Short Takes: Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Hail, Caesar!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I have to say up front that I didn't expect to enjoy the J.J. Abrams re-boot of the legendary Star Wars franchise. Although I have seen every Star Wars movie on the big screen in original release, I was never a true fan of the films. My favorite is still The Empire Strikes Back. Since that film I have found each successive chapter a bit weak. I even thought Return of the Jedi was disappointing (like many others, too many cuddly creatures made it seem too much like a Muppet movie to me), and forget about the most recent three. In fact, I think I fell asleep during the Attack of the Clones. The latest entry, however, kept me thoroughly riveted from start to finish. I left the theater believing that the best thing that happened to the franchise is that is got taken from of the clutches of Darth Vader ... uh, George Lucas.

The biggest asset Abrams made was to bring back the original characters: Luke Skywalker, Princess--now General--Leia Organa, and, last but far from least, Han Solo along with faithful sidekicks, Chewbacca, C3PO, and R2D2. Of all these, Harrison Ford's Han Solo nearly steals the film, much like he did the first three movies, but for a different reason. Ford brings a world weary been-there-done-that quality that he didn't have in the original trilogy. It also helps that he has the best lines.

Carrie Fisher--looking more like her mom, Debbie Reynolds, than ever--is ok as General Leia, though, I unfortunately found her head, with its piled up hairstyle, to resemble E.T. As for Luke--I don't think I'm spoiling anything since the whole world saw the movie before I did--he doesn't show until the end, thereby setting him up as a major player in the next installment.

The other major players--new to the show--are Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron; John Boyega as Finn; Daisy Ridley as Rey; and Adam Driver as the villain-with-a-big-secret, Kylo Ren. It's a credit to Abrams and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt that I enjoyed meeting these new characters almost as much as I did catching up with the older ones.

This matte painting is a great example of the art work in the new Star Wars film.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens lived up to the hype, something few films achieve. After nearly forty years, it appears the Force really is still with us. The original Star Wars changed movie-going--and movies--forever, arguably not all in good ways, but The Force Awakens is well on its way to being one of the most successful films of all time. Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.


Hail, Caesar!

Featured players in Hail, Caesar!: George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin

Joel and Ethan Coen have been creating their unique film universe for more than thirty years. Beginning with the low budget, neo-noir, Blood Simple, the siblings have consistently balanced drama and comedy, sometimes simultaneously. Fargo remains the best example of the Coen Brothers' style, blending gruesome blood-letting and wacky, semi-comedic characters, though it is closely followed by their biggest cult film, The Big Lebowski. Though less successful in its original release that Fargo, Lebowski, a reworking of the classic noir The Big Sleep, is a prime example of Coenesque cinema with its detailed plots, dark humor, and quirky characters.

Hail, Caesar!, the Coen's latest--and their tenth film in eighteen years--is a peek into the studio system of 1950s Hollywood, a time when the town was starting to feel the effects of television but hadn't yet lost its grip on the movie-going public. Like 1950's Tinseltown, in the world of Hail, Caesar!, image is all, gossip columns rule, and Communists are a clear and present danger. The film's central figure is Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), chief troubleshooter for the fictional Capitol Pictures. Mannix's main concern is the disappearance of leading man, Baird Whitlock, (George Clooney), who is making the biblical epic, Hail, Caesar, A Tale of the Christ, and has been kidnapped by a collective group of Communist screenwriters. Along the way we meet assorted Hollywood types, including Esther Williams-like aquatic star, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson); twin gossip columnists, Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton in a dual role); singing cowboy star, Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich); singing and dancing star, Bert Gurney (Channing Tatum); and sophisticated film director, Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).

In one of the films funniest scenes, cowboy star, Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich),
tries to perfect a line reading from sophisticated director, Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).

Due to its classic Hollywood setting, Hail, Caesar! most closely resembles the Coen's 1991 ode to pre-war Hollywood, Barton Fink. Though not as dark as that earlier film, Hail, Caesar! is a bittersweet valentine to a long-gone Hollywood, and it's clear from several of the brothers films--Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Blood Simple, The Hudsucker Proxy--that the Coens have a love and appreciation of classic film and Hollywood history. What makes the movie fascinating for film buffs like me is where fact ends and dramatic license begins. For example, Clooney's Whitlock is a take on Charlton Heston by way of Robert Taylor; Brolin's Mannix is based on the real-life Eddie Mannix, an MGM studio executive from the 1920s until the early 1960s, though without the threat of violence the real-life Mannix carried with him; and DeeAnna Moran's film-within-a-film is a clear take-off of the aquatic spectacle Esther Williams made so popular, yet Moran is nothing like the real-life Williams.

The film is an ensemble piece, but I want to single out a couple of standouts. Ralph Fiennes as director, Laurence Laurentz, is terrific in little more than a cameo; Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle is the epitome of an innocent cowboy star in way over his head when he's brought in to make a drawing room comedy; and best of all, Channing Tatum as the singing and dancing Gene Kelly-type was the biggest surprise of the film for me. His song and dance interlude, which stops the show, must have been included by the Coens simply because they enjoyed the set piece so much. Mr. Tatum astounded me as well. In my opinion, he is one of today's few stars who not only could have survived in the studio system but actually could have flourished in it.

Studio fixer, Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) counsels bathing beauty,
DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson).

Hail, Caesar! may leave moviegoers unfamiliar with Hollywood history scratching their heads, wondering what all the fuss is about. But for students of the classic Hollywood studio system, it's refreshing to see a plot-driven film with fun, eccentric characters and juicy dialogue released into the mainstream without all the explosives and comic book mentality so often found in today's multiplexes. Hail, Caesar!, like 1994's The Hudsucker Proxy, reminds me of a screwball Preston Sturges film.

Auteurism has essentially disappeared from American cinema since its glory days in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, with film critics disappearing from major news publications and audience interest focused so much on franchise films, Hollywood just doesn't seem to have room for the unique, individual style of an auteur. With the exception of Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Wes Anderson, and David Fincher, most directors today are staying afloat via blockbuster-style movies. The Coen Brothers are one of the last of their kind--genuine auteurs concerned with their own world, themes, and obsessions. Hail, Caesar! may not be a perfect example of the particular brand of cinematic drug they push, but in this day and age it is nevertheless a welcome, refreshing high.