52 Pick-Up #19 – Hail, Caesar! (2016)

 Don't compare the release date to now. Don't compare the release date to now. Don't compare the--

Oh, hi!

Welcome back to 52 Pick-Up, my coming-up-on-halfway bid to keep myself doing some form of writing and working through my cinematic to do list project that I'll eventually find a clever short hand for. Until then, you're stuck with this.

With May now fully underway, I'm coming into this week's title off of two weeks of John Waters. In one way, this is a fitting jump as it is going into the works I'd missed from another acclaimed American director (okay, directors.) In another, going from John Waters to the Coen Brothers is a shift I didn't see coming when I started this. Can't complain, really – I picked the shuffle approach in part to keep things from getting into a rut, so this is performing exactly as intended.

So, as I leave the delightful chaos of Mortville in the rearview, it's time to let Joel and Ethan Coen take the wheel and head to the west coast for a change in time zone and...well...time, with their old Hollywood caper Hail, Caesar!

As of this writing, it's been a few days since I watched this movie, and I've been pondering how to proceed in terms of focus. Normally this is the point where I tend to give a pitch of just what the movie is about, that will still be happening. But what this movie is about is also, the more I think about it, a big part of what I wanted to focus on here. Going in, I had avoided trying to look up too much on the plot, at most allowing some memory of the promotion on its initial release.

Looking back at it now, especially on having rewatched the trailers after the movie, that was the smart decision, which brings us to what this film is about.

Hail, Caesar! takes us into the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), head of production at a Hollywood studio in the 1950s – a job that is as much about fixing up messes behind the camera as it is making sure everything in front goes to design. Mannix has his hands full in a number of areas – one talent has gotten pregnant out of wedlock, another is being woefully miscast in an attempt to change his image, and the star of his big budget epic (George Clooney, continuing his streak of lovable buffoons with the Coens) being kidnapped. All this as Mannix jockeys a potential job offer that would trade the hectic world of the arts for a more stable world in airlines.

At the time of the movie, the offer is with just Lockheed, 
so it's not AS morally dubious a choice yet.

As I was watching this, I was struck by those memories of the promotions on this movie and why it seemed like they were putting more emphasis on Clooney's storyline.

So I went back and rewatched that trailer – and realized they didn't just overemphasize it, they actively recut it to make it feel like that storyline was the whole movie. To the point where it plays several of the people involved as though they're part of this wild plan to solve the kidnapping.

Which suddenly made the cold audience reception make a lot more sense. I get that marketing had a challenge on this one – the movie as it is is essentially more of a 'a few days in the life of' story, where the central conflict everything hangs on isn't if Mannix will get his epic's leading man back but rather if he will take the job offer that will get him out of the movie business. Yes, the kidnapping storyline is presented as the biggest hurdle Mannix has to navigate, and that is less the crime and more keeping his studio's big tentpole picture afloat and free of scandal (externalized best in Tilda Swinton double billed as two competing gossip columnists each trying to get a behind the scenes exclusive.) The stakes are less about what becomes of the star and more the movie within the movie. The Coens even play into that with the repeated cuts back to Clooney and his kidnappers – where the closest thing to any danger may depend on how the audience feels about the idea of a 1950s actor learning some of the basics of communism.

In true Coen fashion, there's something genuinely
entertaining about the fact that, for all their
in-fighting and practical ineptitude, they actually succeed (sort of.)

I could tell this wasn't the movie I remembered them selling in 2016, even before actively revisiting the marketing. Having said that, I didn't mind that. In fact, I think I actually preferred this version. Yes, I would have been interested to see what the Coens could have done with that flavor of movie where it is a giant kidnapping caper, but I also feel like this kind of a character study is still very much in their wheelhouse. 

Additionally, for all the star power that goes into this cast (alongside Clooney, the cast also sports Scarlett Johannson, Channing Tatum, Alden Ehrenreich and a pre-troubles Jonah Hill), there's something that feels appropriate about the fact the movie is centered on Josh Brolin – an actor who has led movies, but marketing never quite managed to make into a big name in quite the level of the people cast as on-screen talent. In fact, one of the things I've pretty consistently appreciated about Brolin is he has had something of a chameleon streak that lets him disappear into a role that is an asset in this case. He comes across believably as a put upon producer whose need to keep his actors' problems out of the public eye requires him to be an on the ground fixer as well as a dealmaker. It's the normal guy in the movie surrounded by larger than life figures and he helps ground it well.

Also, I know it's gotten its laurels in general, but it bears
repeating - damn, Channing Tatum is a very pleasant surprise
in this entertaining song and dance number.

I know this movie does have its defenders, but it's also one I hope more people come back around on if it left them cold when it first came out. Yes, the Coens have made better, but this is still a very solid entry in their work (from what I have seen, there are other gaps to fill ahead!)

But, the works of Joel and Ethan will have to wait for another time as I wrap this week up. Don't worry though, the lighter tone is keeping up next week, if in a VERY different direction.

