Suburbicon Review

Suburbicon is a strange film, I'm not sure what it was going for or even the point of anything within it. I felt as thought it was somewhat like Burn After Reading, but greatly less satisfying as there truly was no point here. The story follows a family and a surprise death at the hands of some evil men. This causes ripples within the family and then it gets weird from there. I can't really dive too far into details as that'll spoil the general narrative, but it's odd. By discussing the plot aspects it does ruin any sort of interest one might have while watching.

It certainly makes sense to some degree, but it wasn't the direction I thought it would go as this was far less interesting. It definitely felt somewhat pointless not only with the extended run time, but also the random other side of things. While this one family grieves and plots this other family is dealing with the racism of the times. I think there was supposed to be some sort of comparison, but with a small connection it seems like it served no reason.



Aside from things easily being obvious, it was a bit too open about some aspects. This made a couple sections feel overly long when, as the audience we understand what's happening even though the characters don't. The acting was however great here with Matt Damon's Gardner being solid.

I also found Julianne Moore's roles to be well delivered and a final mention to the great young kid Noah Jupe, as the son of Gardner. Another aspect of the film I really enjoyed was the setting, it's a beautiful time piece. It really captures this weird location and the era well. The town section looks large in scale, the world feels classic from the outfits to the many items within the houses.

The Conclusion

Suburbicon had potential, there could have been an interesting plot though it just was mostly alright. I found some parts of it to be boring and the attempt to push some sort of racial type side story distracted from the focus. It captures the era beautifully as a nice time piece, but the story is just strangely boring.

The acting was great, there was some intensity though nothing that really felt chilling. I had an idea of what I thought Suburbicon might be like, even once I watched the first bit I thought it might go in a good direction and then there just wasn't anything to it.

Suburbicon Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by TARO PR

Rating Overall: 4.2