Hail, Caesar!

I'd still look elsewhere for the weakest Coen, but, of all their their underwhelming films, Ave, Caesar! reeks of untapped potential by far the most. A film with such polished details, great cast and a flexible production design that is only accentuated by one Roger Deakins simply deserves a more coherent story structure, a better-developed central motif and certainly more punchy humour, which is masterfully offset by a powerful touch of irony in every shot and dialogue, but given that this is supposed to be a comedy first and foremost, there aren't many really funny moments in the long 100 minutes. The brothers try to parody too many things at once, and at times the result is a tired mess that hardly moves forward and is really only kept afloat by the stars: the energetic Clooney, of course, but most of all the fantastic Josh Brolin, whose tiny gestures and confident elegance once again reveal that he has grown into a Hollywood star of the first magnitude. (26/05/2016)

There's a great idea behind Hail, Caesar! that is worth honoring, but it takes a wrong turn. The plot involving the communists, in which George Clooney (a standby of Joel and Ethan Coen) plays the fool, is not funny at all, no matter how hard you try to laugh. But the saddest part of it all is that the film, which is supposed to express love for the golden age of cinema, ends up portraying it with an almost satirical perspective, as a result of a comedy of errors. (01/03/2016)

It's actually another feature-length Jewish anecdote from the Coen brothers, this time on the subject of belief in anything (in God, the Party, oneself, Hollywood...) and how and why it can be denied to the point of being denied. However, unlike (for example) A Serious Man, I would say that this is a much more accessible anecdote, in which jokes so dry that they almost make you gag alternate with those that provoke incredible bursts of laughter. I enjoyed it very much and the period atmosphere, abundantly supported by Deakins' beautiful cinematography and Burwell's easily recognizable music, was downright magical. "Hobie Doyle? Are you also a communist?" (08/03/2016)

I fell asleep twice, and quite deliberately, because this was unbearable. I haven't seen a more boring movie in months. There are about three good jokes and a lot of actors who probably enjoyed working in it, but otherwise I don't really know what it was supposed to be about. It's not funny enough for a comedy, not suspenseful enough for a whodunit, and terribly ordinary and unimaginative for a "Hollywood is full of idiots" type of satire. It tackles everything from knocked-up celebrities, the advent of television, the Cold War, economics, career ambitions and communist writers, but it's sorely lacking in lightness or any kind of distinctive identity, and all the scenes straight out of 1950s movies (the musical act, the fooling around in the water, the cowgirl) need to be cut by at least half. I'd quite like to hear what Clooney, Brolin, Johansson, Hill and Tatum had to say about the result when they first saw it. It will probably only entertain undemanding cinema-goers who are satisfied with familiar faces and the fact that it all looks quite nice. An annoying film. (25/02/2016)

I’m not excited about this film by the Coen brothers, but it didn’t depress the hell out of me either. It's true that it was sometimes boring, but I do admit that I enjoyed some moments a lot (the mermaid, the illegal communist writers' group, Laurence Laurentz and Hobie Doyle). Especially the character played by Alden Ehrenreich was great and the scene where he meets Laurence blew me away. Overall, it was quite average. (14/11/2017)