160.
Suburbicon
3/10
George Clooney is having another go at directing a film. Once again, he decides to work with Matt Damon and brings some others to the party in the form of Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. From the trailer, the film seemed to be about murder, stealing and is set in the 50's period of America. It seemed a little weird at times, with a scene of some of the community standing about like robots and high-pitched music to unsettle you, as a horror film would. Let's delve into the movie and find out if it could be the 'real deal' or just another con.
The film opens with a storybook type graphic, telling us about the quaint town of Suburbicon. It states how other people from the country have moved to the town in order for an idyllic lifestyle and the last graphic, we can see is a real picture still, which we zoom into and begins the movie for us. The mailman is doing his normal deliveries, saying hello to all of the residents, as he comes across a new family moving in. He trots up to an African-American woman and asks to speak to Mrs Mayers, to which she replies, is herself. His friendly manner, awkwardly drops, as he backs away slowly, even forgetting to hand over the mail until prompted. The other residents then all act in horror, standing around staring, as we seen in the trailer. They are devastated that their new neighbours are black. A town meeting is held with plenty of angry white men, demanding that this family be removed from their town. This leads to a petition being held over moving them out.
Back to normality, as such, we are in the Lodge household, where Rose and her twin sister Margaret are in the garden and we find out that their next-door neighbours are the Mayers. Both of these females are being played by Julianne Moore, obviously with the fact that they are twins. Rose tells her son to go and play with the Mayers son and reluctantly he heads over to play catch. That night, Nicky's old man walks into his room, whispering for his son to get up because there are men in the house. There is no light but we know that Matt Damon is playing the father, Gardener. He takes his son downstairs during the robbery and we see one of the men, Sloan, sitting in a wheelchair which belongs to Rose. They are all being kept hostage and demand that Gardener pours them drinks, before tying them to chairs around the dinner table and smothering them with rags of chloroform.
Nicky wakes up in a hospital bed, seeing his father and aunt talking to a doctor, before looking to his right and seeing his mother in a bad way in the bed next to him. She has been overdosed with chloroform and it isn't looking too good. We instantly cut to Rose's funeral and the brother of the two women is comforting Nicky with some money, telling him that he will always be there, even as an extra Dad. People around the town and in Gardener's work offer their condolences to the family, everywhere they go. All whilst quietly accusing them of some sort of involvement. Nicky has started to set up precautions, to avoid another intrusion. He sets up some bars in his room, to lock his door a bit better. One day, he gets in from school and hears what he thinks is his auntie screaming in horror and is instantly thrown back into terror. He grabs a knife and makes his way down to the basement, where he ends up finding his father has her bent over a table, spanking her with a table tennis bat. Margaret has now cut her hair and dyed it, the same way that Rose had hers. Back at his work, Gardener is contacted by a police captain, who wants him to identify the robbers in a line up. On arrival, he notices Margaret and she has brought his son, which he isn't too happy about. Nicky stays outside as the two enter the room to pick out the men and as we look at the line-up, we can see that Gardener is standing in front of the end two, which we can instantly work out will be the two robbers. Nicky has snuck inside, just in time to see the two men and his father tell the policeman that none of the men are the ones that robbed him. Nicky is shocked and the audience now knows that there is some sort of foul play. The guard mistakenly flicks the light switched on and the line-up can see into the room. The two men see Nicky and he yelps, as his father and aunt turn around to notice him too.
At home, Nicky is having a bath and is interrupted by Gardener. Nicky asks why his father didn't identify the men when he had the chance. Gardener dodges the question and simply replies with how complicated the events are. Gardener is a really awkward character and is clearly getting nervous by everything that is happening. All around the town, the families are showing increased hatred for the Mayers. A crowd is growing and growing around their house, banging drums, building fences and even at the supermarket, a manager refuses to serve the female of the house unless he raises every item by $20. The two robbers confront Gardener at his work and Sloan, the biggest one, smacks him about a bit, warning him to get rid of his son, or they will do it for him. They are also demanding money that was supposed to be returned after Rose has been killed. The Captain of the Police is over the next day, wondering about the cuts and bruises but mainly to tell him that a mob member had been found dead. After going through his books, he found Gardener's surname written down, owing money to the mob. But he also mentions that there is also a hotel, with the same name, Garden Lodge, which he could be confusing it with, but time will tell.
