Ah, the Coen Brothers. Such diversity they have. Even when I look at my favorite films* they wrote, those are vastly different from each other. As is their latest, Hail, Caesar!, being in its own category.
So let me be honest: the film made me feel not smart. Okay, that goes too far. But what I said to a friend after seeing it was, “It was smart in a way that I’m not smart.” Granted, her reply was a sweet compliment along the lines that then it was over the head of most of the rest of the audience too. Okay, that’s nice. Of course, that doesn’t change my experience watching the movie. Maybe it was almost worse in that I *knew* there were things I didn’t get. I *knew* many of the references flew over my head, some by more than a foot. And I *knew* that those references were no doubt wicked smart.
The film is set in 1950s Hollywood, focused on the filming of an epic Roman/Christian movie (yes, combined) and the antics that occur when a particular group of folks decides to kidnap the star of the film. That particular group? Well, I’ll simply say that this film coming out on the heels of Trumbo may or may not be a coincidence. (And thank goodness I’d seen that one. Not that it’s necessary, but at least I had *that* basis for watching Hail Caesar!) But Trumbo was a drama and a biopic, so it was as serious as Hail Caesar! is satirical. And the latter only brings this group in as a side note, it seems, ignoring all the deeper (and more serious) issues surrounding that aspect of Hollywood’s history. In a way, then, having seen Trumbo so recently also colored my view of the lightness delivered by Hail Caesar! Ah, complications of too many films.
I did laugh. Hail Caesar! IS funny. And it is entertaining. It is cynical. It is slapstick funny at times. There’s bumbling, and there’s wit. There’s irony and absurdity, sandwiched in with a bitter nod toward commercialism. There are legal jokes and religious jokes and sexuality jokes amid all of the jokes about those Hollywood films and those who made them. And there are elements that made me think of the brilliantly funny Blazing Saddles as well. So for all of that, yes, it’s a good movie.
But again, as much as I enjoyed it, I felt at times a bit like Joey Tribbiani when the conversation at Central Perk veered away from topics that began with the letter V. (See? Only some of you will get that.) Let me put it this way: my movie companion is in the middle of teaching a Critical Theory college course. And in his words, in noting it was now his favorite Coen Brothers film: “The film makes a perfect illustration of everything I’ve been talking about in my Critical Theory class for the last month, from Marxism to Psychoanalysis, identity construction and ideology.” Darn if I did not appreciate the value of such classes when I rushed through my undergraduate education. (And yes, I told said friend perhaps I need to audit his class next time; it’s never too late to learn!)
Like I said, the film is entertaining. It is good. But it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. Actually, that’s not completely true. It was good in another way; after all, I have immense respect for movies that aim high and broad with their level of wit and satire.
*My favorite Coen Brothers? Easily, No Country for Old Men (and all its gripping violence) sits at or near the top. (I may have written about that one on the blog I wrote that year I lived in Memphis, but I cannot find it right now.) The more recent Inside Llewyn Davis (such melancholy) also is toward the top. Rounding out my top three is surely Burn After Reading. But as I write that list, I acknowledge too that I have not seen all of their films, and I likely did not appreciate many when I did see them, with me stretching my film viewing only the last almost decade or so.
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