![]() ![]() I guess the Coen brothers found something amusing in all of it, but I couldn’t help feeling I wasn’t in on the joke. Does Hail, Caesar! have anything new or interesting to say about the movie business? About politics? About faith? I came up with nothing. The rest is cameos (despite star billing, they’re really cameos) and filler. At one point I was wondering just how much real story there was in this film. Studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) has to somehow keep everything going. Tying all this together is a flimsy plot full of in-jokes that has star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) being kidnapped by a society of communist screenwriters. I don’t think any of the others even qualifies as droll. None of these has any authentic period feel (they are twenty-first century parodies), and the only slightly amusing one has Ralph Fiennes trying to teach a cowboy actor (Alden Ehrenreich) how to say his lines. There are a bunch of skits to go along with the filming of a biblical epic, some aquatic follies, a Western, a sophisticated drawing-room drama, and a musical. Does going from Billy Wilder to this count as progress? Or going from Barton Fink to this? And heaven knows the film biz has been sent up countless times before. It’s a comedy but there’s nothing at all funny going on. But I have no idea why the Coen brothers made this movie at this point in their careers. The photography by Roger Deakins is sensational in a glossy, artificial manner, and the cast is polished to the point where they even manage to inject subtlety into what are caricatures. I didn’t hate Hail, Caesar! It’s a very hard movie to hate. Since critics are part of the same perpetual circle jerk, they mostly climbed on board as well. ![]() It’s a love letter to Hollywood’s ever-golden age, and there’s nothing Hollywood loves as much as it loves loving itself. I would never want to deny that Joel and Ethan Coen are a pair of talented filmmakers, and they work with some of the best in the business, but doesn’t that make a bit of fluff like Hail, Caesar! even worse? What the hell was the point of this movie? So, we can look forward to at least two beautiful-looking films in 2015, and in the meantime, check out a recent video tribute to his work in case you missed it.*. That George Clooney-led project was confirmed last week, following a fixer in Hollywood circa 1950s who works for the studios to protect the stars of the day. In each case, the Coens’ A-crew (including Mary Zophres on costumes, Roger Deakins as DP and Carter Burwell scoring). He says he plans to be shooting their forthcoming Hail Caesar this year after a likely summer production for Sicario. Hail, Caesar shares the Hollywood-studio setting of Barton Fink. government to help bring down the Cartels, which are responsible for the death of his family.Īfter stepping away for the Coens‘ Inside Llewyn Davis (shot by Bruno Delbonnel) due to Bond commitments, it looks like he’s getting back into business with the talented brothers as well. Benicio del Toro is also on board for the project, taking the role of an assassin hired by the U.S. ![]() Led by Emily Blunt, the story features a loophole in which mercenaries are legally allowed to cross the border of Mexico in order to bring in a drug lord, with the actress playing a Tucson-based female cop who escorts two rangers to apprehend a drug kingpin. Over at his resourceful forums, the director of photography confirms he’ll be shooting Denis Villeneuve‘s Sicarioafter working with the director on Prisoners. While he’s not doing the next James Bond film after taking on Skyfall, he’s confirmed to be reteaming with a fairly new talent and likely continuing one of his longest collaborations, all this year no less. Currently Oscar-less - a fact that says more about the Academy than his work - he always delivers top-notch, stunning results and today we have an update on what he’ll be shooting this year. ![]() There’s very few cinematographers that will greatly multiply our interest in a project based on their involvement alone, but Roger Deakins is certainly one. ![]()
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