Suburbicon

Suburbicon is a 2017 American black comedy film[7] written and directed by George Clooney, and co-written by the Coen brothers and Grant Heslov.[8] The film stars Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Noah Jupe, and Oscar Isaac, and follows a mild-mannered father who must face his demons after a home invasion shakes his quaint neighborhood in 1959. It is loosely based on a 1957 incident in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in which a black family moved into the previously all-white neighborhood, leading to racism and violence against the family.[9][10]

Suburbicon
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge Clooney
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music byAlexandre Desplat
CinematographyRobert Elswit
Edited byStephen Mirrione
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • September 2, 2017 (2017-09-02) (Venice)
  • October 27, 2017 (2017-10-27) (United States)
Running time
105 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million[4]
Box office$12.8 million[5][6]

Principal photography began in October 2016 in Los Angeles. Suburbicon premiered in the main competition section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2017,[11] then screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 27, 2017.[12] It received mixed reviews from critics and criticism for its plot, and earned only $12 million at the box office against its $25 million budget.[13]

Plot

In 1959, the peaceful, all-white neighborhood of Suburbicon is shaken up by the arrival of an African-American family, the Mayers.

Gardner Lodge, a mild-mannered family man, lives with his paraplegic wife Rose, their son Nicky and Rose's twin sister Margaret in Suburbicon. One night, two robbers, Sloan and Louis, break into the Lodge family home, tie the entire family up and kill Rose with an overdose of chloroform. Margaret moves in to help take care of Nicky. Soon after her sister's death, Margaret begins to transform herself into Rose, dyeing her hair blonde and having sex with Gardner.

The Lodges are called into the police station to identify Sloan and Louis, but both Gardner and Margaret say that the police have the wrong men, even as Nicky recognizes them as his mother's murderers. Soon afterward, Sloan shows up at Gardner's job and demands the money that he owes him and Louis - payment for killing Rose. When Gardner refuses to pay, Sloan and Louis plan to return to his house and kill Nicky and Margaret.

As tensions mount between the residents of Suburbicon and their new African-American neighbors, charismatic insurance agent Bud Cooper arrives one day when Gardner is not home and begins asking Margaret questions, looking to clear up red flags in a life insurance claim made on Rose by Gardner shortly after her death. Cooper tells Margaret he suspects her and Gardner of murdering Rose to collect on her policy, and Margaret kicks him out of the house.

That night, as a prolonged protest at the home of the new African-American residents turns into a riot, Cooper returns to talk directly to Gardner. He tells Gardner that he knows the nature of his and Margaret's insurance fraud plan and attempts to blackmail them into giving him their entire payout in exchange for his silence. Margaret poisons his coffee with lye, and Gardner stabs him with a fireplace poker to finish him off. Gardner leaves to hide his body, trailed by Sloan.

Margaret attempts to poison Nicky with a sandwich and milk after he eavesdropped on her conversation with Cooper and contacted his Uncle Mitch for help. The increasingly suspicious Nicky does not eat the sandwich and, as Margaret is admitting defeat, Louis strangles her to death before heading upstairs to deal with Nicky. Mitch arrives and saves Nicky by shooting Louis dead. Mitch gives Nicky a gun and hides him in the closet before succumbing to a stab wound inflicted by Louis.

On the way home from disposing of Cooper's body, Gardner is taunted by Sloan, who is suddenly killed by a fire truck. Arriving home, he finds the bodies of Margaret, Mitch, and Louis, and gets Nicky out of the closet. He offers Nicky a choice: he can go along with a plan to cash out an insurance claim and run away to Aruba, or Gardner will kill him and blame his death on Sloan and Louis.

The next morning, Gardner is dead, having consumed Margaret's poisoned sandwich and milk during his conversation with Nicky. Nicky calmly goes outside to play ball with Andy, the son of the African-American family next door, after the family has cleaned up the remnants of the previous night's riot.

Cast

Production

According to producer Joel Silver, Joel and Ethan Coen originally wrote the script for Suburbicon in 1986, soon after the release of their film Blood Simple.[14] In 2005, it was reported that George Clooney would star in and direct Suburbicon, while the Coen brothers would produce.[15]

The film was eventually made ten years later, combining two previously unrelated scripts,[10] one a crime film by the Coens, and one a historical drama based on the real-life story of the Myers family, the only black family in all-white Levittown, Pennsylvania who faced racially-charged harassment and violence from other residents.[9] On December 8, 2015, Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Josh Brolin joined the cast;[16] Oscar Isaac and Woody Harrelson later signed on, as well.[17] On August 31, 2016, Noah Jupe and Glenn Fleshler joined, to play Damon's character's son and a hitman, respectively.[18]

On September 27, 2016, Harrelson said in an interview that he would not be in the film due to scheduling conflicts.[19] In August 2017, it was reported that Brolin had been cut from the final edit of the film.[20]

Suburbicon began filming in Fullerton, 30 miles south of Los Angeles, in October 2016.[21] Alexandre Desplat composed the film's score.[22]

Release

Paramount Pictures released the film in the United States on October 27, 2017.[23]

Home media

Suburbicon was released on Digital HD on January 23, 2018, and on Blu-ray and DVD on February 6, 2018.[24]

Reception

Box office

Suburbicon grossed $5.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $4.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $10.2 million, against a production budget of $25 million.[5]

