Suburbicon

Graham Craycraft

 Suburbicon is directed by George Clooney, written by Clooney and the Coen Brothers, and is set in 1959 in the community of Suburbicon which models Anytown USA.
The film balances two levels of plot which seems at first to be poorly executed, but on further study and thought it is executed mediocrely. There is a clear cut racial issue of a black family moving into the solely white lived community of Suburbicon. Matt Damon’s character, Gardner Lodge,  and his family deal with the tragedy of losing his wife to violent criminals and those criminals are also looked into with some detail. Clooney’s different plot channels would be better suited to separate movies. He weakly, or absently, mixes in the race issue with the study of the Lodge’s family. They only work together in a few scenes which I’ll let you get to on your own as they would spoil some level of the movie.


With great acting and one well thought out storyline Suburbicon is a good movie. Damon, who played the father and husband, Moore, who played both the wife and sister in law to Damon’s character, and Noah Jupe, who played Nicky the son, all gave excellent performances that made me want to see them in more. Damon shows his range of acting skill and Jupe delivered some of the best child acting I’ve seen. But my favorite performance was by far Oscar Isaac. The Coen brothers love their actors and Isaac’s short appearance in this film is exceptional.


The Coens definitely know what they’re doing and they’ve shown it time and again. Hard to know who had more hand in the integration of the two storylines, but I would expect better from the Coens. This movie is reminiscent of Burn After Reading (another Coen film) but with more serious overtones and almost none of the funny. Both remind me of a Shakespearean story in the endings, but Burn After Reading delivered its pain with a much needed comic relief. Suburbicon’s pain is masked with more pain. Which can work and again, I’ll let you decide. If these stories of racial conflict and the Lodge’s were two separate beings, then both movies would on their way to working quite well. And even though I don’t like to give ratings often, in this case I will. 6.5/10.

Go see and let me know what you think.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Panther: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

Image
By Michael Momper Let me start by saying this: Black Panther does not need to be pandered. It does not need a patronizing pat on the back. It is, in my opinion, a very good movie- and that is all that matters in the world of art. Fresh off of his tremendous first two directorial features, Fruitvale Station and the immensely popular Rocky sequel Creed , director Ryan Coogler is back, but in a very different setting. Being that it is a Marvel movie, expectations are sky-high as always- but with those expectations comes the free reigns of a massive budget. This is a sizable challenge for a young director, who has to tell a completely new origin story, make us interested in the character, and rise to the demands of the typical Marvel fandom. As such, Coogler certainly delivered in spades. Black Panther features a different sort of protagonist, one who is decidedly more mild-tempered and noble than the likes of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, etc. For this reason, the human touch a...
Read more

Hit Man: Movie Review (Warning: Contains Spoilers)

Image
  By Michael Momper Can a movie be morally irresponsible? Where should we draw that line? I submit to you that it can, and I think you will agree. Consider two subjects: tone and content. When a movie's tone is problematic, even if the intentions are good, we might have a compromised piece of art. Consider a movie about a real serial killer that fumbles the tone so badly that you actually root for the killer, or find him charming and likeable. Rightfully, audiences call this out as irresponsible filmmaking- the killer had real victims, and likely living, still-grieving families, so whatever the intentions of the filmmakers it is still important to never let the film revel in the evil of its subject. Content is a slightly thornier subject. If you've read our blog, you know that Graham and I are no prudes. We aren't going to call out a film as "morally irresponsible" just for having some nudity and lots of swearing. However, a piece of art that glorifies evil is som...
Read more

Hostiles: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

Image
By Michael Momper The modern Western is oftentimes a movie packed with clichés and tired genre tropes, and most people can probably rattle them off even if they are not fans of the genre: long journeys on horseback or in covered wagons, revolvers being fired into the air, a cast of buff alpha males (luckily we have been spared from Westerns featuring scrawny beta males so far), and at least one damsel in distress. The newest well-reviewed Western to hit theaters, writer and director Scott Cooper’s Hostiles , actually contains every one of these hackneyed plot devices… and yet somehow manages to become one of the best films I have seen in this genre in a long time. Scott Cooper has consistently been able to nab some excellent actors for his projects, including Jeff Bridges, Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch. In Hostiles , Christian Bale returns for his second Cooper feature, alongside fellow talent in Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Ben Foster, and Ro...
Read more