Fun film for fans of Hollywood history

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2016)

I would not call myself a Coen Brothers fan, though I do generally enjoy most of their films. This one was particularly enjoyable, however, for its reliance on Hollywood history for both characters and storyline. But that reliance is also one of it two failings. In order to enjoy the film properly, the viewer really does need to know quite a lot about the Hollywood film industry in the decade following WWII. I suspect a great many of the references are lost on the under-40 or even under-50 generation. How many people under 40 have ever heard of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons and are thus able to connect Tilda Swinton's two characters to those Hollywood legends, for example? Likewise, how many viewers born after 1970 would immediately recognize Carlota Valdez as the real-life Carmen Miranda when Hobie Doyle/Alden Ehrenreich asks her how she dances with bananas on her head?
If you really know your Hollywood and film history, this is a very enjoyable and amusing film. But if you do not have that historical knowledge, Hail Caesar may only leave you puzzled.
The second failing was the awkward ending. The film just stops, without rhyme or reason. Totally unsatisfying.
Still, Channing Tatum practically steals the film with his singing-and- homosexually-suggestively-dancing Burt Gurney, so clearly based on a mix of Gene Kelly and Tab Hunter.