Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: Joel and Ethan Coen

#1 Post by Ribs » Fri Oct 23, 2015 8:48 pm

Clooney to direct crime noir drama Suburbicon written by Coens

Doing a search online shows that it's been in development with the hope they themselves would direct it for several years now, so hopefully that means some harbinger of quality.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#2 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:39 pm

Suburbicon is apparently another dud for Clooney behind the camera, though Oscar Isaac is getting raves for his brief role. Maybe he'll score a William Hurt in A History of Violence nod

User avatar
Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#3 Post by Ribs » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:45 pm

...did people not like A History of Violence?

(I was always so confused why, after Clooney beat Hurt for Supporting Actor that year, he approached him and hugged him - until I realized that he was also in Syriana, a movie no one has thought about since 2006).

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#4 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:52 pm

Sorry, my comment on that film was solely in reference to a super short supporting actor perf getting nominated. Still one of the greatest left-field Oscar noms ever

User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#5 Post by PfR73 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:00 pm

Ribs wrote:Syriana, a movie no one has thought about since 2006.
I have. It's my favorite film of 2005 and I've recommended it to several people since then. I really like Alexandre Desplat's score (which I felt like was often echoed by the series Homeland), and Tim Blake Nelson's "corruption is why we win" monologue creeps up in my brain with regularity.

I was hoping Gold would have been a strong follow-up from Stephen Gaghan, and while it was enjoyable enough, it was nowhere near that level.

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#6 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:01 pm

Double features of Syriana and The Constant Gardener are gonna become all the rage soon, just you watch

User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2017

#7 Post by PfR73 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:23 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:Double features of Syriana and The Constant Gardener are gonna become all the rage soon, just you watch
HAHAHAHA, I loved The Constant Gardener also!

User avatar
The Narrator Returns
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:35 pm

Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#8 Post by The Narrator Returns » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:49 pm

Suburbicon should be taught in schools as a guide for how not to make a Coen brothers movie. The main section of second-rate Coensy dark comedy (it's easy to see why this was collecting dust on the Coens' shelf for 30 years) is executed with such puzzling straightness and stodginess that any potentially funny joke or moment is immediately killed (Oscar Isaac manages to briefly make the movie fun, but he's out as soon as he came in). And the completely shoehorned-in subplot about the black family moving in next door to Matt Damon and Julianne Moore and getting mobbed by the townsfolk is more Stanley Kramer than Coens. It resembles a parody of white liberal clueless filmmaking, with the family's only characteristics being their stoic reactions to racism (the father literally gets no lines, and only one or two shots where you can clearly see his face) and their story ending on a completely ludicrous, false note of uplift. The two parts are completely incompatible, but either one would make a terrible movie on its own, so I guess it's good Clooney decided to only make us pay for one terrible movie.

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: The Films of 2017

#9 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:22 am

Such a shame. I had a good laugh at Damon on the tricycle in the trailer.

User avatar
dda1996a
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:14 am

Re: The Films of 2017

#10 Post by dda1996a » Mon Oct 30, 2017 6:41 am

Well Clooney has been whiffing it for a while, both in front and behind the camera (Caesar and Tomorrowland were fine, his Ides of March was his last good directing credit)

User avatar
thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: The Films of 2017

#11 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat Nov 04, 2017 4:16 pm

If Damon does any publicity for the film everyone will ask him what he knew about Harvey anyway, so he might be better off if this sinks without trace.

phantomforce
Joined: Sun Jul 28, 2013 2:01 am

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#12 Post by phantomforce » Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:30 pm

This was dogshit. Sorry to all involved.

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#13 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Nov 06, 2017 1:14 pm

George Clooney seems insistent that he can be a good director of screwball comedy, but he's never actually been able to pull it off. Perhaps he should just stick to drama and leave comedy to... you know, people who are funny.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#14 Post by knives » Mon Nov 06, 2017 1:23 pm

I thought his Kaufman film was pretty funny.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#15 Post by Gregory » Mon Nov 06, 2017 1:50 pm

But was it funny because the director was funny or the screenwriter?

