Suburbicon was originally written by the Coen brothers way back in 1986, only now to be directed by their comedic muse, George Clooney. In addition to its production pedigree, the film boasts an ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac among others. So it’s quite surprising to see the movie is so horrible. Aside from the African-American family, who barely utter three lines while serving as the film’s plot device, and also Lodge’s son, Nicky, there are no likeable or redeemable characters in the entire movie. The film’s characters are static and don’t grow, change, or learn anything. The exposition is spoon fed to us in the most basic of ways, and the pacing is tedious. The movie tries to be a dark comedy, but it's not funny, then tries to be a thriller, but lacks any tension. Simultaneously, the film attempts to serve as a treatise on racism while also featuring heavy-handed, cartoonish stereotypes of bigotry. In a way, it’s kind of remarkable how thoroughly the film screws everything up.

Suburbicon swings for the fences and misses badly. The film’s grandiose ambitions end up being too much for Clooney to handle, and the film crashes and burns hard. Perhaps if the Coen brothers had directed their own script, the film could have been properly adapted. As it stands now, the film is a remarkable waste of talent that struggles to examine the veneer of the wholesome family values noted of the 1950s; positioning itself as an allegory for today’s political climate. It’s a boring disaster with unlikable characters and a glacially slow plot. When the credits mercifully rolled I was relieved it was over—never a good sign.

TLDR: Suburbicon is a terrible disappointment given the level of star talent involved. A boring, tedious, quagmire that tries to do too much and fails miserably. 1/5 Stars.