Hail, Caesar! (2016) * * *

Directed by:  Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Starring:  Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Alden Ehrenreich, Scarlett Johannson, Jonah Hill

Eddie Mannix has a job I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.    In just the one day in which Hail, Caesar! takes place, he must deal with the kidnapping of the star of his new biblical epic, two nosey gossip columnists threatening to take a long-rumored piece of dirt public, a director pleading with him not to cast a singing cowboy in his new movie, a pregnant starlet with no marriage prospects in sight, and a job offer from Lockheed Martin promising more money and shorter hours.    Plus, he keeps taking up smoking and hiding it from his wife.  

Eddie is a movie studio chief in 1950's Hollywood, when times were seemingly more innocent, although you wouldn't know that from the behind the scenes issues in this movie.     Hollywood was every bit as cutthroat then and scandals were just waiting to explode from just under the surface.     Eddie's job is to keep a lid on things while somehow maintaining his sanity.     If anyone could be up to this task, it is the unflappable Josh Brolin, who plunges headlong into these messes and provides a solid counterpoint to the craziness surrounding him.   

Hail, Caesar! is the first pure comedy from the Coen Brothers in quite a while, since the unsuccessful The Ladykillers (2004).     They have made some pretty damn good movies since then, including No Country For Old Men (2007) and A Serious Man (2009).    I wasn't a big fan of True Grit (2010), mostly because remaking other people's movies just isn't their thing.     The Ladykillers falls into this same category.    

I have pretty much described all of the subplots that are to be tidied up in the movie.    I sincerely hope Eddie has easier days ahead, in which he only has to deal with maybe one potential scandal for the day.     The Coens clearly have a love for this period in Hollywood, when musicals were full of dance numbers and Communists were lurking just around the corner waiting to take over.     They kidnap Baird Whitlock (Clooney) in hopes of earning a large ransom to finance their cause.     A funny development is how much Whitlock is impressed by the Communists' pitch.     Who knows if he even wants to be rescued?

Also enjoyable is Lawrence Laurenz (Fiennes), who is forced to cast a singing cowboy with zero acting ability in his new movie about high society.    We see Fiennes master the slow burn as he tries in vain to turn the cowboy into a legitimate actor.    All the while, Lockheed Martin continues to entice Eddie by raising their starting salary and offering numerous bells and whistles.     How Eddie doesn't leap at the chance is beyond me, but I suppose then there wouldn't be a movie.  

Hail, Caesar! does not rank among the great Coen Brothers films like Fargo, No Country For Old Men, or A Serious Man, but it is light comic entertainment that delivers.    After some of the heavier fare they have made recently, Hail, Caesar! plays like a holiday for them.