There’s nothing coherent about this movie. But who cares.
The main idea is the day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin). Man, how
many years has it been since he was Brand in “The Goonies”? Damn, what a
career.
Anyway, it takes place at a time when actors who got in
trouble, a “fixer” would come in and spin stories, bribe or bully things to
happen. He seemed to have been the most powerful man in Hollywood, given a man
who can bend rules to suit his overlord. A disembodied painting that hangs on
the walls of Capitol Pictures (which if you recall, is the name of the studio
John Turturro writes for in “Barton Fink).
Well, the
biggest star in Hollywood, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) has been kidnapped,
and they want a ransom. Along the way to make a deal with this mysterious
group, Mannix has to put out local fires. A few examples, weave a Roy Rogers
type to a Chiquita Banana sweetheart, hide the illegitimate pregnancy of an
foul mouth Ethel Merman, keep twin gossip columnist sisters at bay from
printing these stories…I smile, even as I write the absurdity of it. But what
it comes down to, is that Hollywood is always stranger than anything they can
portray. Much like a lot of the Coen Brothers movies, it has a simple naïve
sweetness to the people. They’re well meaning oddballs. The idiosyncratic
nature of our beings are tapped. And the most unlikely of good willed folk see
unsavory behavior.
It’s great to see a less serious Coen Bros. flick. Movies
like “Fargo” & “No Country For Old Men” are classic, but really hard to
watch because of the gruesome nature of humanity. This is the more playful side
I smile throughout. Specifically since a lot has inside Hollywood production
humor, which felt like a wink from them to me.
Fun stuff.
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