
As usual, the Coens could have gone with something predictable, but completely subverted those expectations to create something truly unique. I watched this movie with my dad, and he leaned over and said "_____ kidnapped George Clooney". Generally, he's really good at predicting movies, but I knew that what he thought would happen wouldn't be anywhere near what actually happened. And what's fun about this movie is that there are a few "plot twists", but really, it was more about seeing how everything was woven together. Because of that, it's hard to predict where the movie will go, because you can't really expect the Coens to pull the rug out from under you, because that's not really what they do.
The coolest thing to see in this movie were the scenes where we can see how these old films were made. Every now and then, a scene would just appear that would be straight out of a musical, or an old western, or an old drama. What was so cool about it was seeing not only how the movies were made, but a lot of the time, it would just show the scene play out as it would as an actual film. At times, Hail Caesar! seems like a scrapbook of old Hollywood. In that way, it has some goofyness to it, but not in a slapstick way. All of the humour is very natural, and all of the jokes landed for me really well.
And in a lot of ways, that's what it is. With Hail Caesar!, the Coen Brothers have created this wonderful love letter to the Hollywood of yesteryear, and even though I'm not really caught up on my film history, I could feel the love for that time period throughout the whole movie. People who do know all those old styles of film will likely appreciate this movie even more, and as time goes on, and I educate myself some more, I hope to do the same.
Hail Caesar! is, as of right now, my favourite of the Coen Brothers films. The writing is brilliant, the actors are fantastic, the music is glorious, and the whole movie has so much passion behind it. It's movies like these that make me want to make movies, and while the Coen Brothers' next project may not hit these same heights for me, I'll always look back on this one with the same warmth it made me feel while watching it.
Every character, big and small, are their own, unique personalities, and all of the actors are at the top of their game. Josh Brolin really holds this movie together, and had he not played Eddie Mannix, I don't know that this movie would have worked nearly as well for me. I love seeing characters who are great at what they do, and seeing him running a movie studio was fascinating. Seeing how the studio controlled the actors, how the actors were moved around between films, and how Mannix worked with public relations was always interesting.
The characters were a lot of fun because they were portrayed by actors who you don't usually associate with those kinds of people. Scarlett Johansson, one of the most attractive people out there, plays a Hollywood starlet who can be downright unpleasant at times. Channing Tatum plays the star of a Navy musical, and George Clooney is kind of what you imagine George Clooney is like, only much more ridiculous. It was actually really cool of him, because George Clooney usually presents himself as very dignified, but he's not afraid to be an idiot here.
I could honestly go on for hours about how great George Clooney is. There's a scene where Mannix is watching the dailies from the Hail Caesar movie inside the Hail Caesar! movie, and they're watching take after take of George Clooney looking amazed. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time, and really shows Clooney's talent. It takes a lot of talent to be not just act well, but to play a character who can act well, but in a different way, as well as playing a character who can act well overacting.
The breakout star of this movie is definitely Alden Eirenreich. He plays a character who stars in a bunch of westerns, and is then put in the starring role of a drama. Ralph Fiennes is the very uptigt dramatic, dignified director, and seeing him have to work with this guy who barely knows how to speak was hilarious. Like I said with Clooney, it takes a lot of talent to play a character who plays a character who's good at acting, but it takes more to play a character who's bad at acting trying to be good at acting.
But this movie doesn't just lose itself in its quirky charm. As with any Coen Brothers comedy, the story is has layers upon layers of interconnected plots, and this one was the most fun to unravel for me. It also has a constant underlying theme of faith, and even though we're regularly reminded of religion through Mannix's many visits to a confessional, as well as through the titular film-within-the-film, it's never really about religious faith. Rather, it's about the faith that the characters have in what they do, in their careers and their actions.
As usual, the Coens could have gone with something predictable, but completely subverted those expectations to create something truly unique. I watched this movie with my dad, and he leaned over and said "_____ kidnapped George Clooney". Generally, he's really good at predicting movies, but I knew that what he thought would happen wouldn't be anywhere near what actually happened. And what's fun about this movie is that there are a few "plot twists", but really, it was more about seeing how everything was woven together. Because of that, it's hard to predict where the movie will go, because you can't really expect the Coens to pull the rug out from under you, because that's not really what they do.
The coolest thing to see in this movie were the scenes where we can see how these old films were made. Every now and then, a scene would just appear that would be straight out of a musical, or an old western, or an old drama. What was so cool about it was seeing not only how the movies were made, but a lot of the time, it would just show the scene play out as it would as an actual film. At times, Hail Caesar! seems like a scrapbook of old Hollywood. In that way, it has some goofyness to it, but not in a slapstick way. All of the humour is very natural, and all of the jokes landed for me really well.
And in a lot of ways, that's what it is. With Hail Caesar!, the Coen Brothers have created this wonderful love letter to the Hollywood of yesteryear, and even though I'm not really caught up on my film history, I could feel the love for that time period throughout the whole movie. People who do know all those old styles of film will likely appreciate this movie even more, and as time goes on, and I educate myself some more, I hope to do the same.
Hail Caesar! is, as of right now, my favourite of the Coen Brothers films. The writing is brilliant, the actors are fantastic, the music is glorious, and the whole movie has so much passion behind it. It's movies like these that make me want to make movies, and while the Coen Brothers' next project may not hit these same heights for me, I'll always look back on this one with the same warmth it made me feel while watching it.
Comments
Post a Comment