Clancy Brown

HAIL, CAESAR: cool Hollywood parodies, but ultimately empty

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Alden Ehrenreich in HAIL, CAESAR
Alden Ehrenreich in HAIL, CAESAR

Here’s the problem with the Coen Brothers’ disappointingly empty comedy Hail, Caesar – there is no real story at its core.  The plot ostensibly centers on commies kidnapping a movie star and a studio exec mulling over a job outside the movie industry.  But these are contrived as an excuse to parody Old Hollywood and the movie conventions of the studio Golden Age.  And that’s not enough by itself to make up a really good movie.  At the end of Hail, Caesar, the guy sitting behind me said, “That’s it?”.

The parodies are well-executed, and the more you know about movies, the richer the laughs.  The characters are making a ponderously devout sword-and-sandal epic called Hail, Caesar, which is closely modeled on the 1959 Ben-Hur, right down to the subtitle of the source novel, “A Tale of the Christ”.   The epic stars a charismatic but shallow leading man, played well by George Clooney.  This part is funny.

So is a spectacularly executed Busby Berkeley number with Scarlett Johansson as an Esther Williams type aquatic movie star.  And Channing Tatum shines in a Gene Kelly-like song-and-dance set piece.  Later in the film, famed cinematographer Roger Eakins brilliantly lights Tatum as an icon of Soviet-era Socialist Realism.

By far the best part of Hail, Caesar is Alden Ehrenreich as a singing cowboy.  Where did they find this guy?  Ehrenreich is convincing and hilarious as he performs  tricks with his pistol, horse and lariat in a formula Western and then is forced to fit into a period costume for a drawing-room romantic drama.  It’s an exuberantly singular performance, and something we haven’t seen on-screen since Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers.

All of the actors are good here, including Josh Brolin as the lead, and Clooney, Johansson, Tatum, Ralph Fiennes and Tila Swinton.   Frances McDormand is wasted in a very brief physical comedy bit.   That old scene-stealer Clancy Brown, here growling as the actor playing Gracchus in the Hail, Caesar-in-the-movie-Hail, Caesar shows why he’s one of my favorite character actors

There are always expectations of a Coen Brothers film, because of their masterpieces: Fargo, True Grit, Blood Simple and their seriously underrrated A Serious Man.  Plus there’s the critical favorite No Country for Old Men and the cult fave The Big Lebowski.  But they’ve also made some more forgettable fare (Inside Llewyn Davis, Burn After Reading) and Hail, Caesar is one of them.

Bottom line:  if you want to enjoy a string of first class movie parodies, see Hail, Caesar.  If you’re looking for something more, skip it.

DVD/Stream of the Week: At Any Price

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Dennis Quaid in AT ANY PRICE

At Any Price is – at long last – a movie about today’s Farm Belt that farmers will recognize. American cinema has been romanticizing the small family farm for at least a quarter century since, to survive, US farmers have moved on to industrial scale agribusiness (with all its tradeoffs). The corporate farmer at the center of At Any Price is Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid). Henry is a driven man, consumed by a need to have the biggest farm and to sell the most genetically modified corn seeds in southern Iowa. Henry is also stupendously selfish, utterly tone-deaf to the needs of anyone else.

Despite Henry’s dream to hand the business to one of his two sons, they despise him. The older son has avoided conflict by escaping to a vagabond life in international mountain climbing. The younger son, Dean (Zac Efron), plans his escape as a NASCAR driver and seems well on his path. Stuck on the farm for now, he can barely tolerate his father’s incessant grasping. But he’s small town royalty, he’s got a pretty girlfriend (Maika Monroe) and he’s as good-looking as Zac Efron, so life isn’t unbearable.

But Henry’s smug perch on top of the haystack is not as impregnable as it would seem. Along the way, he has cut some corners and stepped on other people, and it catches up to him. Henry’s empire threatens to topple, Dean clutches at his big career chance, and the two men – each and together – must react to developments that they never saw coming. Writer-director Ramin Bahrani spins a deeply authentic psychological drama as each man is forced into some uncomfortable self-examination.

It’s interesting that such a realistic exploration of New Agriculture in Middle America comes from Bahrani. Himself North Carolina-born, he has used nonprofessional actors to make three brilliant movies about struggling immigrants in America: Chop Shop, Man Push Cart and Goodbye, Solo. Goodbye, Solo was #5 on my list of Best Movies of 2009. Here’s a recent interview with Bahrani in the New York Times touching on At Any Price.

One of Bahrani’s insights is that the impacts of today’s capitalism aren’t necessarily from the malevolently rapacious (like Henry F. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life), but from the indifference of the selfish. With almost every step that he takes, Henry Whipple screws other folks, but he’s convinced himself that he’s a prince of a guy.