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#16 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Nov 06, 2017 1:51 pm

knives wrote:I thought his Kaufman film was pretty funny.
Against all odds - Kaufman has said he was very frustrated by changes that Clooney insisted on making to the script:
Charlie Kaufman wrote:I didn’t like it. That was a movie on which I was not consulted. I mean, George Clooney changed the script, he didn’t talk to me during production. We kind of didn’t get along. I was invited to see the movie when he was pretty much done and I wrote a bunch of notes and gave them to him and I guess it was offensive to him.
Gregory wrote:But was it funny because the director was funny or the screenwriter?
This film was written by the Coens, so that sort of torpedoes that argument

I've definitely heard over the years that Clooney is someone who believes he is hilarious, I remember some guest on a radio show (probably Stern) talking about this, and theorizing that after a cavalcade of beautiful women have forced themselves to laugh at his bon mots, he has convinced himself that he must be the wittiest man on the planet.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#17 Post by Gregory » Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:03 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Gregory wrote:But was it funny because the director was funny or the screenwriter?
This film was written by the Coens, so that sort of torpedoes that argument

I've definitely heard over the years that Clooney is someone who believes he is hilarious, I remember some guest on a radio show (probably Stern) talking about this, and theorizing that after a cavalcade of beautiful women have forced themselves to laugh at his bon mots, he has convinced himself that he must be the wittiest man on the planet.
I was responding to the comment just above mine about the Kaufman film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

To me it often seems like men who have already "won" everything else in show business feel a burning desire to be hailed as great talents in comedy as well. Sometimes they can win at that too, but other times being witty or charming is far from being actually funny.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#18 Post by Brian C » Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:09 pm

Just for clarity, the original script for SUBURBICON was by the Coens, but Clooney/Heslov did a credited rewrite. And my understanding is that guild rules are such that, if their rewrite was credited, it means their changes were very substantial.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#19 Post by Gregory » Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:18 pm

I knew that Clooney had reworked Suburbicon and was a credited cowriter on it but hadn't realized he'd also substantially changed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind without consulting Kaufman. So yep, argument torpedoed.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#20 Post by knives » Mon Nov 06, 2017 6:49 pm

Brian C wrote:Just for clarity, the original script for SUBURBICON was by the Coens, but Clooney/Heslov did a credited rewrite. And my understanding is that guild rules are such that, if their rewrite was credited, it means their changes were very substantial.
My understanding is the main change is the subplot about a black family which he felt compelled to put in for whatever reason.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: The Films of 2017

#21 Post by Brian C » Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:10 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Such a shame. I had a good laugh at Damon on the tricycle in the trailer.
I saw this tonight and - aside from being as awful as everyone in this thread has said - what's truly amazing is how little this moment registers in the actual movie. The people cutting the trailer made a semi-decent sight gag out of it, but Clooney himself couldn't even manage that much.

I don't know if I've seen a worse movie in years, to be honest. I think I hated everything about it, including Isaac's character, who would be a weak link in any actual Coen brothers movie this side of The Ladykillers. And it's not just bad in the usual ways (although it is bad in the usual ways also), it's bad in all the worst ways; it's a fatuous, witless, patronizing and downright ugly movie, both in its stupid bullshit kitschy mock '50s photography and, well, the very rot of its soul.

In short, it's the kind of movie that makes me think the filmmakers might be terrible people, and I suspect it'll seriously make me look at Clooney substantially more negatively from here on out.

User avatar
Dylan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#22 Post by Dylan » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:00 pm

stupid bullshit kitschy mock '50s photography
I haven't this yet, but Robert Elswit is one of the great living cinematographers, and 1950s Levittown is a very visual setting for a film. It's possible I will agree with you that this is a bad film, but do you really think it was poorly photographed and/or visualized? From the trailer the stylized elements appear fully achieved to me.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#23 Post by Brian C » Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:45 pm

Dylan wrote:I haven't this yet, but Robert Elswit is one of the great living cinematographers, and 1950s Levittown is a very visual setting for a film. It's possible I will agree with you that this is a bad film, but do you really think it was poorly photographed and/or visualized? From the trailer the stylized elements appear fully achieved to me.
Elswit has done some great work, sure, but to me this looked like a movie that was aping the usual cliched 1950s look more than coming up with a look of its own.

User avatar
The Narrator Returns
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:35 pm

Re: Suburbicon (George Clooney, 2017)

#24 Post by The Narrator Returns » Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:03 am

The only visuals that really stood out to me were some of the more shadowy shots (I think there's one in the trailer of one of the intruders with his face blacked out that's quite nice), otherwise it's too reliant on the cliche vision of bright, peppy 50s suburbs. It seems to have serious issues as well, but what I've seen of Roman J. Israel, Esq. suggests that it at least has much more interesting work from Elswit.

Post Reply