Hail, Caesar! (2016) feels both enamoured with and contemptuous of post-war ’50s Hollywood, revelling in the sleaze and skulduggery behind the charade as a nostalgia piece, whilst also informing us that it’s still how the edifice operates.
Eddie Mannix is flatteringly portrayed by Josh Brolin as a reluctant fixer plagued by Catholic guilt, but it works because of the sharks swimming around him. Brolin excels at these roles, capturing just the right combination of the smarmy and the sentimental. It’s a loose telling of events, as anything deeper would result in a murkier film.
As a pure comedy, it’s very funny. And every Hobie Doyle scene is hilarious. A snippet:
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 