Suburbicon

A film that recreates the modus vivendi of the 50s suburbs, but fails to give us a story with tension and suspense that we can adhere to.

Any Cohen Brothers film is always a film that promises not to be like any other. Their style is quite unique and does not suit everyone. And this time they bring us a film that is entirely about the importance of appearances, the rottenness they cover up, and a certain self-destruction latent beneath an impeccable appearance. It's a film that tries to teach us that nothing is what it seems, nothing is perfect, there are no paradises on Earth, and everything that seems too perfect always has something decadent or spoiled behind it. Yet another film that promises to annoy those who see it... a nuisance that helps us understand why the film was so poor at the box office.

This is the lesson of Suburbicon, a seemingly perfect and very friendly community, all white Caucasians, with impeccable houses, cars and lawns, which will begin to experience days of enormous turmoil and riot when a black family decides to move there. The family in question seems as impeccable as they are, and as wealthy as any of their neighbors... but they are black, and that is enough to be undesirable in the eyes of the neighbors. At the same time, one of those impeccable families begins to implode after a home invasion results in a murder and, days later, an inspector shows up, thinking it's all a crime committed to grab the life insurance money.

As we can see, the script is not difficult to describe succinctly, despite joining two plots that, alone, could make a solo film. Set in the 1950s, the film shows us how the suburban neighborhood was born, with a large urbanization boosted by the growing prosperity and purchasing power of a rapidly growing middle class. However, throughout the film, the feeling of artificiality and falsehood that surrounds the neighborhood (and that ideal family in particular) is accentuated, in proportion to the suspicion...

The Coens are experts in their ability to write a political satire, or a movie with a strong political message, and make it feel natural and organic to the plot so much so that, even if you don't agree with whatever they are trying to say, you don't care because they are still telling a great story...and the story always comes first.

However, put George Clooney at the helm and all the talent that the Coens have for expertly into a stylish story goes straight out the window.

And the result is...a bore.

Clooney put the politics above the story and you can tell. It felt preachy, it felt pretentious, it felt like a lecture...What it didn't feel like was entertainment.

But that's what happens when you have a great script with a strong political message...and you decide that the political message has to be front and center, in your face, at the expense of actually telling a story.

Had the Coen's actually directed it, they could have sold the audience the same message, without making it feel like it was forced down your throat.