15 Best Original Movie Characters Of 2016
11. Hobie Doyle - Hail Caesar!
The Coen Brothers are masters of character work. It seems every time I'm writing this sort of list, one of their characters comes up (for instance, my 2013 list). And while Hail Caesar! was far from their strongest film, it had a least one unforgettable character in Hobie Doyle.
A singing cowboy à la Kirby Grant or Dean Martin, Hobie makes a living doing really cheesy Western roles. He is more comfortable playing the guitar or doing back-flips onto horses than he is with simply saying dialogue on camera. While his role in the film is only a B-plot at best, we get to see what happens when Hollywood tries to turn this young actor into a movie star. Relative newcomer Alden Ehrenreich sells the hell out of Hobie's discomfort playing a role in a chamber-piece drama, and taking a starlet out for dinner. He's charming, funny, and completely out of his element for all of these scenes.
He is also responsible for the best movie pun of the year. During his date, he ties a string of spaghetti into a lasso. If you do not get it, you're probably not the audience the Coen brothers were aiming for.