SUBURBICON

US, 2017, 104 minutes, Colour.
Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Noah Jupe, Gary Basaraba.
Directed by George Clooney.

Suburbicon is not a word we regularly use. As can be seen, it is made up of the word suburb and icon. At the opening of the film, Suburbicon, is presented as an ideal. As the film progresses, the irony progresses.

This is definitely a Coen Brothers’ screenplay. Apparently, it was written in the 80s and not filmed then but brought out again for their friend, George Clooney, with his writing partner, Grant Heslow, to write and direct. But the bizarre Coen Brothers’ touches are forever present, the irony, the satire, the critique of society.

The film opens like an advertising catalogue. Suburbicon, is a post-war development, parallel to Levittown, a town created by William Levitt who was an idealist for the American middle class about also racist. Everything is nice at the end of the 1950s. Everybody wears proper clothes. Everybody has proper manners. Families are ideal. The colour photography is bright, optimistic.

We are introduced to the Lodge family. The father is the respectable Gardner Lodge, Matt Damon, serious, a good job, a proper suit… His wife, Rose (Julianne Moore) has been injured in an accident and, as they all sit on the porch, she has to be carried inside to her room. Also present is her sister, Margaret (two Julianne Moores for the price of one), all smiles and charm. The son is Nicky (Noah Jupe) a very respectful little boy.

The racism surfaces when an African-American? family move in next door, the proper citizens going to a meeting, decrying the local board, uttering all kinds of prejudices, mockery and bigotry. This will lead to citizens camping outside the house, violent demonstrations, attack on the house, destruction and terrorising. In a key scene where the mother goes to the supermarket, the manager callously ups the prices on her.

But the main action of the film is with the Lodge family, a home invasion, everybody tied up and chloroformed, and Rose dying. The police start an investigation – but the audience has seen the thugs. It doesn’t take long for the penny to drop for the audience that the Lodge family is all respectable veneer. Rose’s death has been orchestrated.

The plotting for Rose’s death could have been done far more meticulously. Money loans had been sought from Mafia connections and registered in their account books, extra insurance taken on Rose’s death. The film brightens up when the insurance inspector, Oscar Isaac, turns up and confronts Margaret who handles the situation badly, then George returning - and the plight of the family moving towards mayhem, death, disposal of bodies, thugs blackmailing, murders and the house, even the nice uncle contacted by Nicky coming to the rescue but meeting his fate as well.

All this is happening while the anti--black riots are getting more loud and violent on the street outside. Finally, Gardner confronts his son – and, as he talks, the audience is wishing that he would eat the jam sandwich prepared for Nicky by Margaret and drink the milk. For some justice to be done!

The themes have been explored in such films as Pleasantville and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. This is an ironic take on 1950s suburbia, George Clooney, with his contemporary social concerns, indicating that the roots of present injustice were grounded in that period despite its respectability.

1. The title? The ideal suburb? The icon of the suburb? The 1950s? The critique of what happens below the surface?

2. The iconography of the film, advertisements of the period, catalogues, everything nice in the 1950s, clothes and banners? America, the middle-class, prosperous? The colour photography, bright, commercial? Homes and offices? Streets?

3. The glimpse below the surface, African- American family, settling as the only black family in the neighbourhood, reactions, yes-but and total prejudice? The meeting, the committee, the racist comments, presumptions? The attack, the mockery? The mother going to the supermarket and being charged higher prices? The fences around the house? The demonstrations, the crowds, the violence, coming to the door, breaking the windows, terrifying the family? The police trying to hold people back?

4. The black family, good, courageous, their life, shopping, the son and playing by baseball with Nicky? The siege, the reactions, the destruction? And Nicky finally playing baseball with Andy?

5. The Lodge family, the police officer assuming that Lodge was a Jewish name, the anti-Semitic overtones? Gardner, quiet, proper, well-dressed, going to work, at home, sitting on the porch, Rose, the background of her accident, incapacitated, being carried to her room? Margaret, present, genial, helping? Nicky and his being respectful? The establishing of the characters?

6. The episode of the home invasion? The family being tied up, the threats, the thugs and their characters, the chloroform, the extra chloroform for Rose, the death? The police enquiry? The interviews, and Gardner and Margaret denying the identities of thugs in the line-up? Nicky watching and puzzled? The lights going on, the thugs seeing the family?

7. The audience realising the setup? Gardner and his going to work, the awkward sympathies from the people at work, his being upset, and his room, silence, phone calls? The visit of the thugs, the confrontation, the threats about the money? The threats to the family?

8. Margaret, volunteering to stay, the affair with Gardner? Their having hatched the plan? Executing it? Nicky seeing them in the bedroom?

9. Nicky, devoted to his mother, the grief? The funeral? The Episcopalian background – and the attack of touch of mockery towards the church? The minister and Mitch? The discussion?

10. The police, approaching Gardner, the dead Mafia man, his accounts and the suspicious entries?

11. Mitch, brother to the two women, his concern about Nicky, going back home, the offer to help? Nicky phoning him, his coming to help?

12. The insurance inspector, his visit, smooth, talking, quick detection, Margaret not handling the visit well? Nicky observing? His having the cup of coffee? His return, with Gardner and Margaret, the blackmail, the demand for all the money? Margaret cleaning the sink with lye? Putting it in his coffee, the constriction, his running from the house, collapse and death? Gardner putting him in the boot of the car? Driving to get rid of the body? The thug following observing?

13. Gardner, getting rid of the body, riding the little bike, seeing the thug, the crash and the thug’s death? Returning the house? Margaret strangled? Nicky with the gun, Mitch and his presence, the knife, the dead thug?

14. Nicky, hiding under the bed, phoning Mitch? His fears? Mitch dead? Gardner and his sitting at the table, the threats to Nicky, the alternatives about staying or going to Aruba? The sandwich, Margaret making it for Nicky, her being killed and lying on the bed? The milk, the tablets? Gardner talking, eating the sandwich and drinking the milk? Slumped at the table dead?

15. All this happening with the background of the riots outside, the African- American family, the violence in the streets?

16. The deaths, Nicky left alone, looking out at Andy, offering to play baseball?

17. The 50s, surface respectability, prejudices below – and presage of the future?