At Any Price is a showcase for Quaid and Efron. Quaid’s portrayal of Henry is brilliantly textured, projecting a self-righteous bluster which barely masks the desperation threatening to erupt through his pores. And I’ve come to always look forward to seeing Efron, who, in Me and Orson Welles, The Paperboy and Liberal Arts, has proven that he is more than just the pretty boy of High School Musical.

Bahrani’s actors have taken full advantage of his screenplay. The character of Dean’s girlfriend is especially well-written. Beginning as a simple teen from a broken family looking for some fun, her journey takes several surprising turns. The actress Maika Monroe pulls it off with a memorable performance. In many ways, the story is anchored by Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Treme) as Henry’s wife and Zac’s mom, resolutely dragging her men out of their self-created sinkholes. Veteran character actor Clancy Brown (the guy has 209 acting credits on IMDb) is superb as Henry’s chief rival.

We are left with two men who finally must appreciate who they really are, whether we like them or whether they like themselves. After seeing At Any Price, I didn’t leave the theater thrilled, but that’s probably because a brilliant examination of two ambiguous men is more thought-provoking than stirring. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

At Any Price is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Xbox Video, YouTube and Google Play.

At Any Price: psychological drama on the corporate farm

by
Dennis Quaid in AT ANY PRICE

At Any Price is – at long last – a movie about today’s Farm Belt that farmers will recognize.  American cinema has been romanticizing the small family farm for at least a quarter century since, to survive, US farmers have moved on to industrial scale agribusiness (with all its tradeoffs).  The corporate farmer at the center of At Any Price is Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid).  Henry is a driven man, consumed by a need to have the biggest farm and to sell the most genetically modified corn seeds in southern Iowa.   Henry is also stupendously selfish, utterly tone-deaf to the needs of anyone else.

Despite Henry’s dream to hand the business to one of his two sons, they despise him. The older son has avoided conflict by escaping to a vagabond life in international mountain climbing.  The younger son, Dean (Zac Efron), plans his escape as a NASCAR driver and seems well on his path.  Stuck on the farm for now, he can barely tolerate his father’s incessant grasping.  But he’s small town royalty, he’s got a pretty girlfriend (Maika Monroe) and he’s as good-looking as Zac Efron, so life isn’t unbearable. 

But Henry’s smug perch on top of the haystack is not as impregnable as it would seem.   Along the way, he has cut some corners and stepped on other people, and it catches up to him.  Henry’s empire threatens to topple, Dean clutches at his big career chance, and the two men – each and together – must react to developments that they never saw coming.  Writer-director Ramin Bahrani spins a deeply authentic psychological drama as each man is forced into some uncomfortable self-examination.

It’s interesting that such a realistic exploration of New Agriculture in Middle America comes from Bahrani.  Himself North Carolina-born, he has used nonprofessional actors to make three brilliant movies about struggling immigrants in America:  Chop Shop, Man Push Cart and Goodbye, Solo. Goodbye, Solo was #5 on my list of Best Movies of 2009.  Here’s a recent interview with Bahrani in the New York Times touching on At Any Price.

One of Bahrani’s insights is that the impacts of today’s capitalism aren’t necessarily from the malevolently rapacious (like Henry F. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life), but from the indifference of the selfish.  With almost every step that he takes, Henry Whipple screws other folks, but he’s convinced himself that he’s a prince of a guy.

At Any Price is a showcase for Quaid and Efron.  Quaid’s portrayal of Henry is brilliantly textured, projecting a self-righteous bluster which barely masks the desperation threatening to erupt through his pores.  And I’ve come to always look forward to seeing Efron, who, in Me and Orson Welles, The Paperboy and Liberal Arts, has proven that he is more than just the pretty boy of High School Musical.

Bahrani’s actors have taken full advantage of his screenplay.  The character of Dean’s girlfriend is especially well-written.  Beginning as a simple teen from a broken family looking for some fun, her journey takes several surprising turns.  The actress Maika Monroe pulls it off with a memorable performance.  In many ways, the story is anchored by Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Treme) as Henry’s wife and Zac’s mom, resolutely dragging her men out of their self-created sinkholes.  Veteran character actor Clancy Brown (the guy has 209 acting credits on IMDb) is superb as Henry’s chief rival.

We are left with two men who finally must appreciate who they really are, whether we like them or whether they like themselves.  After seeing At Any Price, I didn’t leave the theater thrilled, but that’s probably because a brilliant examination of two ambiguous men is more thought-provoking than stirring.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.