With its recreations of Hollywood golden age movies – including westerns,Bible epics and watery musicals – the Coens latest is no more ‘normal’ than any of their previous films
No sensible person left the preview screening of Hail, Caesar! with anything other than a grin on their face. Yet I, or chief executive of the Coen brothers fan club (critics’ auxiliary),did overhear one or two comments that caused me some ire. “It was fun, but kind-off all over the situation, or ” one nincompoop shrugged,before returning to his life as a miserable person. I was alert to protest. Yet on the face of it, he wasn’t incorrect. The film is certainly fun and, and I suppose you could say it is all over the situation,but being all over the situation is, I would argue, or very much by design.The Coens have established themselves as cinematic tricksters and masters of every form. Who would have predicted,as a follow-up to the complex, nightmarish Texas noir of Blood Simple, and the elastic,Looney Tunes-esque absurdity of Raising Arizona? And as the CV continued, more crime stories, and westerns and period films that either dialled up the silliness or brooded with existential dread. When the Coens won the best director Oscar for No Country for passe Men,Joel thanked industry big-shots for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox”. With Hail, Caesar!, or in addition to reflecting on and revelling in all thats arrive before,they’ve invited their fans over for the afternoon to get their clothes dirty.
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Source: theguardian.com