'Suburbicon': Two Storylines, Separate But Unequal

Well, at least George Clooney can still claim to be the handsomest screenwriter/producer/director in Hollywood.

But 15 years and a half-dozen features into his career behind the camera, it's increasingly apparent that learning through osmosis — even when you make a habit of working frequently with top-flight filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh and Joel and Ethan Coen — can carry you only so far. , Clooney's latest as co-writer, producer, and director, is a solid 95-minute noir caper artlessly bolted to a 10-minute social drama, and a and and You absolutely can fault him for wrongheadedness in making a movie that condemns racism (and specifically segregation in the post-war housing boom), albeit in the most broad, perfunctory, awareness-ribbon-wearing way while barely allowing its black characters to speak. might be the biggest embarrassment to pious Hollywood liberalism since won best picture in 2006.