The story of the production of Suburbicon is the story of two movies: A Coen brother’s script, written in the 80s, that they abandonded, and George Clooney’s attempt to tell a story about racism in America in the 1950s. And for much of the movie, it feels like two separate movies. Indeed the marketing only shows off the crime elements that come from that Coen Brother’s script. For most of the movie I was just confused why this side story about brave faced African Americans standing against violently angry, racist white Americans kept interrupting this crime movie I was watching. At first they seemed like oil and water.
The thing is by the end they come together in the worst way. The result of this mixing is that the token subplot of a family being subjected to horrible and ugly prejudice only exists to inform the other half of the movie. The movie doesn’t actually have anything to say about that experience, Instead it serves as a metaphor to inform the other half of the movie.
The central idea that Suburbicon is built around is that being a kid is kinda like being black.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung.
Ew, ew, ew. Gross gross gross. What the fuck? Are you fucking kidding me? What? Why?
This movie is a mistake.
This movie isn’t so much bad (I mean it is bad. It’s a bad movie) as it is offensive. This is the kind of “well meaning: white liberal racism that makes Hollywood so insufferable. Wanting to reveal the horrors of racism like they’re the first one’s to discover it, unable to see past their own narcissism to actually tell that story and instead exploiting it to “deepen” their own story.
This is a mistake. This movie, the ideas behind it, this entire endeavor is a mistake. That this was made says pretty bad things about everyone involved. (Although the Coen Brothers actually get a pass since their work was just co-opted into this.)
I could go on, the soundtrack is surprisingly shitty and terrible. That’s something that stands out immediately and lets you know you’re in for a bad time. I should have listened to the warning: “Get out know these people don’t know what they’re doing.”
I watched it, and didn’t look into the bad reviews, because I really liked the trailer. There are elements here that could have come from a real movie, a good movie. But that’s not what this is.
This was a mistake.
Thank You For Your Time.
