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

this video short barely delineates the commonalities of this with The Errand Boy, but anything to expose you ppl to something Lewis-related that isn't speculation about the fucking deathcamp movie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbpYq2TA0U

Thinking back upon it now, I didn't realize that the scene where Mannix consults with religious leaders he operates from both sincere and business considerations. When I saw it, I just took it from the modern stance of "oh, dude is just trying to clear it with tribal gatekeepers so he can sell the film." I didn't connect it at the time(probably b/c the scene happens so early in the flick) that he's also doing this out of sincere desire to present an acceptable and accurate adaptation. Dude is hitting confession like clockwork and as mercenary as his studio can be, seems to want to do it right.

feel like so many ironies are getting missed with this movie

the 'hollywood tribute' scenes are all supposedly on-set -- mannix/we see these things being staged; many of them shot with crew hanging around the edges -- but they happen as continuous, composed scenes, nothing like the boredom of the shooting process. it's impossible to know what the dream is.

mannix is devout on one level, but he confesses to the wrong things. he missed dinner. he still smokes. he doesn't tell the priest about rigging marriages, beating his stars, the lying and intimidating that are his trade. it's hinted (barely, but i think it's there) that he doesn't want to take the easy job with boeing because he doesn't want to build a-bombs -- "armageddon" he says -- but he doesn't tell the priest this either. he says the hard job feels right. does he like stress and coercion more than anything else? is that good? how does the movie get us to feel like he made the right choice?

his one scene at home was the most artificial 'hollywood domestic' scene in the movie!

He does confess to the priest that he slapped George Clooney around

but not the actress...

this was great btw

still think this is about hoover's fbi saving america from its own vice and apathy

I wasn't really sure what to make of this, really enjoyed it moment to moment but I'm doubtful that it hung together on the surface, let alone below. Two things in particular, what was the point of the communists' plot? Just to get paid? What was Tatum's role in it other than providing a house? I expect flippancy from the Coens but normally there's some substance there, this was not just flippant but flimsy. And then the ARMAGEDDON motif, blatantly introduced and just as blatantly snatched away and never referred to again, even at the end Brolin says it's 'not a bad' or 'a good' job (can't remember which). So his crisis of conscience doesn't seem to be moral - nor does he seem bothered when he chooses the option that means never spending time with his children. Seemed totally deliberate and yet... utterly pointless. If there's any grand scheme at all here I'd have to say it's the one also strongly apparent in their last two films - comic or tragic, life is utterly devoid of meaning.

yeah the communists' scheme is pretty flimsy i guess:

the communist plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense really; who knows what indoctrinating clooney was supposed to get them. i suppose the implication is that even with dr. marcuse advising them (lol) they haven't shaken off the ideology of the hierarchy of stardom?

― goole, Wednesday, February 10, 2016 12:12 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like maybe the whole pt of the movie is that even with communism and catholicism and freedom and truth and work and all of these huge things bearing down on people and driving them, nobody can see outside of hollywood

not just flippant but flimsy

it is a farce

If a farce isn't well constructed it ain't a good farce.

Lebowski was a farce, had nothing at its core maybe, but had a solid foundation, sturdy walls, robust roof.

As I noted very far upthread, before the release, good farce is extremely difficult to pull off.

I got it wrong. My comment about the difficulty of farce was on the threadBest Coen Bros Movie, when this (prospective) movie came up in the discussion.

I think someone needs to cast Alden Ehrenreich as the lead in THE BILLY MACKENZIE STORY pronto.

Wow, the Coen Bros beat these guys to the punch. Just in time for Easter:

http://www.patheos.com/Entertainment/Movie-Club/Risen/RISEN-About-the-Movie-01-27-2016

RISEN is the epic Biblical story of the Resurrection, as told through the eyes of a non-believer. Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a powerful Roman military tribune, and his aide, Lucius (Tom Felton), are tasked with solving the mystery of what happened to Jesus (referred to by the Hebrew name Yeshua in the film) in the weeks following the crucifixion, in order to disprove the rumors of a risen Messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem.

RISEN stars Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Peter Firth (The Hunt for Red October; MI-5), and Cliff Curtis (Fear the Walking Dead).

