Stands Out For Its Detailed Period Setting and Almost Too Many Moving Parts Made Whole

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2020)

Definitely an Ethan Coen and Joel Coen production, who both directed and wrote the movie. This sparkling period-in-detail movie captures the retro-film pizzazz of the song and dance era as the backdrop to this mild in tone but sharply choreographed thriller comedy drama. The movie introduces a disparate number of song and dance routines that richly envelopes those film scenes along with the stage setting and handlers in which they were shot. At the same time, the narrator proceeds to move the main storyline of the insidious Cold War behind the scenes along with a setting up but never coming directly into blacklisting of movie industry employees. Yet all this is achieved with a serious but light-handed approach, never smartly becoming a parody, one of the most difficult of balancing acts in directing. Josh Brolin's character as a movie mogul in a well-acted performance almost breaks the flowing, entertaining tone of the movie at one point and having to literally repent at another point. There are almost too many moving parts to compress into one movie and perhaps some of the individual storylines and characters get short-shrifted or short-changed for the emotional and substantive depth they individually deserved unlike Pulp Fiction (1994) or Sin City (2005). Nevertheless, the Coen Brothers apparently pulled off a delightful and rather unique theatrical experience that allows this movie to stand out among many.