Set during the autumn years of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Hail, Caesar!, the latest comedy from renowned directors Joel and Ethan Coen, follows a single day in the life of studio ‘fixer’ Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), as he attempts to track down his lead actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) who suddenly disappears during the production of their studio’s biggest release of the year, a Roman epic entitled ‘Hail, Caesar!’. It turns out that Baird is being held for ransom by a mysterious group, referring to themselves only as ‘The Future’, and are demanding $100,000 to ensure his safe return.
Not one to lie down without a fight, Mannix enlists the help of Burt (Channing Tatum), Laurence (Ralph Fiennes) and Tobey (Alden Ehrenreich) to find their studio’s biggest (and most hapless) star and get their film’s production back on track.
In the spirit of their meticulously screwy cult-classics The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading and The Hudsucker Proxy, the Academy Award winning writer-director team re-establish themselves as masters of comedic eccentricity with a stellar ensemble cast including Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Jonah Hill and Dolph Lundgren. The film represents the third in their ‘numbskull trilogy’ with Clooney as lead, after his roles as the half-witted heroes of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty.
David Desmond
Audi Dublin International Film Festival