Suburbicon: Bem-vindos ao Paraíso

'SUBURBICON': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The new crime-drama/comedy from director George Clooney, and written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Grant Heslov and Clooney (Clooney and Heslov also co-produced the film). It stars Matt Damon as a suburbanite, in a seemingly quiet suburb community, that has to suddenly deal with violent criminals, after his house is broken into by mobster thugs. The movie costars Noah Jupe, Julianne Moore, Glenn Fleshler and Oscar Isaac. It's gotten mixed to negative reviews from critics, and it also underperformed at the Box Office. I enjoyed parts of it, but I do agree that overall the film is a bit of a mess.

The story is set in a quiet small community, that is disrupted when an African American family moves in to their very conservative suburb. Young Nicky Lodge (Jupe) befriends one of his new neighbors, who's about the same age as him, but then he has to deal with criminal thugs breaking into his family's home. Nicky's mother (Moore) is sadly killed, and Nicky doesn't understand why his father (Damon) and aunt (also played by Moore) won't identify the culprits (when the police apprehend them). Things only get more complicated from there, and much more dangerous for Nicky.

The advertisements for this film are extremely misleading, and it's definitely not the movie that I thought I was going to see. Parts of it are well made, and very interesting, and it's also surprisingly dark (especially for a film starring Matt Damon, and directed by George Clooney). I think it would have been a lot better had the Coens directed it though (they're ridiculously better filmmakers than Clooney). As it is, the film tries to blend too many different genres, and social commentary on top of that, and none of it really works. It is a bizarrely interesting movie still (at times) though.

It's not a terrible movie like a lot of people are saying, not at all.

But it feels unfinished. Like they had too many ideas and couldn't decide which way to go with things, so they tried it all. And what could have been a modern classic turned into a movie that I probably won't remember in a few months.

And that's a shame.

Suburbicon is a very dark comedy from the mind of director George Clooney. Clooney has a very twisted sense of humor. The gags about murder and death run rampant in the movie, yet some how we can't help but laugh at the misfortune that occurs to the characters in Suburbicon.

Suburbicon is a fictitious suburban town in the late 1950's where things are slow and the worries about the traffic and the hustle of the big city are far away. Then the unthinkable happens to the members of the small community; a black family moves to town!

We soon see the "true colors" of the people in the small community as they ban together to "over come" and run the professional black family out of town. Meanwhile, next door to the protesting mob, a home invasion takes place at the Gardner house (Matt Damon and Julianne Moore). Damon's wife is killed by the burglars and he and his sister-in-law pick up the pieces after the crime, along with his young son Nicky (Noah Jupe), and start a new life. But things take a twist and we find out that Damon's character is not what he appears to be to everyone in the community of Suburbicon.

The movie is written by Clooney, along with the Cohen Brothers (O Brother, Where Art Thou) and is about as satirical as you can get. It drips with irony and is a social commentary film about this country, both in the 1950's and still even today.

Even with it's violence and dark theme this will be a film that will be discussed at Oscar time, perhaps even as Best Movie. There is no denying the quality of the film; however, it wasn't a movie I really enjoyed. For me it was too dark and too violent. It's rated "R" for violence and sexual situations and runs at 1 hour and 44 minutes.

There were parts of the movie that made me howl with laughter and the black family living in suburbia was another good twist on the tale, but overall the movie wasn't an enjoyable experience. My sense of decency made it hard for me to laugh at all the murders and violence in the movie.

On my "Hollywood Popcorn Scale" I rate Suburbicon a LARGE. Hollywood Hernandez

1950s America is often mythologised as a period both boring and socially cohesive, before things became interesting and decisive in the following decade. And today, there seems to be a entire sub-genre of films interested less in telling the truth than in playing with the myth. 'Suburbicon' is one such movie, a satire of a view of the world that surely no-one takes at face value anymore. The script is by the Coen brothers, and as such, it's a typical black comedy, quite cleverly worked but without much of a heart. For example, racism is a theme, but the film doesn't really feel very angry about racism, more amused with the direct juxtaposition of the very real racism of the period with the idyllic fantasy of suburban life. There's nothing particularly wrong with George Clooney's direction; but no great sense that the film has anything in particular to say.

Quite surprised by so many bad ratings, almost as though there was another agenda. I had not read these before watched the film and did not know it was co written by the coen brothers, but I found it better than I expected and only gave it 8 instead of 7 to up the overall rating. It moved along at a steady pace and was pretty lean. I would certainly recommend anyone to that I know well to watch if they get the opportunity.