The Coen brothers have returned with a new offering, the wispy comedy “Hail, Caesar!,” which doubles down on the duo’s typical brand of silliness. In fact, the movie moves through it’s plot without ever culminating to a boiling point.

The film centers on Eddie Mannix, played by Josh Brolin (“Sicario”), a movie studio fixer who is going through a bit of a crisis. Eddie isn’t thrilled about committing sins throughout his working day as is, evident by his frequent visits to the confession booth. Along the way he must solve several issues the studio is facing, chiefly the mysterious abduction of star Baird Whitlock, played by George Clooney (“Tomorrowland”).

Brolin plays Mannix with charisma and wit, highlighted by his fast talking, problem solving scenes. Mannix is always in control and the film makes that quite clear.

Throughout the film, Mannix encounters several looney side characters, an all-star cast including Scarlett Johansson (“Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Ralph Fiennes (“Spectre”), Jonah Hill (“22 Jump Street”), Tilda Swinton (“Trainwreck”) and Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike XXL”). None of them have incredibly substantial roles in the film, they are simply problems for Mannix to solve. Each is handed a few scenes to bask in the limelight and each actor crushes their role.

Clooney is handed his own set of scenes and storylines, which leads to some of the film’s funniest sequences. His natural charm makes Whitlock’s movie star persona incredibly believable, while it’s clear that he relishes playing dumb characters like Whitlock.

Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich (“Beautiful Creatures”) is given the other lead role as Western-turned dramatic actor Hobie Doyle. Hobie is a typical “aw shucks” type, which Ehrenreich plays with such kindness that his puppy eyes nearly melt your heart. Hobie’s over polite style leads to an excellent scene shared with Fiennes’ in-film director Laurence Laurentz. He gives the audience a character to root for aside from Mannix and is the film’s most likable character.

Aside from the excellent work by the cast, “Caesar!” looks beautiful. The brothers truly capture the look of 1950s Hollywood, and splendid shots are sprinkled throughout the movie’s 100 minute run time.

One particular scene that stands out is Johansson’s DeeAnna Moran filming an underwater sequence for her upcoming movie. The scene is shot and edited beautifully.

Another beautiful scene features Clooney’s Whitlock waking in his abductor’s safe house and wandering throughout the house. The way the sun hits the beach house is radiant and screams southern California.

While the film is acted and shot beautifully, the main point of criticism stems from the story’s relative lack of cohesion. Side characters flow in and out of the story, without much of a point aside from giving their actors an opportunity to shine and providing Mannix with an opportunity to display his competency. Ultimately the film’s doesn’t have stakes that rise very high, though this may be intentional to keep the film’s atmosphere light.

“Caesar!” does offer up many ideas, such as religious factions becoming offensive and communism. However, similar to its many secondary characters, none of the ideas get fully developed as they are instead dropped in favor of the next idea in line. Despite this, the film is paced quite briskly which keeps the experience well in the range of enjoyable.

Ultimately “Hail, Caesar!” is a film with a great collection of scenes that don’t quite add up to a cohesive story, but an incredibly entertaining piece of art. The acting and directing are first rate, while the story takes a few too many detours that don’t completely pay off. It plays into typical Coen tropes of screwball characters and zany humor, without reaching the dark places some of their other films have reached. It’s a comedy through and through, one that you most certainly should not miss.
Rating: 4 out of 5