Pras on WorldFilms: HAIL, CESAR !

A Hilarious Coen Brothers Film That Spoofs 1950s-Era Film-Making Under The Hollywood Studio System.

Four-time Oscar®-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, True Grit, Fargo) write and direct Hail, Caesar!, an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum, the film Hail, Caesar! is set in the early 1950s at the peak of Hollywood’s Golden Age.It follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) as he solves problems for the biggest Hollywood stars and studios, whose  assignments involve a disgruntled director, a singing cowboy, a beautiful swimmer and a handsome dancer. As if all this wasn’t enough, Mannix faces his biggest challenge when Baird Whitlock gets kidnapped while in costume for the swords-and-sandals epic “Hail, Caesar!” If the studio doesn’t pay $100,000, it’s the end of the line for the movie star.

Along the way, the film examines and skewers various styles and personas of Hollywood during the era.

In the film, Scarlett Johanssen plays a Hollywood star appearing in a Busby Berkley style musical production involving choreographed synchronized swimming. Channning Tatum plays a character named Burt Gurney; a role which pokes fun not only at Gene Kelly musicals of the era, such as Singin’ in the Rain, including a surprisingly good song and group dance sequence by Tatum. Ralph Fiennes plays a film director tasked with making a drama film using the only available star talent who is a cowboy action film star (Alden Ehrenreich), and ends up giving the actor a hilarious line reading session. There’s also a kidnapping of a major star (George Clooney) just as the film’s director plans to shoot the film’s climactic final sequence.

The film also pokes fun at communism and the McCarthy Red Scare.

The movie is written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, who most recently co-wrote the screenplays for current Best Picture nominee “Bridge of Spies,” which Steven Spielberg directed, and the 2014 Angelina Jolie-directed drama, “Unbroken.” The last film they directed was 2013’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which introduced many filmgoers to Oscar Isaac, one of the new faces in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”