Hail, the Coens!

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2016)

I saw "Hail, Caesar!" yesterday, and I was baffled. First at the brilliance of the film, then at the grumpiness of several of the reviews and then ultimately, at the film again. It did not escape me, however, that I was the one laughing hardest and longest in the cinema, but this, in turn, puzzles me as well. Perhaps the reason is that Marcuse and the Hollywood Reds are held up to ridicule, but I think that's only fair, as well as rare, for films generally bemoan the fate of the liberal extremists (I haven't seen "Trumbo" yet). My approach to the Red Scare in Hollywood is as follows: if the Hollywood commies had really had their way and socialism had moved into Tinsel Town, which is to say: if their spurious dreams of a socialist paradise had come true and Moscow had invaded Washington, these guys would not only have been out of a job for opposing the government and party politics - they would have disappeared to the Gulags of Siberia or would have been shot, no questions asked. For once, a film does not see them as innocent victims of irrational persecution, but as dupes for a system even more corrupt than Hollywood. I salute that. "Hail Caesar" is an affectionate portrait of a by-gone era and a tribute to the hard-working people who worked under the old studio system. Also, it's hilarious! The film editor (McDormand) who almost does an Isadora Duncan when she gets her scarf in the machine; the studio assistant asking Jesus on the cross whether he's a principal or an extra, and Jesus modestly replying 'a principal'; and the hilarious direction of western idol Hobie when he crosses over into genteel comedies and has to speak unspeakable lines with inane direction; producer Mannix (Brolin) taking confessions on a daily basis for smoking, although it would seem he has a lot more to confess – and yet, what the film ultimately dares to state, after decades of putting down Hollywood as a dream factory and a capitalist Babylon, is that they really had talent back then. And so do the Coens. "Hail, Caesar!" is a masterpiece of pastiche virtuosity, and, as for the politics in this comedy, the Coens, at least to my way of thinking, finally set the record straight.