HAIL, CAESAR! A '50s Hollywood comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen

sic otm. its a story about how people keep faith vs a serious man being about how people lose faith.

i agree about the commies, certainly, that needed deepening or dropping

mannix's faith in the system is held up by the idea that everyone has an important role to play to serve the system, and in return the system provides them all with a sense of meaning. His faith gives him self-worth because he plays his part to help keep the system running, as we all should. The setpieces give us a cross section of the system and show us what mannix finds beautiful about it, the way each person fits and how their role is important, from the execs to the craftspeople to the crooked notary public. The film shows him literally travelling around tending his flock, and when one of them has doubts he tells them that faith must be a choice, a conscious act of will, and if you interrogate it with rationality too much it can all disappear in a puff of smoke.

Great post, sic

xp - that deeper thematic underpinning might have been better served if it had been depicted as happening to human beings instead of to crayon drawings of human beings

well yeah, its a broad allegory, done with self-conscious silliness. Not sure if it would have worked better if it was more realistic, but i get why the movie as it is doesnt do it for everybody. And while its still not the deepest fare theres at least slightly more there to chew on than "they wanted to re-create old movies" imo

mannix has learned to be happy with the idea of faith being its own reward. gopnik in a serious man is unhappy because he expects rewards for his faith. (or at least tornado protection, at the bare minimum)

gopnik struggles with faith and doesn't do anything

mannix commits to faith-as-tactic and acts

that deeper thematic underpinning might have been better served if it had been depicted as happening to human beings instead of to crayon drawings of human beings

― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, May 16, 2020 7:09 AM (twenty-four minutes ago)

https://i.imgur.com/nlenMLq.jpg

I watched this over the pandemic and fell into the easy trap of tritely dismissing it as a minor Coen brothers. It didn't really stay with me and I hadn't reconsidered it until I noticed that their last three movies (if indeed the Coens stay out): Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail, Caesar!, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs form an ersatz trilogy of dark music(al) movies about identity, Americanism, and the culture industry. Maybe not a perfect match-up, but I think it's interesting to take all three of these movies together.

Wasn't excited for this at all, very wary of the pastiche/tribute element but I really loved it. I think the old man trying to fight the moon is supposed to be comedy for dumbasses but it's still hilarious.

Trying to think of similar films to what Fiennes was directing or similar directors but coming up totally blank. Maybe that kind of film is mostly left in the past? Same for the cowboy film?

saw The Man Who Wasn't there the other night and that was more amazing