‘SUBURBICON’ FILM REVIEW:
‘Suburbicon’ dark fun even as Clooney preaches
GEORGE CLOONEY has always had a charming confidence, but with his new movie, his cockiness has curdled into arrogance. He’s actually dared to rewrite the Coen Brothers. “Suburbicon” is — mostly — a script the sly siblings wrote back in their early “Blood Simple” days. Like that classic, it’s a cold-blooded noir about cheating spouses, insurance fraud and a really stupid crime. Call it “Dumbass Indemnity.” They gave it to Clooney to direct, but he already had a different — very different — script he’d written about the fight to integrate Levittown, Pa. Hey, he thought, why not combine the two stories?
But hard as the film tries, the two remain separate and unequal.
The Coen brothers part is still the majority of the movie, and it’s great. Damon and Moore are the survivors of a tragic home invasion; Oscar Isaac is the suspicious insurance investigator who isn’t ready to pay out just yet.
It feels a little like an early version of “Fargo,” but first-draft Coens is still better than most final-draft anyone else. Except Grant Clooney Heslov and inter- cowriter cut that with their own small story about the first black family to move into a (fictional) housing development. And their contribution is obvious and preachy.
It’s like starting “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” except every two chapters someone makes you put it down and sit through a Bill DeBlasio speech. Yeah, OK, well I’m sure this is, you know, well-meaning.
But when do we get back to the cops and the crooks and the sexy dame? Luckily for us, and the movie, Clooney’s small “improvements” can’t really ruin the story he started with. “Suburbicon” is still mostly the Coens’ story and mostly fun. HHHHH Damon makes an interestingly ambiguous Dad, and Isaac is fun as the sneaky insurance guy. Ignore Clooney’s socially significant sermons, enjoy the and film you as cana dark,still nasty little drama.
But George? You’re rich, you’re handsome, you’re popular, you’ve got a terrific wife. Settle for that, would you? And stop thinking you’re a great writer, too.