[6]

The Coen Brothers are at it again, this time with a wonky tale of 1950s Hollywood studio politics mixed with political scandal. Hail, Caesar! is scattershot in its narrative. Josh Brolin’s character is marginally the main protagonist. Brolin plays a gruff studio executive who can barely keep all of his stars and starlets in line while another job offer tempts him away from the limelight. His story is marginally interesting. Then there’s George Clooney’s part of the movie. Clooney plays a doofus superstar who gets poisoned and kidnapped by communists. His story is serendipitous and kinda pointless. I didn’t care for it at all.

By far the most interesting storyline in the movie is the one belonging to the cowboy stuntman who is called upon at the last minute to play an aristocrat in a polished upper crust drama called “Let Them Dance.” Alden Ehrenreich plays the cowboy, and despite all the other star power in this movie, he is the one to watch — the one you can’t wait to see on screen again whenever the focus shifts to anything else. I was especially charmed by his relationship with a Carmen Miranda-type character played by Veronica Osorio. Apart from Ehrenreich’s storyline, the movie also features some stellar show-off set pieces featuring Channing Tatum in a homoerotic sailor dance routine and Scarlet Johansson in an Ethel Merman-inspired aquatic ballet.

In the end, the parts are greater than the whole and I’m left to wonder what I should take away from Hail, Caesar!

With Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, and cameos from Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, and Clancy Brown.

Oscar Nomination: Best Production Design