Hail, Caesar!

Sometimes it’s good; sometimes it’s not. Everyone is so given over to Coen Brothers hagiography at this point that mumbling a bad word about any movie they make is likely to elicit strong reactions...which is, in a lot of ways, what this movie does not elicit. There are moments, highlights, that are quite good and make you want to give this effort more credit than you ultimately are comfortable doling out. Perhaps if one of the subplots--I’m looking at you, Scarlett--had been left on the cutting room floor, this might have turned out to be a stronger, tighter movie. Alas, the boys overreached, probably because they were too interested in paying homage to classic movies and moviemaking--perhaps they noticed that such things burnish a film’s Oscar-bait credentials--and the overall work suffered accordingly. It’s definitely worth watching if you’re a fan, of the old days or the brothers; otherwise, it may not pass muster.