Suburbicon: darkened American Dream
From a 1957 documentary film called Crisis in Levittown, Oscar Award winner George Clooney has based his research on a true story of what happened when William and Daisy Meyers became the first African-American family to move in to Levittown, Pennsylvania.
Back in 1999, Clooney recalled that it was Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers who had sent him a script called Suburbicon. It was a comedy/thriller with similar themes to Fargo and Burn After Reading that had hapless characters making really bad decisions. Together with the producers, they thought that it seems a good time for a film that feels angry; combining the existing Suburbicon script and setting it in Levittown during the week the Meyers moved in.
Suburbicon tells the story of America’s emerging middle class, in the decade following the Second World War, moving to the suburbs: idyllic, affordable homes in planned communities. For many, the American Dream of owning a home was becoming a reality for the first time. It is a picture-perfect 1950s suburb where the best and worst of humanity are reflected through the deeds of ordinary people. But when a home break-in turns deadly, a family must turn to blackmail, revenge and betrayal in order to survive.
However, there’s a great deal of irony and social commentary in the characters’ story. They’re a growing family in search of the American Dream and feel like they’ll be welcome and safe in their new home. Unfortunately, their new neighbors are really disrespectful and sometimes dangerous: breaking windows and jumping on their car. Meanwhile, there’s a real problem next door no one is addressing.
Shot entirely in Southern California that stars the Academy Award winners Matt Damon (as a model father and a husband) and Julianne Moore (who portrays the wife and the twin sister).
Suburbicon opens today in theaters nationwide. It is exclusively distributed by Solar Pictures.