Suburbicon

Dir: George Clooney

2017

**

I like the films George Clooney has directed and I adore the Coen Brothers and every actor in Suburbicon – I just didn’t like the film much. The direction is just fine, the performances are strong and the story is good. The cinematography is excellent and the set and costumes are second to none. It’s hard to decipher where it all goes wrong really. Brothers’ Joel and ethan Coen first wrote a draft for Suburbicon back in 1986 just after they made Blood Simple. It remained unmade until George Clooney took interest in it and asked if he could make it in 2005. The Coens’ agreed and suggested they produce. They then sat on it for another decade. During that time, the script developed into two different stories rather than one. The first story – featuring a family who deal with a late-night home invasion – was the original, the second story – featuring the arrival of a black family in a white surburbon community, was based 1957 incident in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in which a black family moved into the previously all-white neighborhood, leading to racial-charged harassment and violence against the family – another idea for a film the Coens had pondered. Both great ideas and both could have worked together if the film had been more about the suburb they were in, rather than about the main story. Always beware of a Coen brothers’ film that the Coen brothers’ haven’t directed. I’m not saying they’re all terrible because they’re not (Crimewave – directed by Sam Raimi – is one of my favorite films of all time) but none of them ever do well, so it’s a warning more to actors than it is audiences. That said, out of Crimewave, The Naked Man, Gambit, Unbroken and Bridge of Spies, only half of them are any good. I actually see a lot of Crimewave in Suburbicon, Crimewave however being a millions times better. I think one of the biggest problems with Suburbicon is that it feels like a poor Coen brothers imitation. The set is amazing and so is the cinematography but the soul of the film is missing. I get that it is suggesting that this golden image most people have of 50s suburbia is false but I think they could have played around with the idea a little more. We have a racist community on one side and murder, fraud, infidelity and pretty much every crime you can think of on the other. It needed to be more spread out to justify the title. The inclusion of a third family with their own problems might have worked better, three neighbours with interlinking secrets and problems in the middle of a would-be perfect suburban paradise. As it is it just feels like there are two good stories being half told. I believe there is a lot more to the true story of the black family who moved to Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1957 and I’m not sure mixing theirs with a fictional story of a family murder is suitable. The problem is that this doesn’t work as a black comedy. There is nothing about the black family’s story that is remotely funny and it never tries to be. This makes for a strange contrast with the other story which, its has to be said, isn’t really that funny. The Coen brothers are masters of black comedy but their usual flare is missing from this script, which is why I would guess they never made it themselves. Julianne Moore, Gary Basaraba and Oscar Isaac know they’re in a Coen brothers film and know how to play it – all three are great. Young Noah Jupe is great too. Matt Damon however looks to be miscast somewhat. He doesn’t do anything wrong as such but I can think of a hundred other actors who would have been better suited to the role. If it were to have been more of a black comedy it should have been more exaggerated. Indeed, this must have been originally written around the same time as Crimewave, and Crimewave is essentially the film this wasn’t and probably why it was never made. It’s the sort of film that looks good in a trailer but the finished article is a let down. It just doesn’t work and it left a bad taste in my mouth. The ball was dropped, hard to say who is at fault but from now on I think the Coens should direct their own scripts and George Clooney should concentrate on being George Clooney again and not the third Coen brother. It's such a shame really, as everything is perfect other than the story and the leading actor.