<em>Suburbicon</em> Is a Bizarre, Misguided Trainwreck
George Clooney’s new film combines Coen-brothers antics with a sober tale of 1950s prejudice—and flops in both regards.
The only genuine emotion that managed to conjure from me was dread. This creeping feeling arrived not long into George Clooney’s new film, which is based on an old screenplay by the Coen brothers (written in the 1980s, and extensively rewritten by Clooney and his reliable co-scripter Grant Heslov). The film cross-cuts between two disconnected storylines within a cloistered suburban community—one following a madcap life-insurance scam being run by the seemingly upstanding Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon), and another following the Mayers, an African American family
