Coen brothers deliver the hi-jinx with ‘Hail, Caesar!’

In case you’ve not done your Media Studies 101 course, an ‘ensemble’ film is one with a multitude of characters whose stories inter-collide, and in doing so see the narrative come together. One need not look further than a Robert Altman film to know it’s not an easy feat. Never the less, the brothers Coen have decided to present us with their version of their biggest ensemble piece.

Our protagonist is Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s who works to keep the studio’s stars in line. Great premise for a Coen brother’s flick. As they have established their behind-the-scenes of movie-making in their 1991 release, ‘Barton Fink’. However the two films couldn’t be more different.

We follow main man Mannix for a day-in-the-life scenario. He tries his utmost to keep the stars in line, but when the studios’ biggest star, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) goes missing, he finds himself at a turning point in his career. With better career opportunities offered to him we’re left guessing till the end if he will finish out his day wrangling for the gluttonous studio heads.

The film marks the return to shooting on 35mm film for illustrious cinematographer, Roger Deakins. He has of course collaborated with the Coens many times before (‘Fargo’, ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’, ‘A Serious Man’, ‘True Grit’). This latest offering from these frequent collaborators is without a doubt a visual treat in every respect.

Deakins even manages to check a few Busby Berkeley musical numbers off his bucket list. Then there is the biblical epic that this films’ actual title. A smorgasbord of shots unfold in these films within the film. Shooting on 35 film stock was definitely the better choice here as the day exteriors simply leap off the screen and slap you about a little and remark “how alive I am, and not just an nonentity!” With great Roman set pieces and locations with thousands of extras, it makes you hark back for the nostalgia of the period’s not only cinema history, but culture and politics.

Well, perhaps not politically, as the film is primarily about one thing and one thing only: radicalists. Reds. Apparatchiks. Subversives. Stalinists. Trotskyites. Comrades. Who do I refer to, do I hear you asking? If the movie were not just a farce in it’s concept, then by the time you reach a plot twist involving a defector boarding a Russian submarine, you will be quite up to speed on how farcical the Coen’s can get. Plot spoilers? Wait, who said anything about communism?

Edited by none other than the now infamous Mr Roderick Jaynes, who is a nonentity, but furthermore does not even exist! It is a pseudonym, if you were not already aware, of the brothers Coen themselves. This has been the tradition for most of their career. When you think of the brothers’ editing style, a simple word such as ‘stillness’ may come to mind. It is well-known they write best in these moments, and execute them with precision detail to the last frame.

So, what was the film really about? I have my suspicions. I have my doubts also. The Coens have dabbled in the ensemble film a few times now. In my humblest of opinion, it is not the strongest suit in their oeuvre.  Gavin Raye

‘Hail, Caesar!’ is in cinemas now.