Doesn't work as comedy or satire

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2016)

This takes place at the fictitious Capital Studios in Hollywood in the 1950s. A studio fixer (Josh Brolin) has his hands full. Their main star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) has been kidnapped, cowboy star Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) has been cast in a serious drama and is driving his director (Ralph Fiennes) crazy, actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) is pregnant...and not married and communists appear to be trying to take over.
This movie is all over the place. I'm still not sure if it's meant to be a comedy or a satire. As a comedy it fails. A few of the lines are good but the humor is more clever than funny. As a satire it also fails. It's not biting enough to succeed. On the plus side it LOOKS good. The colors are strong and bright and the 1950s are recreated perfectly. All the acting is good too--especially by Brolin. There's also a long song and dance number that stops the movie. It has Channing Tatum and a bunch of guys dressed as sailors tap-dancing and singing (badly) and dancing. It's also VERY homoerotic. It has nothing to do with anything else in the movie but I'm not going to complain. All in all I didn't hate the movie but I spent the whole running time trying to get a grasp on what exactly this film was trying to accomplish.