You'll recognize the stars

Rating: 6/10 (22 August 2016)

The Coen Brothers who gave us one of my favorite 90s films Fargo to a crack at Hollywood of the studio era in Hail Caesar. The film had potential for greatness, but it fails in too many places.
The real life character of Eddie Mannix of the real life studio of MGM is given his own studio to run, the mythical Capital Pictures. Mannix had a deserved reputation as a tough guy and a formal Catholic in the Jewish world of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. He was a tough guy who knew more celebrity secrets than J. Edgar Hoover. He buried many a scandal at MGM and now he heads his own studio.
You'll recognize the satire on a lot of familiar Hollywood faces from the 30s and 40s. George Clooney as Charlton Heston kidnapped by Communist writers and held for revolutionary ransom was way over the top and sad to say doesn't do either Heston or the blacklist any justice.
Frances McDormand's character of Mannix who is played by Josh Brolin is not easily recognizable. But Ida Koverman who was Louis B. Mayer's faithful scribe also kept secrets well and kept Mayer's life in order.
My two favorites were Tilda Swinton as twin gossip columnists who had the same scent for scandal as Hedda and Louella did. The second was Alden Ehrenreich as a Gene Autry type singing cowboy. The scene where Brolin puts him into a sophisticated comedy where director Ralph Fiennes is trying to teach him some acting technique is my favorite in the film. Imagine trying to remake Gene Autry into Cary Grant.
You'll recognize a lot of the movie immortals. Some got more justice than others. Channing Tatum is in sailor musical where he's doing a number like Gene Kelly. I'll bet Tatum worked as hard as Kelly to get it right.
Some old timers like me and devoted watchers of TCM will enjoy Hail Caesar. But it could have been a lot better.