A light-hearted romp in homage to old-fashioned studio system

IT'S just another day in early-1950s Hollywood and Capitol Pictures' Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) has plenty on his plate. As Capitol's chief "fixer" he wields enormous power on the studio lot, making decisions about movies in production, keeping tabs on his stars and ensuring that no whiff of scandal reaches the industry's gossip columnists.

Eddie is a vital cog in the Capitol machine but he's a man of faith and first, he needs to go to confession. His guilt stems from sneaking one cigarette too many and not telling his wife - but he has no qualms about slapping movie stars round or resorting to unethical means in order to serve the studio better.

Welcome to Hail, Caesar!, a comic Hollywood fantasy written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It's a delicious, light-hearted romp in homage to the old-fashioned studio system, some of its key players and one character in particular. Eddie Mannix did actually exist, and during Hollywood's Golden Age he was a real-life fixer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, ruling the studio roost and running roughshod over anyone who got in the way.