Hail Caesar!

I've just been to see the latest Coen brothers film, Hail Caesar! - and I have to report that I was laughing from the first scene to the last. Indeed I can't remember when I last laughed so much at a (new) film. Some people - including even my old friend Bryan - have been left cold by this one, but I can't for the life of me imagine why. Viewed simply as a spoof on Fifties Hollywood, it's ridiculously well done, with deep and true affection and an acute eye for the absurd - better than even Mel Brooks in similar vein. But I think Hail Caesar! is a whole lot more than a spoof. In fact it can be construed - if construing's what you want to do - as a serious comic exploration of the nature of three dream factories or roads to redemption or paths to a higher form of life: Hollywood, communism and (specifically Catholic) Christianity. All, to different degrees, delusive; all, to different degrees, true - well, all except one (clue: it's the one in the middle). And all funny.
Anyway, I loved it - and the casting was brilliant, the performances great, the look of the thing, the script, the editing, the music, the narration... Hail, Coens!