Columbia Pictures and LD Entertainment present in association with AFFIRM Films, a Liddell Entertainment and Patrick Aiello production, RISEN, directed by Kevin Reynolds. Screenplay by Kevin Reynolds and Paul Aiello, and story by Paul Aiello. Mickey Liddell, Patrick Aiello, and Pete Shilaimon produced. Executive producers are Robert Huberman and Scott Holroyd. Director of Photography is Lorenzo Senatore. Production designer is Stefano Maria Ortolani. Steven Mirkovich, ACE is the editor. Costume designer is Maurizio Millenotti. Rafa Solórzano is the visual effects supervisor. Music is composed by Roque Baños. John Hubbard and Ros Hubbard did casting.

RISEN is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for the following reasons: biblical violence including some disturbing images

The running time is 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Tom Felton playing a character sharing the name of the elder Malfoy, in a film with another Fiennes brother.

Oh wait, this already came out.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=risen.htm

Made a little money, I'm guessing

Still playing in Tupelo. (They've settled in to having 2-3 xtian movies playing on the 18 screens there at all times.)

I guess if it keeps the punters packing in?

Sure, the market and the marketers know each other intimately.

speaking of which, is that "miracles from heaven" movie being advertised on TV an example of a studio making a crypto-xian movie?

nothing crypto about it

Joseph Fiennes does some weird shit these days.

This was great. No criticism in this thread is valid. Gits.

"great" is a point of view

Agreed!

I liked the message, such as it were (usually I'm with Bob Dylan circa 1965 when it comes to messages)--belongs with Sullivan's Travels and Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy and I don't know what else. "Would that it were so simple" was great. I thought the casual dinner-time flirtation between the singing cowboy and "Carlotta Valdez" was sweet.

After that, not much else. Don't know that I've ever liked George Clooney or Josh Brolin less.

Reading back over the thread, I somehow missed that that was Frances McDormand. I did enjoy picking out a couple of Mad Men guys: Allan Havey (Lou Avery) and the always strange Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett).

I like that McDormand's scene served as a PSA about the dangers of wearing scarves around film machinery and not, say, smoking in a room full of film stock.

http://brightlightsfilm.com/camping-out-in-hollywood-the-coen-brothers-hail-caesar/#.VvmT3GM4nq0

Saw it again.

Better again.

Very rare in that it could and should be thirty mins longer maybe.

I saw this on a long-haul flight. diverting, enjoyable, but just very, very slight.

(psued-alert) made me think of jameson:

Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter

Their worst since *at least* The Ladykillers.

Did you at least like Channing Tatum's homoerotic song-and-dance bit?

meh

Alden Ehrenreich much funnier

but gen too much "lol Old Hollywood so STUPID"

no wonder darraghmac shared in the contempt

I wasnt a fan of it but "lol Old Hollywood so STUPID" wasnt what they were aiming for imo

often seemed so

Totally missing where you're getting that morbs

And most of my fave movies are old hollywood. More than a few recommended by you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQ0JFzXMgY

anyway ledge otm on the whole dull, pointless kidnapping plot

just join the Navy, Alfred

I watched it for the second time recently, it isn't peak Coen but it made me laugh a lot and feel happy even on the second viewing, which is more than I can say for most movies.

also the only movie i've ever seen where communists talk like communists

― goole, Wednesday, February 10, 2016 6:07 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is very otm

what about Reds?

we must know different communists

"why don't you look around and see how agitated you get?"

a Strictly Come Dancing-like performance from Tatum

This seems a little harsh.

Overall I thought this was a trifle, but entertaining enough not to feel slim - unlike, say, Intolerable Cruelty. Every scene has gems. Ehrenreich's scenes with the Carmen Miranda-type were really charming. Overall it's very broad but not as forced as anything in their awkward phase (O Brother through The Ladykillers).

The reason for the kidnapping seems pretty clear - aren't they looking for a famous figurehead?

I kind of agree with David Edelstein's review - the movie might have been more interesting with Clooney and Brolin swapping roles.

I'm looking for the point of the Coens doing the kidnapping plot.

Intolerable Cruelty is a weirdly maligned near-gem.

Agreed!