I just rewatched Hail, Caesar! from 2016 and found it this time around to be almost a perfect movie, a gentle satire about a Hollywood studio in the early 1950s trying to complete the shooting of a Biblical epic when the movie’s lead actor (played by George Clooney) is kidnapped. The studio head (Josh Brolin) almost seems like a doofus at first but is really the key to the studio’s success (and the movie).
Some of the pleasures of this movie are the scenes we get to see from other movies the studio is shooting that are typical of the era: a cowboy and his horse (Alden Ehrenreich), a water ballet (Scarlett Johansson), a musical number with dancing sailors (Channing Tatum), and rehearsal for a stage-play drama where the director (Ralph Fiennes) attempts to get the recently-added cowboy actor to say his line the way a member of high society might.
Joel and Ethan Coen have revisited the Hollywood of the past in earlier movies, such as Barton Fink (and even the bowling dream sequence in The Big Lebowski). Here it’s a funny take on the industry, and Brolin, with his little mustache, is just great.
A Stitch in Time almost sounds like a sci-fi sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, but it’s actually a six-part BBC documentary series by Amber Butchart, who calls herself a “fashion historian.”
I would just say historian, as this is real history viewed through the lens of clothing that people wore in the past and its associated technologies. She focuses on a particular garment in each episode and even enlists artisans to re-create the garment for her to try on.
I found this series far more interesting than I ever would have expected.
And a movie to watch:
I just rewatched Hail, Caesar! from 2016 and found it this time around to be almost a perfect movie, a gentle satire about a Hollywood studio in the early 1950s trying to complete the shooting of a Biblical epic when the movie’s lead actor (played by George Clooney) is kidnapped. The studio head (Josh Brolin) almost seems like a doofus at first but is really the key to the studio’s success (and the movie).
Some of the pleasures of this movie are the scenes we get to see from other movies the studio is shooting that are typical of the era: a cowboy and his horse (Alden Ehrenreich), a water ballet (Scarlett Johansson), a musical number with dancing sailors (Channing Tatum), and rehearsal for a stage-play drama where the director (Ralph Fiennes) attempts to get the recently-added cowboy actor to say his line the way a member of high society might.
Joel and Ethan Coen have revisited the Hollywood of the past in earlier movies, such as Barton Fink (and even the bowling dream sequence in The Big Lebowski). Here it’s a funny take on the industry, and Brolin, with his little mustache, is just great.
Available on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUUKtF_BF0
A Stitch in Time almost sounds like a sci-fi sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, but it’s actually a six-part BBC documentary series by Amber Butchart, who calls herself a “fashion historian.”
I would just say historian, as this is real history viewed through the lens of clothing that people wore in the past and its associated technologies. She focuses on a particular garment in each episode and even enlists artisans to re-create the garment for her to try on.
I found this series far more interesting than I ever would have expected.
Available on Amazon Prime.