Back home, Margaret is visited by Oscar Isaac's character, a sleazy insurance salesman, who is there to discuss the claim against Rose's death. Bud Cooper smooth talks the woman, before stating his intent as to why he is there. He knows something fishy is going on and that he will get to the bottom of it all. She kicks him out of the house, as he tries to pressurize her for answers. This character is finally one that brings a bit of humour to the movie and gets you back to enjoyment in a way. On the street, we see a bus pull up and the driver is the second robber, the thinner one and soon he is in the locker room of the bus depot as he is approached by Sloan, who is also a driver. These two seem to be having a few side jobs of rustling up some people and are drivers permanently. They are discussing a new job, one that they need to do to protect their name and that's to kill Nicky. Gardener, clearly isn't getting the job done, so they need to take the next step. At the Mayer's household, the gathering crowd has now turned into a riot and the police have had to take action as the family's car is destroyed and the windows are being smashed. The Mayer's have barricaded themselves inside, with the hope that it will all blow over. One person has even planted a confederate flag onto a smashed window. Cooper has turned back up at the Lodge's place, now that Gardener is home and quickly states that he knows what is going on. He won't report the insurance fraud but only if he gets all of the money for himself. Margaret nervously brings Cooper a cup of something and he instantly starts choking, clawing at his neck as his face goes red, along with his eyes. He makes a break for the door and makes it onto the street, before Gardener comes from behind and plants a fire poker into his neck. Cleary the guy was poisoned and now they have more blood on their hands. Louis and Sloan, the gangsters, are in a car watching all of this and witnessing Gardener putting Cooper into the boot of his own car and driving away. Louis has gotten out of his car and is heading for the house, as Sloan follows Gardener.
Nicky has also witnessed this and begins to all his uncle Mitch but is cut mid conversation as his aunt unplugs the phone line. The boy locks himself in his room as the scene cuts to Margaret making and sandwich and drink for him but adding plenty of crushed pills to kill the boy. He refuses it all though and stays in his room, as Louis sneaks up behind Margaret and strangles her to death, before carrying her to her room and dumping her on her bed. He makes his way to Nicky's room and smashes the door down, finding him hiding under his bed. We know what's coming next, as another set of shoes are seen, before a scuffle on the bed and gun shots. A pair of feet step down from the bed and move it away a little, putting a hand out to usher Nicky to safety. Mitch has turned up and he guides Nicky to hide in a closet, he's covered in blood and I can tell it isn't all ok. We don't see anything but his front until Nicky is hidden away and then we see the extent of the fight and Mitch has been stabbed. He sits in Nicky's chair and soon dies. We get back to Gardener, who put's Cooper's body in the front seat of his car and burns it, after taking a small, child's bike out of the boot, which he intends to ride home. As he is riding, Sloan drives up alongside to taunt him and is soon taken out, head-on, by a fire truck, which would surely be heading to Cooper's car fire. The wreckage leaves a trail of fuel, which quickly burns the stranded Sloan alive. On his arrival home, Gardener is looking everywhere for Nicky, after discovering the other bodies and we can see the closet door handle has Mitch's blood on it, but did Gardener see it? He begins to walk back downstairs but notices it too and finds his son pointing a gun at him. He quickly disarms him and sits his son at the kitchen table, where we also notice the drink and sandwich still sit. It's so obvious that Gardener will eat and drink the pills that I may as well walk out of the cinema now and save 15 minutes of my life. He calmly tells Nicky about escaping to Aruba together or be killed and his father leave alone, all the time whilst eating and drinking himself to death. The scene cuts and it's morning, Gardener is lying face down on the table, whilst the Mayer's with the help of some of the community, are cleaning the mess round their house. The interviewed racists blame this family for the chaos that happened that night, as Nicky acts no differently and goes back out to play catch with Andrew, the Mayers' son.
The film reminded me of the game Fallout, with its style and grace and that's about it for the good points. It seemed to me like it never really got going. Unfortunately, I ended up seeing this movie twice and it was just as bad the second time. The main storyline was interrupted by a racism and mob story that went absolutely nowhere and seemed to be just a filler for the poor, main story. If I could summarise, it would be a murder mystery, but it never kept you guessing, it was just weirdly, cut, acted and executed. With some of the cast and behind the camera names, this was oozing with people who have been credited their whole life but this was a total fail. It gives me a reason to never want to see anything from Clooney again and this was me giving him more chances after ruining Batman. The one main saving grace was Oscar Isaac and his style within the movie, which did bring a chuckle but that about it. This confused movie left me knowing one thing, I won't get those wasted hours back!
