1) Hail Caesar! – “Would That It Were So Simple”
Hail Caesar!, the Coen brothers’ comic mystery set in 1950s Hollywood, isn’t likely to be remembered as one of their all-time classics. Mostly it’s something of an oddity, a chance for the duo to take a crack at several genres at once, while throwing in all their famous friends for what seems like a good time had by all.
Save for one sequence, Hail Caesar! is throwaway – but what a sequence that is, a work of comic genius that’s expertly written and perfectly played by Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich. As Ehrenreich’s clueless B-movie actor fails to come to grips with the period drama he’s been dropped into to lead, struggling with just the first line, Fiennes’ artiste director only becomes more and more exasperated. No one scene this year has been laugh-out-loud funnier.