Despite top billing, Scarlett Johansson's appearance in this film is actually quite brief. Johansson shows up in only two scenes; one toward the beginning and one toward the end of the movie, as a haughty, rambunctious actress who has become pregnant out of wedlock, forcing Josh Brolin's Eddie Mannix to scramble to find a way to preserve her reputation and image. Nevertheless, it's an amusing and character-y showing, and Hail, Caesar! is otherwise a lot of fun regardless.

The Cohen brothers are in typical form here; utilizing many of their usual players to portray the exploits of a put-upon studio boss in 1950s Hollywood attempting to wrap production on an ostentatious swords-and-sandals picture as he wrangles a lot full of difficult actors and directors and navigates an increasingly ridiculous series of events over the course of a single day. Hail, Caesar! appears to be cut from similar cloth to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in that the focus is less on a straightforward narrative and more about performances from a cast of quirky characters (though here the bulk of the portrayals are suggestions of famous figures from the time as opposed to outright likenesses) and entertaining pastiches of mid-century cinematic entertainment.

As much homage as it is parody, this film's brand of comedy is satisfyingly understated and drawn primarily from comically stilted character interactions. Highlights include George Clooney's turn as a clueless Hollywood hunk who finds himself kidnapped by a bumbling Communist collective, Tilda Swinton as a pair of twin sisters hounding Mannix for fodder for competing gossip columns, and Alden Ehrenreich as a western-movie star hilariously miscast in a high-society comedy. A sequence depicting clergymen of different faiths bickering over the nature of the almighty when asked for their opinion on the titular film's script had me rolling, and Ralph Fiennes' affectatious European director exasperatedly trying to coach Ehrenreich's hopelessly drawly cowboy on how to properly deliver a line was absolutely classic comedy. Hail, Caesar! perfectly executes the type of humor native to the time it portrays while simultaneously lampooning the paradigms of the era.

Indeed, the production's faithful recreation of 1950s film aesthetics is a solid source of entertainment in itself. It nails the pastels and bright lighting of high-end productions of the time, and every film-within-the-film is staged with period-appropriate flair. George Clooney lends himself rather naturally to melodramatic monologuing as a Roman officer in the titular production (I can't unsee his resemblance to John Saxon after this), Scarlett Johansson's synchronized-swimming introduction is amusingly gaudy and overproduced, and I confess that watching Channing Tatum (quite capably!) engage in a classic Gene Kelly-esque song and dance number as part of a South Pacific-style musical was unashamedly one of my favorite parts of the film.

For an entry in a series of Scarlett Johansson movies that ended up featuring very little of Scarlett herself, Hail, Caesar! ended up being one of my favorites of those I hadn't previously seen.