In the United States and Canada, Suburbicon was released alongside Thank You for Your Service and Jigsaw, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 2,046 theaters in its opening weekend.[25] However, after making $1.1 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $3 million. It ended up debuting to $2.8 million, finishing 9th at the box office. The weekend marked the lowest wide opening of Clooney's directorial credits, and of Matt Damon's career, and the 32nd worst-ever opening for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters.[26] It dropped 59% in its second weekend to $1.2 million, finishing 13th at the box office.[27]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 28% based on 250 reviews, with an average rating of 4.94/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A disappointing misfire for director George Clooney, Suburbicon attempts to juggle social satire, racial commentary, and murder mystery — and ends up making a mess of all three."[28] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D–" on an A+ to F scale.[26]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Suburbicon is just too obvious in its satirical depiction of the dubious morality and social inequality behind the squeaky-clean façade of postwar American life, though it's watchable enough, and a distinct improvement for Clooney on his last directorial outing."[30]

Accolades
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipients Result Ref.
London Film Critics Circle January 28, 2018 Young British/Irish Performer of the Year Noah Jupe (also for Wonder and The Man with the Iron Heart) Nominated [31]
San Diego Film Critics Society December 11, 2017 Best Supporting Actor Oscar Isaac Nominated [32]
Venice Film Festival September 9, 2017 Golden Lion George Clooney Nominated [33][34][35]
Green Drop Award George Clooney Nominated
Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award George Clooney Won
Fragiacomo Award George Clooney Won
Franca Sozzani Award Julianne Moore Won
Saturn Awards June 27, 2018 Best Thriller Film Suburbicon Nominated [36]
39th Young Artist Awards July 14, 2018 Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Teen Actor Noah Jupe Nominated
[37]

References
  1. "Film releases". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on July 28, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2018.
  2. THR Staff (September 2, 2017). "'Suburbicon': Film Review | Venice 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  3. "Suburbicon". tiff. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  4. "Box Office: 'Jigsaw' to Piece Together $20 Million Opening". Variety. October 25, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  5. "Suburbicon (2017)". The Numbers. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  6. "Suburbicon (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  7. Nugent, John (May 18, 2016). "Woody Harrelson joins the cast of George Clooney's Suburbicon". Empire. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  8. 'Suburbicon' Review: A Rare Miss For Clooney, Damon, and the Coens|Digital Trends
  9. "The Real-Life Racial Battle That Inspired George Clooney's 'Suburbicon'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  10. Longsdorf, Amy. "George Clooney's 'Suburbicon' tells racially charged story of Bucks County's Levittown". The Morning Call. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  11. Anderson, Ariston. "Venice Competition Includes Films From George Clooney, Guillermo del Toro, Darren Aronofsky". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  12. Fleming Jr, Mike. "Toronto Film Festival 2017 Unveils Strong Slate". Deadline. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  13. Giles, Jeff (October 26, 2017). "Suburbicon is a Stale Satire". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  14. Radish, Christina (May 20, 2016). "Producer Joel Silver on 'The Nice Guys', 'Sherlock Holmes 3′, and Joss Whedon's 'Wonder Woman'". Collider. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  15. "George Clooney Back With Coen Brothers". Empire. November 22, 2005. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  16. Jagernauth, Kevin (December 8, 2015). "Matt Damon, Julianne Moore And Josh Brolin To Star In George Clooney's Coens-Penned 'Suburbicon'". IndieWire. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  17. Slead, Evan (May 17, 2016). "Woody Harrelson to star in George Clooney's Suburbicon". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  18. Borys, Kit (August 31, 2016). "George Clooney's 'Suburbicon' Adds 'Night Manager,' 'Night Of' Actors (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  19. Wiseman, Andreas (September 27, 2016). "Woody Harrelson on 'LBJ', Trump and Spandex". Screen Daily. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  20. Collis, Clark (August 14, 2017). "Josh Brolin was cut from final version of Suburbicon". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  21. Whitehead, Brian (October 26, 2016). "Earlier this month, George Clooney found the quiet family town of Suburbicon in Fullerton". Orange County Register. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  22. "Alexandre Desplat to Score George Clooney's 'Suburbicon'". FilmMusicReporter. March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  23. Gettell, Oliver (March 27, 2017). "George Clooney's Suburbicon sets award season release date". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  24. "Suburbicon (2017)". DVDs Release Date. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  25. D'Alessandro, Anthony. "Jigsaw' Looks To Keep 'Saw' Franchise Sharp During Pre-Halloween Weekend With $20M+ Opening". Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  26. D'Alessandro, Anthony. "Horror Has Few Scares At B.O. As 'Jigsaw' Dulls To $16M+, 'Suburbicon' Condemned With D- CinemaScore". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  27. D'Alessandro, Anthony. "'Thor: Ragnarok' Flexes His Box Office Muscles To $120M-$122M Opening – Early Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  28. "Suburbicon (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  29. "Suburbicon reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  30. David Rooney (September 3, 2017). "'Suburbicon': Film Review | Venice 2017 | Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter.
  31. Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 28, 2018). "'Three Billboards' Wins Film Of The Year At London Critics' Circle Awards". Deadline. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  32. "2017 San Diego Film Critics Society's Award Nominations". San Diego Film Critics Society. December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  33. "Venezia 74, i premi collaterali". Repubblica. September 8, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  34. "A Venezia il Green Drop Award al film più ecologista". ANSA. September 7, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  35. "Queer Lion a Venezia: 9 film in gara per il Leone Gay". Nonsolo Cinema. August 22, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  36. McNary, Dave (March 15, 2018). "'Black Panther,' 'Walking Dead' Rule Saturn Awards Nominations". Variety. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  37. "2018 NOMINEES Young Artist Awards". youngartistawards.org. Retrieved May 17, 2018.

See also
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