It’s our first glimpse at the long-gestating and mysterious Suburbicon from the minds of Joel and Ethan Coen, and lo and behold, it’s a farcical crime comedy.
Drafts of this script date as far back as 1986, but with the Coens unsure if they wanted to direct, the reigns were handed over to frequent collaborator and occasional director George Clooney. Minor changes were made to the story and a cast of Coen regulars were brought on, so while this is Clooney’s movie, the trailer feels thoroughly like the Coens.
And that’s never a bad thing, right? Except when you remember that they’ve had a string of misses with their comedies. Hail, Caesar is a mild pleasure, unless you’re bothered by it making light of a pretty deplorable real-life person. And then there’s Gambit, a 2012 farcical disaster they wrote that prompted Peter Bradshaw to begin his review with “I have had paper cuts on the soft flesh between the thumb and forefinger less painful and more rewarding than this.”
Despite that, there’s solid reason to hope that Suburbicon gets them back on track. It was conceived back when they were making good comedies, and the awards season release with festival showings scheduled for Venice and Toronto indicates that the studio is confident in the final product. Fingers crossed that that confidence isn’t misplaced.
Suburbicon is directed by George Clooney and stars Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac, and Julianne Moore. It will be released in the U.S. on October 27th, 2017 and in the U.K. on November 24th, 2017. For international release dates, click here.
Do you think Suburbicon will be comedy gold? Let us know in the comments!
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