Back home, Margaret is visited by Oscar Isaac's character, a sleazy insurance salesman, who is there to discuss the claim against Rose's death. Bud Cooper smooth talks the woman, before stating his intent as to why he is there. He knows something fishy is going on and that he will get to the bottom of it all. She kicks him out of the house, as he tries to pressurize her for answers. This character is finally one that brings a bit of humour to the movie and gets you back to enjoyment in a way. On the street, we see a bus pull up and the driver is the second robber, the thinner one and soon he is in the locker room of the bus depot as he is approached by Sloan, who is also a driver. These two seem to be having a few side jobs of rustling up some people and are drivers permanently. They are discussing a new job, one that they need to do to protect their name and that's to kill Nicky. Gardener, clearly isn't getting the job done, so they need to take the next step. At the Mayer's household, the gathering crowd has now turned into a riot and the police have had to take action as the family's car is destroyed and the windows are being smashed. The Mayer's have barricaded themselves inside, with the hope that it will all blow over. One person has even planted a confederate flag onto a smashed window. Cooper has turned back up at the Lodge's place, now that Gardener is home and quickly states that he knows what is going on. He won't report the insurance fraud but only if he gets all of the money for himself. Margaret nervously brings Cooper a cup of something and he instantly starts choking, clawing at his neck as his face goes red, along with his eyes. He makes a break for the door and makes it onto the street, before Gardener comes from behind and plants a fire poker into his neck. Cleary the guy was poisoned and now they have more blood on their hands. Louis and Sloan, the gangsters, are in a car watching all of this and witnessing Gardener putting Cooper into the boot of his own car and driving away. Louis has gotten out of his car and is heading for the house, as Sloan follows Gardener.
Nicky has also witnessed this and begins to all his uncle Mitch but is cut mid conversation as his aunt unplugs the phone line. The boy locks himself in his room as the scene cuts to Margaret making and sandwich and drink for him but adding plenty of crushed pills to kill the boy. He refuses it all though and stays in his room, as Louis sneaks up behind Margaret and strangles her to death, before carrying her to her room and dumping her on her bed. He makes his way to Nicky's room and smashes the door down, finding him hiding under his bed. We know what's coming next, as another set of shoes are seen, before a scuffle on the bed and gun shots. A pair of feet step down from the bed and move it away a little, putting a hand out to usher Nicky to safety. Mitch has turned up and he guides Nicky to hide in a closet, he's covered in blood and I can tell it isn't all ok. We don't see anything but his front until Nicky is hidden away and then we see the extent of the fight and Mitch has been stabbed. He sits in Nicky's chair and soon dies. We get back to Gardener, who put's Cooper's body in the front seat of his car and burns it, after taking a small, child's bike out of the boot, which he intends to ride home. As he is riding, Sloan drives up alongside to taunt him and is soon taken out, head-on, by a fire truck, which would surely be heading to Cooper's car fire. The wreckage leaves a trail of fuel, which quickly burns the stranded Sloan alive. On his arrival home, Gardener is looking everywhere for Nicky, after discovering the other bodies and we can see the closet door handle has Mitch's blood on it, but did Gardener see it? He begins to walk back downstairs but notices it too and finds his son pointing a gun at him. He quickly disarms him and sits his son at the kitchen table, where we also notice the drink and sandwich still sit. It's so obvious that Gardener will eat and drink the pills that I may as well walk out of the cinema now and save 15 minutes of my life. He calmly tells Nicky about escaping to Aruba together or be killed and his father leave alone, all the time whilst eating and drinking himself to death. The scene cuts and it's morning, Gardener is lying face down on the table, whilst the Mayer's with the help of some of the community, are cleaning the mess round their house. The interviewed racists blame this family for the chaos that happened that night, as Nicky acts no differently and goes back out to play catch with Andrew, the Mayers' son.
The film reminded me of the game Fallout, with its style and grace and that's about it for the good points. It seemed to me like it never really got going. Unfortunately, I ended up seeing this movie twice and it was just as bad the second time. The main storyline was interrupted by a racism and mob story that went absolutely nowhere and seemed to be just a filler for the poor, main story. If I could summarise, it would be a murder mystery, but it never kept you guessing, it was just weirdly, cut, acted and executed. With some of the cast and behind the camera names, this was oozing with people who have been credited their whole life but this was a total fail. It gives me a reason to never want to see anything from Clooney again and this was me giving him more chances after ruining Batman. The one main saving grace was Oscar Isaac and his style within the movie, which did bring a chuckle but that about it. This confused movie left me knowing one thing, I won't get those wasted hours back!
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