When George Clooney's "Suburbicon" got released, the critics panned it, complaining that it didn't make the parallel stories fit together satisfactorily. It does fall short in that respect, but otherwise it's an enjoyable black comedy with all the traits of a Coen brothers movie. Basically, it's all about evil. There's the racism directed at the African-American family that's just moved into the neighborhood designed by white people for white people. But there's also the slimy plot getting carried out by Matt Damon's character. He seems like the typical mild-mannered family man, but he's part of a scheme to have his wife (Julianne Moore) murdered and cash out the insurance claim. As always, the idealistic facade of the all-American dream hides a litany of shenanigans.
Aside from the son's befriending of the African-American boy next door, the movie could've done a better job linking the two stories and showing that both were manifestations of humanity's worst impulses taking place in what was supposed to be a heaven on earth. But otherwise I liked it. Julianne Moore puts her all into her third performance as a 1950s housewife (after "Far from Heaven" and "The Hours"), and damned if she doesn't look fine in some of those outfits! After the unmitigated disaster that was "Inside Llewyn Davis" - which had no character development and ignored the role of the folk revival in the Civil Rights Movement - the Coens could only go up, and they did with both this and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" on Netflix.
Aside from the son's befriending of the African-American boy next door, the movie could've done a better job linking the two stories and showing that both were manifestations of humanity's worst impulses taking place in what was supposed to be a heaven on earth. But otherwise I liked it. Julianne Moore puts her all into her third performance as a 1950s housewife (after "Far from Heaven" and "The Hours"), and damned if she doesn't look fine in some of those outfits! After the unmitigated disaster that was "Inside Llewyn Davis" - which had no character development and ignored the role of the folk revival in the Civil Rights Movement - the Coens could only go up, and they did with both this and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" on Netflix.