See you next week where I'm taking on a movie that has been on my to do list for years and I'm excited to finally see it – the cult favorite Japanese zombie rock and roll movie, Wild Zero.

Till then.

Blood Simple (1984) - Breaking Up Is Hard Enough To Do Without the Psychopathic Hitman

Welcome back. Again, I'm surprised to be back here this early, but it's a good surprised.

As discussed last time, this marks the official kick-off on the Criterion backlog project (I'll need to come up with a snappier name for this in the future.)

Also, as promised, we're kicking things off with Famous Firsts, and fittingly, this pick is actually a movie of several famous firsts.

Blood Simple is, first and foremost, remembered as the directorial debut for Joel and Ethan Coen (though Joel is the only one of the two credited). Besides that, the film is also the acting debut of Frances McDormand – marking several collaborations and an eventual marriage to Joel - and the first feature film cinematography for Barry Sonnenfeld (if we're being technical, he worked on a documentary called In Our Water before this.)

With all that praise built up in its wake, one would almost worry the movie itself can't live up to what followed (and let's be clear, there has been some genuinely great work to come from these people since.) Fortunately, even watched with that legacy in mind, Blood Simple still holds up quite well, both as a first feature as well as just a general part of the larger Coen filmography.

As has become a pattern for me (and will continue with these) I'll start with an aspect of this hadn't really caught on to before (at least where rewatches are concerned.) In this case, the surprisingly lean nature of the film is something I'd never really properly take in before. A handful of principle players, a few key locales – three in particular – and a fairly grim, darkly comic tale of an affair and the Hell unleashed when the husband finds out. Granted, this is a neo-noir, so there are twists in store, but even those twists feel like logical extensions of the way the best laid plans of the movie's players all slowly go awry, rather than feeling like an arbitrary twist to keep the movie rolling.

There's still something darkly funny to me about the fact
that future couple Frances McDormand and Joel Coen first worked
together on a movie that starts from an affair then ends in a body count.

With that, I do have to give a shout-out to the players as they run through the movie's blood-soaked comedy of errors (I'll stand by this description, dammit.) Again, this was feature debut for Frances McDormand, and even before considering her later career (hello, future Oscar winner) she hits the ground running, carrying a role that could have been largely forgettable in less capable hands. As the two men making up the other sides of this movie's deadly love triangle, John Getz and Dan Hedaya likewise both shine, with Hedaya in particular straddling the line with a short fuse that can go from comic to dangerous as the scene calls for it.

As the supporting cast goes, I made it a point watching to give a shout-out to Samm-Art Williams. Besides having a great introductory scene (semi-related, this movie has left “It's the Same Old Song” stuck in my head for the past week), he takes on the relatively thankless role of being the movie's voice of reason and makes him a genuinely sympathetic, at times exasperated figure watching this drama play out from the sidelines.

Finally, yes, he needs his own paragraph, we have M. Emmet Walsh, the first in a long line of characters I have take to referring to as the Coen Brothers Nightmare Squad (without giving a full roster, I will say off the bat John Goodman in Barton Fink is part of the starting line.) Like McDormand, Walsh has a role that can fly or fall easily based on how it's played. In this case, Walsh plays the villainous Lorren with a sort of sick glee. He's definitely not going to turn down being paid for his services, but there is also a sense he is genuinely enjoying what he does even without the financial incentive. He goes from spy to assassin for Hedaya without even skipping a beat – it's a sick game to him and he is having the most fun out of anyone playing it.

One will protect you
One will stop at nothing to end your life
By the time you figure out which is which, it's already too late.

Part of why I had to give Visser his own paragraph, besides the fact that it's a Hell of a performance, is that the character is a big part of why Blood Simple stands out for me. The three leads are all well written and likable – even if I'll always first and foremost associate Getz with his later role in The Fly – but it's the dash of chaos and horror that is added by Visser that really ratchets the movie up, both from the obvious fact he is the devil on Hedaya's shoulder, as well as from the 'all bets are off' feeling that sinks in as he clearly starts running his own plans counter to those around him. That feeling marks the first of many times in the Coens' career where their filmography has flirted with horror without going full tilt into it.

With that said, I have to give a shout-out to another first here – this marks the first of a long list of collaborations composer Carter Burwell has had with the brothers, and while it's not his first movie period, his score is a great fit for the movie's slow shift into increasingly more chilling territory. While not as much of a earworm as the film's use of The Four Tops, I'd be lying if I said the piano score in this has not also stuck with me.

Honestly, the more I let this sink in, the more this really felt like the perfect pick to start this project off. It's a genuinely well made film that launched several careers, and even just within its own confines, goes well with evolving from a noir about infidelity before taking a violent turn care of a human devil in a cowboy hat.

That's as far as I can safely put it without spoiling anything, but I feel satisfied with it.

With a few days left in January, we've got another notable directorial debut on the docket for this weekend.

See you then!