‘Hail, Caesar!’ a hat tip to Hollywood of the past

Date: 2/11/2016

Two interesting films are featured in this week’s review column.

In theaters: Hail Caesar!

Among my list of my favorite movies there at least two from the Coen brothers – “The Big Lebowski” and “Miller’s Crossing” – and I was eager to see how they would fare with this period comedy set in post-war Hollywood.

You see when the Coens succeed they can create an instant classic. When they don’t, it’s a true dud.

I’m happy to say this new comedy is not a dud, but it is not among the best films they have done.

The film’s story structure goes against it, as the loopy narrative style the brothers used in several of the films just seems disjoined here.

The film is about Eddie Mannix, (Josh Brolin), a studio executive at Capitol Pictures whose primary job is to keep the productions rolling smoothly and fixing problems. In the few days depicted in the film, he has plenty of problems to fix.

Mannix needs to make sure the studio’s expensive Biblical epic “Hail Caesar” stays on schedule. That’s difficult as the film’s leading man Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) has been kidnapped. Then there’s DeeAnna Moran, the studio’s swimming musical star (Scarlett Johansson) who is pregnant without the benefit of marriage or knowing who is the father.

Then there is the front office’s ill-advised decision to put a drawling singing cowboy Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) into a drawing room comedy frustrating the film’s director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).

Now for an old movie guy such as myself this movie is a sly valentine to an era in Hollywood long gone. I’m not sure of an audience younger than me or not schooled in the ways of Turner Classic Movies will appreciate its full context, but I have my hopes. Eddie Mannix was indeed a real person employed by MGM to fix problems and many of the characters are based on or parody stars of the era.

As much as I enjoyed the film, I know its story structure will undoubtedly bother some people. There are scenes that go on too long and an odd subplot involving Mannix considering a job with Lockheed that didn’t seem to belong.

I have a feeling that once I see this film again it will grow on me, but then again I’ve actually seen singing cowboy movies.

On Blu-ray and streaming: Truth

As a reporter I will admit a weakness about my career field and this year there you have two movies about journalists: “Spotlight,” which received rave reviews and award nominations and “Truth,” which disappeared from theaters without much attention.

Both are well made with great casts. Both depict a team of journalists going after a story with some hard truth. In one film, “Spotlight,” the reporters in question are hailed as heroes. In “Truth,” the team of reporters all lose their jobs.

“Truth” depicts how a story broadcast on “60 Minutes Wednesday” about President George W. Bush’s career with the Texas Air National Guard in 2004 was developed and how it blew up in the faces of the producers and reporters. The incident essentially caused longtime CBS reporter and anchor Dan Rather to resign.

The film was based on the book “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power” by the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, a highly successful news producer who left television after this incident.

The release of the well-crafted film met controversy as CBS officials accused the filmmakers of a film that didn’t live up to its title.

At the core of the story are several concepts many people in this industry face: how much news is affected by corporate concerns and is it ever wise to go with a story when there could be some doubts about the documents that corroborate it?

For the record, Rather and Mapes are included in an extra feature in which they insist they did nothing wrong. Rather did an interview with CNN as well with the release of the film reiterating this belief.

Regardless it is a compelling, and thought-provoking movie to watch with a fine performance by Cate Blanchett as Mapes.